Author Guide · Poetry
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In 1964 City Lights published a small square paperback, number nineteen in its Pocket Poets Series, of thirty-seven poems Frank O’Hara had written on his lunch hour, walking around midtown Manhattan before going back to his desk at the Museum of Modern Art. He had started at the museum in 1951 selling postcards at the front desk, and by 1960 he was an assistant curator. Before that he had been a sonarman on a destroyer in the Pacific, studied piano at the New England Conservatory and English at Harvard, where he met John Ashbery. Most of his books in his lifetime were slim editions from galleries and small presses, made with painter friends such as Larry Rivers. He died in 1966, aged 40, and his reputation rests largely on the Collected Poems of 1971. This guide covers his eleven key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 key books · 1952–2008 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Frank O’Hara’s best-known books are Lunch Poems (1964), Meditations in an Emergency (1957) and The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara (1971), which shared the National Book Award for Poetry in 1972. Start with Lunch Poems: it is short, still in print from its original publisher, and contains “The Day Lady Died” and “A Step Away from Them”.
Where to Start with Frank O’Hara
If you want his defining book
→ Lunch Poems (1964) — the poems written on his lunch hour.
If you want the book from Mad Men
→ Meditations in an Emergency (1957) — including “Mayakovsky”.
If you want a manageable overview
→ Selected Poems (2008) — the 2008 selection edited by Mark Ford.
If you want everything
→ The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara (1971) — the 1971 Collected Poems.
11 Frank O’Hara Books, in Order
A City Winter, and Other Poems
His first book, a small edition from Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions with drawings by Larry Rivers. It came out the year after he moved to New York and was published by the gallery that also showed many of his painter friends.
Meditations in an Emergency
His first book from a commercial publisher, Grove Press, dedicated to the painter Jane Freilicher. The title poem first appeared in Poetry in November 1954; the book also includes “For James Dean”, “Sleeping on the Wing” and, as its last poem, “Mayakovsky”. In the second season of Mad Men (2008) Don Draper reads “Mayakovsky” aloud, and the season finale is named after the book.
Jackson Pollock
A short monograph on Pollock, published by George Braziller three years after the painter’s death. O’Hara wrote it while working at the Museum of Modern Art, where he knew many of the New York painters personally.
Second Avenue
A single long poem, published by Totem Press with Corinth Books, with a cover drawing by Larry Rivers. It is one of his longest and densest poems, closer to his early, more surreal style than to the conversational poems of Lunch Poems.
Odes
A large-format book from Tiber Press with prints by the painter Michael Goldberg. It belongs to a set of four Tiber Press books that paired New York School poets with painters, alongside volumes by John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler.
Lunch Poems
Thirty-seven poems written during his lunch breaks from the Museum of Modern Art, published by City Lights as number nineteen in the Pocket Poets Series after letters back and forth with Lawrence Ferlinghetti about the order, the dedication and the title. It includes “The Day Lady Died”, written on the day he heard Billie Holiday had died, and “A Step Away from Them”. City Lights reissued it in 2014 in a 50th anniversary edition with the letters.
Love Poems (Tentative Title)
A slim collection from Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions, the gallery press that had published his first book. It was the last book of his poems to appear in his lifetime.
In Memory of My Feelings
A memorial volume published by the Museum of Modern Art the year after his death, edited by the poet Bill Berkson, with his poems illustrated by thirty American artists. The title comes from one of his best-known poems, which Jasper Johns had already used as the title of a 1961 painting.
The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara
Edited by Donald Allen for Knopf, with an introduction by John Ashbery, it brought together for the first time poems that had been scattered across small editions, magazines and manuscripts. It shared the 1972 National Book Award for Poetry with Howard Moss’s Selected Poems. The University of California Press reissued it in 1995.
Art Chronicles
His writing on art, published by George Braziller: reviews, catalogue essays and pieces on the painters and sculptors he knew, from his years at ARTnews and the Museum of Modern Art.
Selected Poems
A selection edited by the poet and critic Mark Ford for Knopf, drawing on the whole of the Collected Poems and the later volumes of retrieved work.
In What Order to Read Frank O’Hara
His lifetime books were small, often hard to find and overlap with the Collected Poems, so publication order matters less than with most poets. The two that are still in print in their original form, Meditations in an Emergency and Lunch Poems, are the natural place to start, in either order.
After that, the choice is between Mark Ford’s Selected Poems and the full Collected Poems, which runs to several hundred pages and is arranged in order of writing, so you can watch the early, more surreal poems turn into the conversational city poems he is known for. Art Chronicles shows the other half of his working life.
A reading path
1. Lunch Poems (1964)
2. Meditations in an Emergency (1957)
3. Selected Poems (2008)
4. The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara (1971)
5. Art Chronicles (1975)
Everything Else Frank O’Hara Published
Beyond the 11 key books: 10 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Poetry, other editions
5
5 books · 1953–1977
- 1953Oranges: 12 Pastoralsan early gallery edition from Tibor de Nagy
- 1974The Selected Poems of Frank O’Haraedited by Donald Allen
- 1975Standing Still and Walking in New Yorkprose, edited by Donald Allen
- 1977Early Writingedited by Donald Allen
- 1977Poems Retrievedpoems not in the Collected Poems, edited by Donald Allen; reissued by City Lights in 2013
Plays
2
2 books · 1978–1997
- 1978Selected Playsedited by Ron Padgett, Joan Simon and Anne Waldman
- 1997Amorous Nightmares of Delayselected plays, Johns Hopkins University Press
Museum catalogues
3
3 books · 1960–1966
- 1960New Spanish Painting and SculptureMuseum of Modern Art
- 1965Robert Motherwellwith selections from the artist’s writings, Museum of Modern Art
- 1966Nakianon the sculptor Reuben Nakian, Museum of Modern Art
The years · 1926–1972
Quick facts about Frank O’Hara
- Known for
- Frank O’Hara is known as the central poet of the New York School, writing fast, conversational poems about friends, painters and the streets of Manhattan, many of them on his lunch hour from the Museum of Modern Art.
- 1926
- Born in Baltimore, Maryland
- 1951
- Moves to New York; starts at the Museum of Modern Art
- 1964
- Lunch Poems
- 1972
- Collected Poems shares the National Book Award
- Born
- 27 March 1926, Baltimore, Maryland; grew up in Grafton, Massachusetts
- War service
- Sonarman on the destroyer USS Nicholas in the South Pacific and Japan
- Education
- Harvard (BA English, 1950), where Edward Gorey was his roommate; University of Michigan (MA, 1951), where he won a Hopwood Award
- Worked
- Museum of Modern Art from 1951, from the front desk to assistant curator by 1960; also wrote for ARTnews
- Circle
- The poets John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler; the painters Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchell
- Died
- 25 July 1966, Mastic Beach, New York; buried at Green River Cemetery, Springs
- Honours
- National Book Award for Poetry (1972, shared) for the Collected Poems
The red mark is 1964: Lunch Poems, the book written on his lunch hour from the Museum of Modern Art.
How Frank O’Hara Writes: Poems on the Run
O’Hara’s best-known poems read like a record of one afternoon: the time, the street, what he bought, who he is about to meet. Lunch Poems was written exactly that way, on hour-long walks around midtown between shifts at the Museum of Modern Art, and the poems keep the names of friends, shops, newspapers and film stars that most poets of the 1950s would have left out.
He set out the attitude in “Personism: A Manifesto”, a short comic essay written in 1959 and published in the magazine Yugen in 1961, which claims the movement was founded “after lunch with LeRoi Jones on August 27, 1959”. Its practical advice is blunt — “You just go on your nerve” — and its central idea is that a poem should be addressed to one person, like a phone call, rather than to posterity.
Painting matters as much as poetry. He worked among the Abstract Expressionists, wrote on Pollock and Motherwell, and made books with Larry Rivers, Michael Goldberg and others; Jasper Johns, Grace Hartigan and Alice Neel all made portraits or paintings connected with him. The speed and improvisation of action painting is often compared to the way his poems move, and the early, more surreal work in A City Winter and Second Avenue shows him getting there.
Watch
Frank O'Hara in USA: Poetry, 1966
Outtakes filmed in March 1966 for the NET series USA: Poetry show Frank O’Hara reading ’For the Chinese New Year and for Bill Berkson’ in his Manhattan apartment, along with street scenes and footage at Al Leslie’s studio. From the official Poetry Center Archive Goes Live! channel.
Frequently asked questions about Frank O’Hara’s books
How many books has Frank O’Hara written?
He published seven books of poems in his lifetime, most of them small gallery or small-press editions, from A City Winter (1952) to Love Poems (Tentative Title) (1965), plus art monographs and museum catalogues. Much of his work appeared only after his death. This page lists eleven key books; the rest are in the list below them.
What are Frank O’Hara’s books in order?
A City Winter, and Other Poems (1952), Meditations in an Emergency (1957), Jackson Pollock (1959), Second Avenue (1960), Odes (1960), Lunch Poems (1964), Love Poems (Tentative Title) (1965), In Memory of My Feelings (1967), The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara (1971), Art Chronicles (1975) and Selected Poems (2008).
Where should I start with Frank O’Hara?
Lunch Poems (1964). It is short, still published by City Lights, and contains “The Day Lady Died” and “A Step Away from Them”. If you want more than one slim book, Mark Ford’s Selected Poems (2008) is the best overview.
What is Frank O’Hara’s most famous book?
Lunch Poems (1964), written on his lunch breaks from the Museum of Modern Art. Meditations in an Emergency (1957) became widely known again after it featured in Mad Men.
What is the New York School of poets?
A group of poets who met in the late 1940s and 1950s and worked closely with the painters of the New York art world. O’Hara is usually named as its central figure, with John Ashbery, whom he met at Harvard, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler.
How did Frank O’Hara die?
In the early hours of 24 July 1966 the beach taxi he was riding in on Fire Island broke down, and he was struck by a jeep driving on the beach. He died the next day, 25 July, at Bayview Hospital in Mastic Beach, Long Island, aged 40. An attempt to bring negligent homicide charges against the driver failed.
Which Frank O’Hara poem is in Mad Men?
“Mayakovsky”, the last poem in Meditations in an Emergency. The book runs through the second season (2008): Don Draper reads the poem aloud, and the season finale is titled “Meditations in an Emergency”. Matthew Weiner had first wanted Lunch Poems, but it had not yet been published in 1962, when the season is set.
Did Frank O’Hara win any prizes?
Yes. The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara (1971) shared the 1972 National Book Award for Poetry with Howard Moss’s Selected Poems. As a student at the University of Michigan he won a Hopwood Award.
What is Personism?
A short mock manifesto O’Hara wrote in 1959 and published in 1961, in which he claims to have founded a movement after lunch with LeRoi Jones. Its point is that a poem should speak directly to one person: “The poem is at last between two persons instead of two pages.”
Is there a biography of Frank O’Hara?
Brad Gooch’s City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara (1993) was the first substantial biography. Joe LeSueur, his roommate for years, wrote Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O’Hara (2003), and Ada Calhoun’s Also a Poet (2022) is about her father’s unfinished O’Hara biography.
Footnotes
- Frank O’Hara — Wikipedia
- Frank O’Hara — Academy of American Poets (poets.org)
- Meditations in an Emergency — Wikipedia
- Lunch Poem Letters — The Paris Review, 2014
- Frank O’Hara — USA: Poetry, NET outtakes (1966) — SF State Poetry Center
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The poem is at last between two persons instead of two pages.”
— Frank O’Hara, “Personism: A Manifesto” (written 1959, published 1961)
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