Frank O'Hara, who was gay,[18] met Joe LeSueur in 1951, and the two maintained a relationship until 1965, living together on and off from 1955 to 1965.[19]
From 1959 to 1963, the two lived at 441 East 9th Street in the East Village.[20] Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O'Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life, many from the New York art and poetry worlds. Soon after arriving in New York, he was employed at the Museum of Modern Art, selling postcards at the admissions desk, and began to write seriously.
O'Hara met longtime partner Vincent Warren in the summer of 1959. Warren, a Canadian ballet dancer, was the inspiration for several of O'Hara's poems, including "Poem (A la Recherche d'Gertrude Stein)", "Les Luths", "Poem (So many echoes in my head)", and "Having a Coke With You". Warren died on October 25, 2017, 51 years after O'Hara's death.
