On December 30, 1999 I left my last day as a retail store manager, and I never looked back. I'd worked in and managed bookstores and wanted to open my own. I'd been collecting out-of-print, signed, … [Read more...]
Celebrating Hammond Guthrie
Did you know Hammond Guthrie? Hammond passed in October 2019. An artist and writer, he founded and edited the online literary/art journal, The 3rd Page: A Journal of Ongrowing Natures (2002-2007), … [Read more...]
Beat Generation photographer Larry Keenan’s website relaunched
In 2002, Beat and counterculture photographer Larry Keenan asked me to build a website to document forty years of his Beat Generation and counterculture photography. Working with him and learning … [Read more...]
An interview with Richard Kigel, author of Heav’nly Tidings From the Afric Muse: The Grace and Genius of Phillis Wheatley
Richard Kigel is a historian and educator with an interest in 18th and 19th-century American history. His first book, Becoming Abraham Lincoln: The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President, recounts … [Read more...]
All-art issue: in memory of Eileen Enck
This special all-art issue is dedicated to the memory of my late mother-in-law, Eileen Enck. Born in January, she owned the Eileen Enck Gallery in Bellevue, Washington where she featured the work of … [Read more...]
Book Review – Michel Leiris’ Nights as Day, Days as Night
Nights as Day, Days as Night by Michel Leiris / Spurl Editions / 196 pages / $17.50 / Translated by Richard Sieburth, with a foreword by Maurice Blanchot Spurl Editions has republished this … [Read more...]
The 1899 Commissioner of the General Land Office meets Sylvia A. Perkins, lover of Floral Poetry
I found the book, written by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in a dusty bookcase in a dark little room toward the back of a secondhand shop in Snohomish, Washington. The gilded lettering … [Read more...]
Heroin Haikus by William Wantling, reviewed
Heroin Haikus by William Wantling / Tangerine Press / 2016 / 20 pages / 978-1-910691-18-2 William Wantling's Heroin Haikus, out of print for fifty years, was recently published in a new edition by … [Read more...]
Let’s Dance: Photographs by Russell Lee, McIntosh County, Okla. ca. 1939
Photographer Russell Lee (1903-1986) traveled the United States taking photos of rural life for the Farm Security Administration from 1936-1943. One night in 1939 or '40 he photographed a dance in … [Read more...]
Book Review – Kenton Crowther’s Kerouac on the Binge
Kenton Crowther's latest short e-book, a 3200-word essay titled Kerouac on the Binge (perhaps rather indelicately), is not an in-depth study of the author and his work, but rather the thoughtful … [Read more...]
Book Review: Henry Miller: Ahead of the Game by Kenton Crowther
Kenton Crowther's 3100-word essay, Henry Miller: Ahead of the Game has just become available in digital form. In it, Crowther shines a little light on Miller as a writer and as a man, exploring his … [Read more...]
Review: The Doors Examined by Jim Cherry
The Doors Examined by Jim Cherry / Bennion Kearny Limited / paperback / 978-1909125124 / 240 pages Journalist and author Jim Cherry has a long history with rock 'n' roll journalism, and currently … [Read more...]
beyond the ghosts: poems by t. kilgore splake
beyond the ghosts: poems by t. kilgore splake / Presa Press / PO Box 792, Rockford MI 49341 / 35 pages / $6.00 The author provided a copy to Empty Mirror, with no expectation of review. t. … [Read more...]
Book Review — Grand Marais by t. kilgore splake
Grand Marais by t. kilgore splake / paperback, with DVD / 978-1-4675-8222-3 t. kilgore splake's latest volume is a poetic and photographic celebration of Grand Marais, Minnesota, a small city … [Read more...]
Hammond Guthrie’s AsEverWas: Memoirs of a Beat Survivor
AsEverWas: Memoirs of a Beat Survivor by Hammond Guthrie / 2nd edition / Jorvik Press / 978-0988412231 / paperback, 296 pages The publisher provided Empty Mirror with a review copy. When the … [Read more...]
For collectors: where and how to buy Beat Generation books (and others)
We've gathered together booksellers, publishers, and other services for book collectors of all stripes. Please get in touch if you'd like to suggest a resource for this list. Booksellers - Beat, … [Read more...]
Review – The Stray Bullet: William S. Burroughs in Mexico
The Stray Bullet: William S. Burroughs in Mexico by Jorge García-Robles, translated by Daniel C. Schechter / University of Minnesota Press / paperback / 978-0816680634 / 176 pages / October … [Read more...]
Review – Les Paul: The Lost Interviews by Jim O’Donnell
Les Paul: The Lost Interviews: Five Never-Before-Published Talks With a Guitar Genius by Jim O'Donnell / 978-1492218913 / 152 pages What comes to mind when you hear the name "Les Paul"? Maybe the … [Read more...]
Book Review – Erik Verhaar’s Andalusian Dogging
Andalusian Dogging by Erik Verhaar, translated by Jonathan Ellis / The Reception Game / 2013 / 17 pages In Erik Verhaar's short story, inspired by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's 1929 film An … [Read more...]
Review – The Beats: A Very Short Introduction by David Sterritt
The Beats: A Very Short Introduction by David Sterritt / Oxford University Press / 978-0-19-979677-9 / 126 pages David Sterritt's work might be familiar to Beat or film aficionados through his … [Read more...]
