Telling the long-lost story of the extraordinary female Beat poet
Thank you for the cool stream of air
You make with your grey wings
Six inches away from my pinky finger
— The search for Elise Cowen, Part II
In the midst of my research on the life of the lost Beat poet Elise Cowen, I was introduced to a memoir by Anne Roiphe, titled Art and Madness. It was a book about how she, as a female writer, lived in and perceived the culture and…