Books published by Fast Books

Me & Others is the story of my whole life from birth in Kansas City to vigorous old age in rural Oregon, with eventful interludes in New York City, eastern Connecticut, Taos, and Santa Barbara. I have had great joy and exasperation in getting to know myself and others. I have loved and lost and loved again. I have brought children into the world. I have had ineffable satisfactions in putting on plays, writing and publishing books, and playing music. I wanted to tell it all and say how it was for me.

In July 1957 Julian Beck and Judith Malina, the founders of The Living Theatre, were arrested with Dorothy Day and members of the Catholic Worker community for protesting the civil defense drills in New York City. They were sentenced to thirty days in jail. Julian Beck spent his confinement on Hart Island and in The Tombs in lower Manhattan, keeping notes for a journal at the time and amplifying them over the following two months. The experience led him to examine his role as an artist and subsequently commit his life and art to nonviolent anarchist revolution.

MICHAEL TOWNSEND SMITH has released a truly pocket-size little pink book entitled "How to Be Funny." It consists of 1600 or so exclamations, insights, and observations - or one might say "wisdom and wisecracks" - sentences about the titular theme, ranging from one to ninety-four words, arranged in little sequences like poems . . . You may feel an urge to dispute one of Mister Smith's assertions or arguments, only to find soon after that he lightheartedly disputes it himself, which may be the funniest thing about this very funny, very provocative little book.Robert Patrick

Memoir of a life in theatre by Michael Smith, playwright, critic, producer, lighting designer, a key player in the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement of the 1960s and beyond.

Collected plays by Robert Heide, with production details, photos, and an introduction and informative notes on the plays by the author. Preface by Michael Townsend Smith.

Writing theatre criticism for The Village Voice from 1957 to 1974, Michael Smith lucked into an extraordinarily dynamic period in American theatre. Broadway-style commercialism was stifling innovation in the early sixties. In response, a new alternative theatre emerged in lofts, storefronts, churches, and coffeehouses radiating out from Greenwich Village. This generous selection of reviews from Smith's "theatre journal" columns in The Voice gives a sense of the range, seriousness, and energy of the brilliantly imaginative artists he encountered in more than a decade of intensive theatre-going,