Thomas Pynchon’s National Book Award acceptance speech by Professor Irwin Corey

(video link)

The story behind Thomas Pynchon’s National Book Award acceptance speech by Professor Irwin Corey.

from The Modern World:

Here’s how it is described by famous New York writer and newspaper columnist Jim Knipfel:

“One of Corey’s most notorious public appearances came on April 18, 1974, when he showed up at Alice Tully Hall to accept the National Book Award for Gravity’s Rainbow on behalf of Thomas Pynchon.

‘Thomas Guinzberg [of the Viking Press] first suggested the idea,’ he says, ‘and Pynchon approved it.’

So, after being mis-introduced (as ‘Robert Corey’), the little man with the wild hair and the rumpled suit walked to the podium and addressed some of the most esteemed figures in American publishing and literature…

…Corey’s speech was accentuated by a nude man who streaked across the stage as he spoke. The audience, needless to say, was dumbfounded by the entire spectacle.

transcript of Corey’s speech

video via rreennaann