Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution [Paperback]

Brenda Knight (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

Winner of an American Book Award, this collection is an unprecedented exploration of the lives, writings, and astonishing stories of the long-overlooked women of the Beat Generation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Female Beats wrote poetry, took drugs, went on the road, listened to jazz, and lived on the fringe just as the men did, but their accomplishments are not as widely recognized. This volume attempts to correct this oversight by profiling 40 women of the Beat generation and publishing samples of their work. Well-known poets Diane di Prima and Denise Levertov appear in the volume, along with the muses of male writers and other women who never became famous at all. As Brenda Knight notes in her introduction, counterculture women in the 1950s and 1960s faced difficult obstacles: "To be unmarried, a poet, an artist, to bear biracial children, to go on the road was doubly shocking for a woman, and social condemnation was high." The first portion of the anthology is devoted to women who were not Beats but who set the stage for the movement. Josephine Miles wrote poetry and mentored the younger Beat poets at Berkeley, while Madeline Gleason founded the San Francisco Poetry Festival. In the "Muses" section are short biographies of wives and girlfriends of famous male writers such as Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. It's widely known that William S. Burroughs shot his wife Joan Vollmer Adams Burroughs; this book fills in other details of her wild and short life. Profiles of writers such as Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, Janna McClure, and Janine Pommy Vega account for the rest of the anthology. The lives these women led are as interesting as their writing, and Women of the Beat Generation honors their determination to live outside the mainstream. --Jill Marquis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

It is not uncommon for major cultural or artistic revolutions to be reduced to their most obvious symbols when their history is popularized. Names like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, for example, have become synonymous with the term Beat Generation. Knight's thorough and well-researched book attempts to rectify the notion of the Beat Generation as singularly male. By bringing to light a wide array of writers via biographies and fiction, poetry and other texts (many previously unpublished), Knight firmly establishes both well-known and lesser-known women such as Jane Bowles, Josephine Miles, Eileen Kaufman, Hettie Jones, ruth weiss, and Denise Levertov as having been either essential precursors to or equal participants in this 1950s' revolution that brought poetry to the streets. While several of the Beat women became successful writers?Levertov, Mary Korte and Joanna McClure are still writing today?this book also chronicles the sad lives of the women who married Beat poets and lost themselves in the process. Knight's study, however, is not a critical one, and the overall nostalgic tone of the book leaves no one, collectively or individually, accountable for the fact that most of these writers did not reach their prime. There are entertaining sidebar anecdotes sprinkled throughout but expanded critical and biographical materials would have greatly strengthened the book. Nevertheless, this is an unprecedented look at a group of women whose works were largely ignored until now, and it is a useful addition to any study of the Beat Generation. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 366 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press; 2nd edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573241385
• ISBN-13: 978-1573241380
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!, September 23, 2002

By 

David A. Bede (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution (Paperback)

For a group that is now remembered as a progressive voice in the ultra-conformist wilderness of the 1950s, the Beats were a surprisingly chauvinistic bunch of guys, all too ordinary for their time. That unfortunate fact helps explain the relative obscurity of most of the women who ran with, influenced and, in some cases, loved them. (You probably know that William S. Burroughs accidentally murdered his common-law wife while playing William Tell, but do you know her name?) This wonderful volume goes a long way towards correcting that oversight. Featuring previously unpublished letters, rare pictures and - best of all - a generous sampling of creative works, it's a near-perfect survey of the Beats' female contemporaries, lovers and even a few of their precursors.

Although most of the women profiled here published at least one work in their own right at some point, many of those are not currently in print anywhere else. Additionally, some of the poems and stories here are previously unpublished, and in the case of many of the wives and lovers (referred to as "The Muses"), the works presented here are by far the most intimate look at their lives published thus far. In short, there's something here for everyone: a good starting point for newcomers to the Beats as well as a good supplementary piece for even the most serious students of women's literature.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Never enough Beat, June 16, 2002

By 

TheMaddHatter (Lakewood, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution (Paperback)

This a good addition to the true beat fan's bookshelf. The histories of the women who took part in the beat movement and the excellent photos are worth the price alone. But you may find yourself surprised by the quality of some of the work. I ended up reading "Door Wide Open" by Joyce Johnson after finishing this book and enjoyed it immensely. The section on Denise Levertov is great as well.
The most enjoyable part of the book for me was the section on Elise Cowan. Cowan represents what Beat really is. She never produced a large, lasting amount of work, but she was a street soldier on the scene, down in the dirt, living the beat dream. Cowan was a lover to Allen Ginsberg, a friend to Joyce Johnson, a fling to Jack Kerouac, and a beautifully tragic figure of the time. If you want to dig deep in the beat and explore all of the characters, then invest in this book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women Writers Rule!, April 25, 2004

By 

Megan A. Burns "meganaburns" (new orleans, louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution (Paperback)

Yes, there were women writing as well, and doing all the other cool stuff at the time. Many of them are still writing or continued to write long after their affair with the "beat" generation. This book is a great introduction to these writers. It's very informative, has just enough of the good gossip and lots of really great writing.