Directing Herbert White: Poems

James Franco

Mar 2014 · Sold by Graywolf Press

About this eBook

Directing Herbert White is the debut poetry collection by the actor, director, and writer James Franco


I'm a nocturnal creature,
And I'm here to cheat time.
You can see time and exhaustion
Taking pay from my face—

In fifty years
My sleep will be death,
I'll go like the rest,
But I'll have played

All the games and all the roles.
—from "Nocturnal"

"There's never been a book quite like this. Hollywood—fame, celebrity, the promise of becoming an artist—is the beast at its center. Franco knows it like Melville knows whaling. Hollywood in this book devours its young. Obsessed with myths about its own past, it can be survived only by finding a vantage point that is not Hollywood. Bold yet subtle, fearless yet disarming, Franco has made a book you will never forget." —Frank Bidart

"A star-studded cast moves like ghosts across the screen of James Franco's poetic consciousness, imbuing the writing with scenes of icons who are also humans replete with sorrow and presence in our own psyches. James Dean, Monica Vitti, Catherine Deneuve, Sal Mineo, Heath Ledger, pass and fade. The author has a wonderful, self-reflexive insouciance about his own fame and roles inhabited, from Hart Crane to Allen Ginsberg to Harvey Milk's lover. Franco is a gifted contemporary Renaissance kind of guy, surveying the waterfront of illusion, suffering, and impermanance. We leave the movie theater a little wiser." —Anne Waldman

Ratings and reviews

What a waste of money! I've been writing poetry for over 12 years; never had to go to college to learn how to do it. And my work is 100 times better than this crap.

WTF?! Why would you give me 2 pages that have nothing to do with the book at all. 0/5 until longer sample

About the author

James Franco is an actor, director, writer, and artist. He has appeared in numerous films, and has directed and adapted many literary works for the screen, including Frank Bidart's "Herbert White."