Snapshot Poetics: Allen Ginsberg's Photographic Memoir of the Beat Era (Paperback)

by Allen Ginsberg (Author)
Key Phrases: snapshot poetics, beat generation

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
allen ginsberg and gregory corso posing naked in tangier timothy leery and neal cassady en route to millbrook psychedelic research center on ken keseys merry prankster bus jack kerouac and william burroughs in ginsbergs new york apartment lawrence ferlinghetti and his dog whitman in san franciscos city lights bookstore these are just a few of the bizarre snapshots of enduring beat era personalities appearing in this remarkable collection by one of the beat movements most celebrated founders poet alien ginsberg spanning more than three decades from 1953 to 1988 Snapshot Poetics contains candid photographs of legendary beat writers and artists as well as their disciples including norman mailer lou reed richard avedon kathy acker willem de kooning anne waldman and russian poet yevgeny yevtuchenko all accompanied by ginsbergs quirky handwritten captions a veritable whos who of the beat era and the ongoing literary scene it engendered ginsbergs classic images re-create the movement in all its glory

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (October 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811803724
• ISBN-13: 978-0811803724
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #939,866 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars nice album, April 20, 2004

By	D. Ling "gaystereotype" (Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ginsberg's on-and-off fascination with photography left some intimate records of the lives around him. We see a slim and young full-mopped Ginsberg, smiling on a ship "smoking what," and candid shots of Burroughs, Kerouac, and other less famous Beats as they interacted with each other. You will find that there's much more to the camaraderie of these guys than just trying to get laid (re: the other review).

4.0 out of 5 stars nice album, April 20, 2004

By	D. Ling "gaystereotype" (Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ginsberg's on-and-off fascination with photography left some nice intimate records of the lives around him. We see a slim and young full-mopped Ginsberg, seen smiling on a ship "smoking what," and candid shots of Burroughs, Kerouac, and other less famous Beats as they interacted with each other. You will find that there's much more to the camaraderie of these guys than just trying to get laid (re: the other review).

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars All the old men and their boys, March 14, 2001

By	old beat (USA) - See all my reviews

It is interesting to see all the old men with their 'boys' in the photographs from the 1980s. Seems that the beats' endless search for kicks and highs always ended up with the ego-centered desire to prove that they could get laid. Yes, we know that the beats got laid, although their writing about sex always was at about a 9th grade level.

What is weird to a mature eye is that they never got over their childish obsessions with young flesh. And the boys, some cute, most just young, live out their lives as footnotes to the stars. In the age of AIDS, most of the beats would have died before becoming famous at all. Something for young new 'beats' to think about now--before they too become just dead footnotes.

Ginsberg showed love in the early pictures--later, just cold views of the famous and their young sex objects--over and over and over. The beats used people; many in the photographs killed themselves or were pushed out of history. Ginsberg gives us a snapshot of how the myth was created.