Acclaimed biographer Brad Gooch (Flannery O’Connor, Frank O’Hara) reads from Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, his biography of the stunning life of iconic American artist Keith Haring, in this R&D Store event.

Keith Haring was one of the most emblematic artists of the 1980s, a figure described by his contemporaries as “a prophet in his life, his person, and his work.” Part of an iconic cultural crowd that included Andy Warhol, Madonna, and Basquiat, Haring broke down the barriers between high art and popular culture, creating work that was accessible for all and using it as a means to provoke and inspire radical social change. Haring died of AIDS in 1990. To this day, his influence on our culture remains incontrovertible, and his glamorous, tragically short life has a unique aura of mystery and power.

Based on interviews with those who knew Haring best and drawing from the rich archival history, Brad Gooch sets out to capture the magic of Keith Haring: a visionary and timeless icon. This captivating new work (Harper Collins, 2024) will become the authoritative work on the artist.

About the Author:
Brad Gooch is a poet, novelist, and biographer, whose latest book is Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, published by Harper/Harper Collins in 2024. His previous books include: Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love; Rumi: Unseen Poems (trans. Brad Gooch and Maryam Mortaz, Everyman’s Library); Smash Cut: A Memoir of Howard & Art & The ’70s and the ’80s; Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a New York Times bestseller; City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara; as well as Godtalk: Travels in Spiritual America; three novels–Scary Kisses, The Golden Age of Promiscuity, Zombie00; a collection of stories, Jailbait and other Stories, chosen by Donald Barthelme for a Writer’s Choice Award; a collection of poems, The Daily News; and Finding the Boyfriend Within and Dating the Greek Gods. His work has been featured in numerous magazines including: The New Republic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Partisan Review, The Paris Review, Artforum, Harper’s Bazaar, The Nation, and The Daily Beast. A Guggenheim fellow in Biography, he has received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, and a Furthermore grant in publishing from the J.M. Kaplan Fund. He lives in New York City.

A Summer Chalet Book Event

Photo by Jack Pierson