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In a bit of poetic justice, it took a hit TV show to boost poetry sales. A book of poems featured prominently in AMC’s widely lauded “Mad Men” sent viewers scrambling to find copies of Frank O’Hara’s “Meditations in an Emergency” after the second-season premiere July 27.
Google reports the book of verse shot to No. 1 on its “Hot Trends” list for that day and is out of stock on Amazon.com. O’Hara rose to prominence during the New American Poetry era alongside Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov and Gary Snyder. The book was first published in 1957.
One of the excerpts used as a voice-over narration:
“Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again and interesting and modern . . . “
-- Liesl Bradner
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