Arabian Nights of 1934

“The latest in a remarkable sequence of sui generis texts by the poet and critic Geoffrey O’Brien that constitute a cultural history of our seduction by various media takes us on an exhilarating to this period…. Geoffrey O’Brien’s text is full of such startling jump cuts, suggesting that it was pre-Code Hollywood’s fevered reflections of social antagonisms that truly troubled the censors.”—Paul Quinn, The Times Literary Supplement“Arabian Nights of 1934 recreates the Pre-Code Hollywood era from the early 1930s…. The energy of the ‘slangy talk’ propels the narrative, which proves to be a purely feverish and hypnotic experience for all those who let themselves be swept up in the richness of O’Brien’s prose.”—William Blick, Film International“Recommended reading for all fans of pre-Code movies. A remarkable book… a very handsome and beautifully printed volume published by Terra Nova Press.”—Geoffrey Gardner, Film Alert 101“No one writes about movies like Geoffrey O’Brien. This is not a generic plaudit but a statement of fact.”—Imogen Sara Smith, Sight and Sound

Geoffrey O’Brien is a widely published poet, critic, and cultural historian whose books include Hardboiled America (1981), Dream Time (1988), The Phantom Empire (1993), The Times Square Story (1998), The Browser’s Ecstasy (2000), Sonata for Jukeboxes (2004), and Where Did Poetry Come From- Some Early Encounters (2020). He has published nine collections of poetry, most recently The Blue Hill (Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, 2018) and Who Goes There (2020). He was for many years editor in chief of The Library of America, and contributes frequently to The New York Review of Books, Bookforum, Artforum, Film Comment, and other periodicals. He lives in Brooklyn.

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