Customer Reviews

The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour

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I lived in The City from '67 to '73 and was there during the heyday of Haight Ashbury and the mammoth explosion of all that was pre-Altimont but for some strange reason Beat San Francisco was far more important in my memory than The Haight. The reasons probably have much to do with why I finished Morgan's short book in only a day because I became so involved in his descriptions of the places that I considered my San Francisco-all of Upper Grant after it crosses Columbus with Caffe' Trieste and the New Pisa and of course City Lights, Discovery and Vesuvio with Tosca watching from the other side of the street.

Even though I now live on the other side of the planet, these places are burned into my memory. They're memories of cold winter evenings searching for the inevitable bargain in Discovery and then going next door to City Lights to troll through its basement looking at all the titles that I wanted but couldn't afford as a student. And on Saturday afternoons going into Trieste and buying a cafe' and knowing that not so many years ago this place was the epicenter for guys that wore old berets, had beards and thought.

I am indebted to Bill Morgan for writing such a heartwarming look back at a time and place that will go on in the hearts of Americans that realize there was a recent time when things could have gone another way. It didn't happen but with people like him keeping the memory alive and people who care enough to take pictures of City Lights for people like me who remember- perhaps all has not been lost.

Buy the book and revisit these modern American icons before they are redeveloped.

I've not been to San Fransisco, but want to go fr this reason. As I drive through Kansas to San Fransisco, this book's companion will be in my front seat. When I get to San Fransisco, I'll have this book, also in my front seat. I'm going to highlight every address, and visit all of it.

Bill Morgan doesn't leave any part of any Beat Generation writer untouched. It's clear he knows his stuff. The general knowledge of people would be common: Jack Kerouac Alley, Grateful Dead house, City Lights, Vesvieu Bar (not sure I spelled it right). But knowing there is so much more! It will be fantastic to visit these remote areas, and think, "This is where Jack wrote Big Sur." Or, "This is where Neal wrote The First Third." (The Frist Third might not have been in San Fransisco, it might be in the companion book. I don't have the NYC book yet, only the State by State book, and this.) And I could go on...Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, even William Burroughs. To me, this book is as much as history as is anything in Hollywood. Plus, it generalizes a history, of Sanfransisco, and the Beat Generation.

The book is written in a way that makes it easy to get from place to place. It's an actual tour, and worthy of it's words.