Wayne Koestenbaum is Distinguished Professor of Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author of thirteen books of criticism, poetry, and fiction, including a biography of Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire.

"A zesty and deeply literate joy to read." -- Jonathan Kiefer New Haven Review "A charming and rigorous study." -- Brian Dillon Sight & Sound Magazine "A fittingly zany, aphoristic, and meandering study of the great mime of Marx Brothers fame... Koestenbaum's approach to Harpo makes for highly animated reading." -- Noah Isenberg Bookforum "Koestenbaum provides an informed, original, and near-obsessive assessment of all things Harpo." Publishers Weekly "Provocative, original scholarship that lights a fire under the typically stodgy studies that we usually get from university press star biographies." -- Dennis King Oklahoman

• Acknowledgments I. Early Ecstatic Emptiness The Holy Fool Flees Language's Stink Bomb: The Cocoanuts (1929) Pinky, the Pointing Scapegoat, Lags Behind: Duck Soup (1933) The Mad Mohel's Goo-Goo Eyes of Monomaniacal Attunement: A Night at the Opera (1935) Poppy Power; or, The Thick-Enough Art of Zombie Dumbfoundment: Animal Crackers (1930) II. Later Astonishments Fake Dead Jew as Cute Zoo-Idiot: Room Service (1938) Passe Punchy's Humiliated Buddy Huddle: At the Circus (1939) Freeze Rusty's Anal Rage in a Cozy Void: Go West (1940) Lonely Wacky's Incremental Lines of Flight: The Big Store (1941) The Bubble-Blowing Demarcator Tickles Totality: A Night in Casablanca (1946) Bulge, Glaze, Pause, Shock; or, The Bushy-Haired Ragpicker's Burnt Offering: Love Happy (1949) III. The Idiot Tumbles Back to the Beginning of Time The Undeliverable Ice of Pinky's Mom-Mouth: Horse Feathers (1932) The Kippering, Bopping, Shushing, Bear-Hugging, Beard-Pulling Bustle: Monkey Business (1931) The Pretzel Glimmer-Eye of Stuffy's Stuttering Surge: A Day at the Races (1937)