Exiled from Amsterdam

‘When I first came to Amsterdam, it was beautiful but dead. All these beautiful people, with nothing to do.’

Piero Heliczer (1937-1993) was a poet, a publisher, an actor and a filmmaker. In the late 1950s he founded The Dead Language Press. Heliczer was also a seminal figure in the underground culture of New York, London and Paris. Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Andy Warhol were among his friends.

In the summer of 1977, Heliczer had to leave his houseboat in Amsterdam and returned to Paris. He brought his typewriter. Uncertain about his future, he wrote this remarkable story, describing his past and his highly personal view of the Netherlands.

Exiled from Amsterdam was found among the letters Piero Heliczer wrote to the Dutch poet Harry Hoogstraten. This short autobiography has not been published before.