An artist and writer whose charming and inventive works are at once modest and ambitious, Joe Brainard was one of the most distinctive figures on New York City’s vibrant cultural scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Widely known for his influential experimental memoir, I Remember, Brainard worked in a variety of forms, from New York School–aligned poetry to Pop Art–adjacent artworks, including wild riffs on the comic strip character Nancy. His art drew on the everyday and popular culture, exuding a sense of amiability, wit, and generosity.

Love, Joe presents a selection of Brainard’s letters stretching from 1959 to 1993, offering an intimate view of his personal and artistic life. They allow readers to witness an extraordinarily fertile moment in New York’s history, when literary and visual arts intersected with happenings, proto-punk and psychedelic rock concerts, and experimental music and dance performances. Brainard’s letters to his partner, Kenward Elmslie, and others also open a window onto the transformations of queer life during this period. His correspondents include poet and artist friends such as John Ashbery, Anne Waldman, Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley, Fairfield Porter, Ron Padgett, Bernadette Mayer, James Schuyler, Alex Katz, and Andy Warhol, as well as lovers, patrons, high school friends, and fans. At once an insider’s view of the art and literary worlds and a revelation of Brainard’s creative process, these letters invite readers to share in his radical but gentle candor, his open-mindedness, and a sophisticated naiveté that helped him erase the conventional barriers between art and life.

"In these letters, you feel the force of a person fully met." - New York Times Book Review

"Love, Joe [shows] how much Brainard’s personal life overlapped with his art. Probably no other writer’s letters so closely resemble his published work, and vice versa. The collection offers plenty of voyeuristic thrill." - New Yorker

"As could be said of the whole of Love, Joe, these letters radiate the warmth of a companion who, once he committed himself to you, was in it for the long haul. This collection functions as a guidebook on how to be lovable, a lesson in the importance of withholding judgment, being abidingly present, and seeing one’s friends—minutely, fondly, unblinkingly—for all that they are." - Bookforum

"I confess that I leave this collection wishing that I’d known Brainard in real life—that I’d been lucky enough to receive one of these letters . . . I will have to do instead with Love, Joe and its imperative to love Brainard, with thanks to Kane for reminding us of all the reasons why we should." - Poetry

"Brainard’s trove of letters leads him down from Mount Olympus on a staircase of his own words. Love, Joe reveals a man who had faults, as well as desires that could be pragmatic and unsurprisingly ambitious." - The Baffler

"A great addition to have for any creative needing regular inspiration (or consolation)." - Observer

"Love, Joe invites contemporary readers to inhabit the sprawling, self-made world of a great American artist." - Rain Taxi Review of Books

"Kane’s biographical notes are excellent and keep you well-oriented in time." - Gay and Lesbian Review

"His letters readily invite readers in, deserving their complete attention as well as utter fixation." - Anarchist Review of Books