The Wild Party (poem)

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The Wild Party is a long narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March, published in 1928. It tells the story of Queenie and her lover Burrs, show people who live in a flashy, decadent Hollywood world. They throw a big party with illegal bathtub gin and a cast of colorful, self-centered friends, but the night grows chaotic and intensely charged with desire.

The poem paints lust as wild and powerful, like loud clashes of metal and roaring engines.

Although it was banned in Boston for being lewd, the book was still successful and helped March move toward more mainstream work.

In 1994 a new hardcover edition titled The Lost Classic appeared, with about fifty black-and-white drawings by Art Spiegelman. Spiegelman recalls that William Burroughs said the poem inspired him to become a writer, and Burroughs famously recited the opening lines from memory.

The Wild Party was turned into a 1975 film and into two Broadway/Off-Broadway musicals in New York during the 1999–2000 season: Michael John LaChiusa’s Broadway version directed by George C. Wolfe, and Andrew Lippa’s Off-Broadway version.

Translations of the poem exist in French, German, Spanish, and Danish. An altered line from Part II, Chapter 9 was used in Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger (1959), though Fleming did not credit March and changed the word “fiercest” to “finest.”