Johnny Dolphin – författare

Vol.1: The first three texts in the collected works span the world’s literature. The epic of Gilgamesh — created in the Sumerian cradle of civilization — is the earliest story we know, yet contains the deepest question man can ask: `How can I transcend death?’ The story of Marouf the Cobbler is an oriental tale taken from the works of Sir Richard Burton, the great Victorian explorer, and is dedicated to the genius of that world-renowned story-teller, Scheherzade. Goethe’s `Faust’ needs no introduction. The translation of Part One in this collection is pungent and unusual. The Caravan of Dreams Touring Theater – also known as the “Theater of All Possibilities” – was founded in 1967 by director Kathelin Gray, and dramaturge Johnny Dolphin.

Vol.2: In contrast with the first volume, the second is devoted to new mythologies and social forces. The included plays explore three American archetypal pursuits of happiness: the glory of the lone individual, the glamour of Hollywood and the magic lure of Space.Billy the Kid Metal Woman Tin Can Man The folk hero BILLY THE KID defies the controls of a stagnant order- and the system strikes back, predictably, until a modern day ‘Billy’ cuts up and renews the myth so the hero can live to fight another day. The America of Hollywood and glamour, illusion and image runs head-on into the America of idealist seekers after freedom and significance in the comedy of METAL WOMAN. Can everyone get what they want? In America–maybe! The TIN CAN MAN shakes, rattles and rolls searching every dead-end alley and winds up on the threshold of the post-nihilist space age, disillusioned with every tried prescription for meaning, looking for the new frontier in which to “build a world closer to our hearts’ desire”.

The first novel of the Trilogy, one of passion, youth and energy. It focuses on exploring the power of the world, what it means to act and influence the course of history, to be where change is created and to endlessly navigate the intricacies of being human - lover, thinker, poet. 39 Blows on a Gone Trumpet swings with its own rhythm, its prose near to poetry and music, with 39 riffs sounding the unique historical beats of Manhattan, Iran and Morocco as they were in the early '60s.

This is a collection of poems written between 1946 and 1986 chronicling both a personal and a social history of the essence of America. It is in fact the second published volume of Dolphin's poetry. The first -- with the same title -- was seized and burnt in 1952 during the McCarthy period. The poems in this collection were written between 1946 and 1986.

This is the sequel to 39 Blows on a Gone Trumpet. After the passion of energies described in 39 Blows, Dolphin explores the world of underlying meaning, the patterns behind the facade of cultures and the new forms emerging in synchronicity around the globe. In a series of episodes, he takes us to the Magic Room in Tangiers, to the Tombs of Knowledge in Egypt and Asia and into the cruel realities of Vietnam, returning to the Real Cafe in New York. It is now the 60's and the hero’s return coincides with the start of the ‘counter-revolution’ in the USA for which his journeys have prepared him. The third volume will take us into the heart of the Haight-Ashbury phenomenon, telling of things quite beyond the popular images and memories of that event. Woven into the novel, like its precursor 39 Blows, is the passionate literature of the ages: from Mayakovsky’s ardor to Blake’s ecstatic wrath; from the eloquence of Whitman to the density of Joyce; from the ‘cut-up’ technique of Burroughs to the terse and exact poetry of Brecht; and the love of the unknown that stretches from Khayyam to Baudelaire.

Wild, as the title suggests, is a celebration of all that is wild and free. The tree root that overturns the sidewalk (even though it destroys a kitchen drain); the crane that fishes what would have been a good catch for someone out of the pond, the alert coyote, the ready owl, the artist who can only be moved by passion and the scientist who writes only when there is something to say—all of these and more are exalted. The first section of WILD features poems that tell stories about animals that are wild, poems that reveal the ingredients necessary to be wild—“Nobody gonna attain wild / who didn’t make it free, / nobody gonna get free / without a fight…”—and even poems that offer information about what might be construed as being wild (rage, screaming) but is not really wild at all. In one poem (entitled “April 1991”), Dolphin compares himself to a coyote, saying that just as a coyote slinks into a hole when he is wounded, so too he slinks into poetry, which turns out to be the place where he is able to heal. The work here is healing for readers as well—for even most complaisant readers will be reawakened to the chilling potential for their own wildness. The second section of the book, Aphorisms, lists more than seven pages of small gems that guarantee to send any inquisitive mind off on a short (or possibly long) journey. Dolphin looks at life, death, society, emotion, luck, truth, freedom, humility, humiliation and more. These are the seductive thoughts of a very clear mind and it is almost impossible not to be lured by them to seek clarity as well. There are several short stories here as well, in the final section of the book, and they examine wildness through characterization. A seven-year old boy, for instance, must decide whether to risk a jump that could send him to his death so as to experience the emotional rush that he already understands to be a necessary part of a full life. These are stories of characters looking around them, at the physical and spiritual worlds, to see what is of value and what is not, often finding answers in surprising places.

MY MANY KISSES AND OTHER SHORT STORIES features 20 highly entertaining vignettes of people who have decided to change their lives and then go out do so. Dolphin, whose body of work is always about potential, gives us characters who, for the most part, understand that wisdom opens many doors. We meet a miner who has decided to become a mystic, a man who understands that his constant failures are really successes when the bigger picture is observed, a wandering poet whose goal is to have enough money to pay for his meals and enough talent to entertain his friends and others. These are characters who are “ready,” who expect things to happen and so they do. There are great life lessons in these pages, but they never overwhelm the stories themselves. Dolphin proves himself a true master of the craft of short-story writing, giving us real characters and pacing their plots so that they tell us precisely what we need to know and no more. In this way the stories are swift and compelling, meaningful and memorable…and, ultimately, universal.

The poems in Off the Road tell the story of a man has chosen to embrace life—firmly—understanding full well that that means embracing the challenges and failures along with the successes and rewards. Because the man is Johnny Dolphin (otherwise known as John Allen), a man who has traveled around the world, fathered scientific concepts (including Biosphere 2) and artistic concepts (including Caravan of Dreams Theater), and whose friends run the gamut from the most famous (and infamous) thinkers of the last 60 years to folks from the most remote cultures left on the planet, the life being embraced here is as rich in scope as the poetry describing it is rich in stylistic approach. The writing in Off the Road is straight-forward, unassuming, provocative, and playful by turns. Yet this is a poet whose intent is never to hide behind his words. Off The Road is an excellent journey, providing the reader with a vast multitude of introductions and adventures.

Liberated Space is the final novel in Dolphin’s Trilogy of the ’60s. Here our hero, Joe Madison, describes the events taking place in Haight Ashbury between 1967-68, telling of realities and transformations occurring at the heart of the cultural revolution that changed the mindscape of America.