“Hurry-hurry to Vermont!”: Joe Brainard’s Rural Refuge
“Hurry-hurry to Vermont!”: Joe Brainard’s Rural Refuge

Summary/Abstract: This article considers the many important functions of Joe Brainard’s summerretreat in rural Vermont: as a haven from city life, as an opportunity to spend time withhis long-term partner Kenward Elmslie and their mutual artist friends and as a space tofully devote himself to work. Brainard’s representation of his summers in Calais, Vermont,is examined in the context of Scott Herring’s postulate of queer anti-urbanism and ofthe concepts of the gay pastoral, the gay Arcadia and the rural idyll. The article arguesthat Brainard ultimately embraced both the urban and the rural instead of privilegingeither of them. The analysis draws mainly on Brainard’s autobiographical writings andon Ron Padgett’s Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard.

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