Edward Albee and Jack Lenor Larsen have known each other
since their days as young up-and-comers in Greenwich Village in the 1950s.
"We were in the arts. We had similar friends. Andy Warhol was part of our circle," says Larsen, who creates textiles that are used as wall coverings, draperies or carpets. "Greenwich Village was the center of the world at that time for the fine arts."
A little further on, Larsen bought a place in East Hampton and Albee moved part-time to Montauk. They visited each other's houses, tracked each other's lives, admired each other's art collections. "We're town and country friends," Larsen says. Despite Albee's formidable reputation, Larsen says, "He's easy to get on with. He's casual."
In August, Larsen invited Albee to be toastmaster at his 80th birthday party in East Hampton. On Wednesday, Albee returns the honor - in spades.
Albee is sharing his 80th birthday - the actual day - not just with Larsen and a few close friends, but with the 200 people who purchase benefit tickets to a performance of Albee's double bill at the Cherry Lane Theatre in (where else?) Greenwich Village. A party with cake follows the one-acters, "The Sandbox" and "The American Dream," which were first produced at this theater in the early 1960s.
The proceeds will help support the foundation Larsen started in 1991 to educate children and adults about living with art and nature. The 16-acre LongHouse Reserve, where he resides during the summer, has an arboretum, sculpture garden, gallery and educational programs.
His foundation, Larsen says, each year brings in about 2,000 South Shore schoolchildren who spend a day at the reserve doing art, music and nature projects. They complete them at home or in the classroom and later return to celebrate with their parents. Last year, he says, the festival day was "Basket Fest" (students wove baskets), another year it was "Squash Fest" (they grew rare squashes, which were made into art and used for food).
Albee, who is directing his plays, said he didn't have time for an interview but sent this message through a representative: "I have been a longtime supporter of both Jack Larsen and The LongHouse Reserve. LongHouse is a refuge of civilization in the East End of Long Island."
For $500 tickets to "LongHouse Reserve Celebrates Edward Albee's 80th Birthday" on March 12, call Joanne Sohn at 631-329-3568. (Higher-priced tickets, which include dinner with Albee, are sold out.) For information on the reserve, which reopens April 26, visit longhouse.org or call the number above.
40 years of Confrontation
Martin Tucker, editor in chief of Long Island University's literary magazine, Confrontation - now celebrating its 40th anniversary and 100th issue - has been with the publication since it launched. That first issue, in spring 1968, cost 50 cents and featured among its offerings an essay by the then-little-known critic and novelist Cynthia Ozick. It was a bright beginning.
Since then, the journal has published the works of seven Nobel Prize winners in literature - including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nadine Gordimer, W.H. Auden and Joseph Brodsky - and a poem by a chemistry Nobel winner, Roald Hoffmann. The magazine's pages also have showcased other famous names, often before they became well known, among them David Ignatow, Jerzy Kosinski and Arthur Miller. "One of the pleasures of being here has been finding out how writers have done afterward," Tucker says.
And Confrontation is still a deal: A subscription for two double issues - each a handsome volume of more than 300 pages - costs $10. "We cover postage and handling," Tucker says. "Publishers Weekly called us the best literary bargain in the country."
The 100th issue includes reprints of earlier pieces and dozens of new stories and poems. The next issue will have a similar mix, Tucker says, with reprises from a Long Island Writers issue that included such East End stars as John Steinbeck, James Jones and Truman Capote.
"We were always looking for good stories and good poems," Tucker says. Each issue includes a memoir and, in keeping with its title, essays with opposing (or at least differing) views on subjects that have ranged from pacifism to the Brooklyn Bridge.
The idea was not to feature the work of LIU people - though that has happened - but "to reflect the excellence of the university through the distinguished writing" in the magazine, says Tucker, 80, who taught at the university's Brooklyn Campus for 23 years and at C.W. Post in Brookville, where the magazine is based, for 13 years. A poet, playwright and author of some 30 books of literary criticism, Tucker also heads LIU's Confrontation Press, which publishes books.
The magazine's "guiding vision," Tucker says, came from its founding patron and editor, Winthrop Palmer. She later became the first woman to chair LIU's board of trustees, and also taught literature and fine arts at C.W. Post before her death in 1988.
In 1968, her husband, Carleton Palmer (chairman of E.R. Squibb & Sons), was a trustee and was asked to start a business magazine, Tucker says. "He said, 'One Wall Street Journal is enough, but if you want to start a literary magazine, my wife is interested.'"
To subscribe to Confrontation, send a check ($10 for two double issues, $20 for four) to Confrontation, English Department, C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University, 720 Northern Blvd., Brookville, NY 11548. For information, call 516-299-2720 or visit liu.edu/confrontation. An anniversary event featuring Calvin Trillin is planned for April 27 at the Brooklyn campus; check the Web site.
SALUTE TO PLACE
"A Sense of Place" is the title of the newest exhibit at the Art League of Long Island, 107 E. Deer Park Rd., Dix Hills. Nine artists display their takes on the idea, from elegiac sepia-toned paintings of pristine Long Island Sound beaches by Centerport's Pat Ralph to dollhouse-size wood structures by multimedia artist Samantha Fields. The free exhibit, which runs through March 30, is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call 631-462-5400 or visit artleagueli.org.
A CREATIVE 'SON' RETURNS
James DeVita, an actor, playwright and author who now lives in Spring Green, Wis., is returning this week to his alma maters, North Babylon High School and Suffolk County Community College, to speak about his new young-adult novel, "The Silenced." Set in a totalitarian state in the near future, it centers on a teen named Marena who dares to resist. On Thursday, DeVita will speak in the same high school auditorium he says he had in mind when he wrote some scenes in his novel. He also based some incidents, such as painting the cafeteria windows green, on events that happened there, but "I'm not comparing North Babylon High School to a totalitarian regime," he says. That talk, however, is for students only. The public is invited when he speaks and signs books at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Shea Theatre in the Islip Arts Building, Suffolk County Community College, Selden Campus. For information, call 631-451-4375 or visit sunysuffolk.edu.
