One critic in the 1950s acidly declared them the “Bleat Generation.” Yet the Beats have survived their worst publicity. No matter that J. Edgar Hoover cited them and communists as the two greatest threats to American society, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl is now considered by many to be the most influential poem by an American in the twentieth century and Jack Kerouac’s bestselling and groundbreaking novel On the Road stands boldly in the front ranks of America’s literary heritage. This handsome new volume in a successful series of generously illustrated and documented literary reference works offers a fresh perspective both on the literary legacy of the Beat Generation—Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, John Clellon Holmes, and Gary Snyder—and on their once-notorious bohemian lifestyle that embraced nonconformity, interracial relationships, relaxed sexual mores, espresso, drugs, and jazz. An ample selection of photographs, manuscript reproductions and book jackets, extracts from personal correspondence as well as reviews and interviews, all serve to illuminate the substance of the Beats’ rebellion against the tyranny of social convention and of literary orthodoxy. For the restless journey of the Beats—from Greenwich Village to San Francisco to Mexico to Europe and North Africa—also proved to be a continuous quest, one that ended not simply in the experience itself but in landmark novels like William Burroughs’s Naked Lunch and poems like Gregory Corso’s “BOMB.”
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
This review is from: The Beats: A Literary Reference (Paperback)
I recieved this book for my birthday without knowing much about the Beats, but that changed quickly. The book details all the major literary players of the era with interviews, letters often supplimented with lithiographed reproductions of the originals so you get to see handwritten & type written pages along with photographs. A really easy book to read that can be picked up casually here and there, but would also be useful for an academic doing research. Hats off the the editor.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remembering the other fifties,
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This review is from: The Beats: A Literary Reference (Paperback)
I grew up 30 blocks or so from the psychic heart of the Beat Generation . . . same place, same time, but a different world. I found Beat Generation works hard to read, hard to understand, until Matt Theado's excellent reference book. To "get" the Beat Generation you have to understand the world from their point of view. Providing us with a context -- the world through their eyes then -- makes the body of Beat Generation literature a lot more relevant now.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book !,
By
This review is from: The Beats: A Literary Reference (Paperback)
A rare book countaining a lot of various sources from newspapers reviewing the various writters such as Burroughs, Ginsberg, Corso, Kerouac. Many rare documents are imprinted such as original manuscript, rare pictures as well, cover of books in various languages and many reviews from the time the book has come. Presented in a great 500 pages edition with many cuts to read. This is one of the greatest book on the Beat movement along with many photographs and articles and documents wich are very valuable as for any lovers of the Beats.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The writers who spawned the multifaceted Beat Generation phenomenon spoke for the disaffiliated youth who were coming of age in the late 1940s and 1950s, an era marked by global warfare, the atomic bomb, mass industrialization, suburban sprawl, decaying spiritual values, and a loss of individual identity. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unspeakable visions, redeeming social importance, typescript page, beat generation, beat movement, soft machine Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg, Naked Lunch, Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, Columbia University, City Lights, Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, Greenwich Village, Malcolm Cowley, Mexico City, United States, Visions of Cody, Herbert Huncke, Kenneth Rexroth, Times Square, Carl Solomon, North Beach, Sal Paradise, Carolyn Cassady, Grove Press, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Los Angeles, Lucien Carr New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The writers who spawned the multifaceted Beat Generation phenomenon spoke for the disaffiliated youth who were coming of age in the late 1940s and 1950s, an era marked by global warfare, the atomic bomb, mass industrialization, suburban sprawl, decaying spiritual values, and a loss of individual identity. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unspeakable visions, redeeming social importance, typescript page, beat generation, beat movement, soft machine Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg, Naked Lunch, Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, Columbia University, City Lights, Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, Greenwich Village, Malcolm Cowley, Mexico City, United States, Visions of Cody, Herbert Huncke, Kenneth Rexroth, Times Square, Carl Solomon, North Beach, Sal Paradise, Carolyn Cassady, Grove Press, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Los Angeles, Lucien Carr New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 133
books:
See all 133 books this book cites
5
books
cite this book:
- On the Road (Modern Classics) by Jack Kerouac on 52 pages
- The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac on 19 pages
- Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac on 14 pages
- Mexico City Blues: 242 Choruses by Jack Kerouac on 12 pages
- Howl and Other Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) by Allen Ginsberg on 10 pages
See all 133 books this book cites
- The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square by James Traub in Back Matter
- Kerouac and Friends: A Beat Generation Album by Fred W. McDarrah in Back Matter
- Upon Further Review: Sports in American Literature by Michael Cocchiarale on page 190
- The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square by James Traub in Back Matter
- Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity (New Americanists) by Leerom Medovoi in Back Matter
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