The Portable Beat Reader (The Viking portable library) [Hardcover]

Ann Charters (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1992 | Series: The Viking portable library

An anthology of writing from the Beat Generation features the surrealism of Burroughs, the poetry of Ginsberg, the zen prose of Gary Snyder, and essays, songs lyrics, letters, and memoirs by Cassady, Corso, Di Prima, Dylan, Baraka, and Kerouac. Reprint.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Portable Beat Reader is an excellent and thorough study of the Beat Generation, compiled and edited by Ann Charters, biographer of Jack Kerouac and one of our most notable experts on Beat literature and ideas. This lively work of scholarship goes deeply into the history of the Beat movement, investigating events such as the discovery (by writer William Burroughs) of the word beat to describe this literary generation. The reader includes essays on all the major prose and poetry writers, such as Allen Ginsberg, and offers rare insight into the literary-historical context of the movement. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Cutting through bohemian posturing and excess, Charters here reprints much of the most vital, readable and relevant material produced by the Beat generation, primarily in the 1950s and '60s, with some selections from the '70s and '80s. The novels of such leading figures as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs lend themselves well to excerpting, giving this volume creditable ballast. Representative works of Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder are included along with those of lesser-known Beats (e.g., John Clellon Holmes), fellow travelers like Frank O'Hara and Amiri Baraka, and wives and girlfriends often overlooked at the time, including Hettie Jones, Carolyn Cassady and Joyce Johnson. Charters ( Kerouac ) offers a broad perspective on this seminal literary movement: she links East Coast Beats to the San Francisco Renaissance poets; pays attention to such latter-day Beats as Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg; and explains the position of non-Beat but related writers--Alan Watts, Anne Waldman, Diane DiPrima and the young Norman Mailer--in her helpful introductory essay and notes preceeding each entry. Her energizing, liberating anthology makes it clear that such Beat preoccupations as the bomb, the meaninglessness of modern existence and ecological destruction remain current.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670838853
• ISBN-13: 978-0670838851
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,227,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Start for the "Beat"en Path, September 12, 2000

By 

A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com "What should ... (Glen Ellyn, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Portable Beat Reader (Viking Portable Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

Nice sampler... all the writers you should expect are in here.

A feature I enjoyed particularly was the intro section... read about the writer before the piece. Since I had not heard of so many of these writers, I found it intriguing to see how many were part of the same group of friends. The Beats largely were connected with each other's lives... and fed off each other's style and work.

Buy this book, then go get the full works of these individual writers. For an anthology of Beat writers, you will find no better book.

I fully recommend this book.

Anthony Trendl

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Guide If You Don't Know What You Like, March 30, 2004

By 

Autumn May (MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable Beat Reader (Paperback)

This book features some excellent beat writers and includes informative blurbs on their history and style. Each artist has a little chunk of their writing for you to sample, and the material is everything from stories to letters to classically bad prose.

What impressed me were the essays by each other, on the actual generation hype.

"Young people seemed more intense, clutching, and I couldn't help feeling they took themselves too seriously... 'good, clean fun' appeared to be a thing of the past. Or perhaps the aura of suspicion and defensiveness was merely a reflection of my own fears..." --Carylon Cassady

It's a great book for deciding which authors you want to read more of.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for fans of 20th century literature, June 30, 2002

By 

justin (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable Beat Reader (Viking Portable Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

Simply put, this is what I turn to when I need inspiration for reading, for creating, for anything. It combines wonderful bios of everyone from Kerouac to Bob Dylan, and their poems, book excerpts, and lyrics galore. Absolutely enjoyable, absolutely essential. Thank god for Ann Charters.