an excerpt from a work-in-progress) In January 1945, Jack Kerouac set out to write his Great American Novel. His newly-drafted notes embraced the activities of the last four years and scaffolded the events up to, during and after his hastily-arranged … [Read more...]
Beat Generation Authors, Poets & Artists
Here you'll find everything relating to the Beat Generation - biographies of the writers, poets, artists, and other players; interviews, book reviews, photo galleries, and more.
Are There Any Good Unpublished Kerouac Books Left?
With the glut of books that thankfully made our way in the past 20 years or so, we now have (probably) just as many posthumous titles as those Kerouac published in his lifetime. These have added exponentially to our understanding toward what Kerouac … [Read more...]
Jack Kerouac – “Big Sur” Movie Trailer
The film, Big Sur, based upon Jack Kerouac's novel of the same name, released nationwide on November 1, 2013. Directed by Michael Polish, who also wrote the screenplay, it stars Jean-Marc Barr as Jack Kerouac. Other cast are: Stana Katic as Lenore; … [Read more...]
Earwitness Testimony: Sound and Sense, Word and Void in Jack Kerouac’s Old Angel Midnight
“the ineluctable modality of the audible” – James Joyce Ulysses So much of Jack Kerouac’s writing seems impelled by an impatience with all verbal restraints and by an urgent purpose that strains to push and pivot, dodge and drive – like the star … [Read more...]
Who was Neal Cassady?
Neal Cassady: a brief biographical sketch Born on February 8, 1926, Neal Cassady grew up in Denver, Colorado. He was the son of a barber who moved the family from cheap hotel to cheap hotel. As a young man, Neal was usually a truant, hanging out in pool … [Read more...]
The Official Kerouac “On the Road” Movie Trailer is Here!
"On the Road," the movie based on Jack Kerouac's novel of the same name, will be released in the United States on December 21, 2012. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope, it's directed by Walter Salles (Motorcycle Diaries) and stars Sam … [Read more...]
“The Old Maestro”: an interview with Kerouac friend Henri Cru by Dave Moore
Henri Cru was one of the friends that Jack Kerouac met at Horace Mann School, New York, in 1939. Their friendship sustained for many years, and Cru featured as a character in several of Kerouac's books. He was the model for "Remi Boncoeur" in On the Road … [Read more...]
La Picaudiere – and Hundertwasser’s Honey
Asked in an interview what he would remember most about his life as an artist, Man Ray replied "the women." I was a bee whisperer, like Edmund Hillary who climbed Mount Everest and who was a beekeeper in New Zealand, and I was writing poetry, it tumbled … [Read more...]
Kerouac — “My really best friend…” an interview with Seymour Wyse by Dave Moore
Seymour Michael Wyse was one of Jack Kerouac's closest friends. An Englishman, educated at Charterhouse School, Wyse met Kerouac when they both attended Horace Mann School, New York, in 1939. They remained in close contact until Wyse returned to England … [Read more...]
The Language of Bebop: Syncopated Sounds and Rhythms in Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’
America, mid-twentieth century. Wearied by civilization, excesses and ornamentation, complications and. All precursors to extinction: The drone of war, the machinery of death, the atomic bomb, crew cuts, grey flannel, and hydrogen … [Read more...]
The Sea is My Brother by Jack Kerouac
The Sea is My Brother was Jack Kerouac's first attempt at a novel. Technically it fits the criteria of a novella, the original manuscript weighing in at 158 pages. Published for the first time in its entirety by Penguin Classics (2011) and bound together … [Read more...]
Heeding the Call of the Open Road
Beat culture and hippie culture were both long gone as a central movement by the time I was growing up, but hop on the bandwagon I did. As a teenager, there was nothing I wanted more than to get the hell out of dodge, my hometown in the California Bay … [Read more...]
Beat Generation Photos by Rob Lee
[Editor's note: These photos are small! This page was first created many years ago for smaller screens. I have larger photos somewhere and will update this page as soon as possible.] Shig MuraoOctober 16,1989 Shig was one of the founders of City … [Read more...]
Kerouac and the Outsider – A Puzzle
It was Horst who started it. Horst Spandler had been translating the 1971 Kerouac anthology Scattered Poems into German. Along the way he'd been asking others their advice on the meaning of parts of Jack's poems. One such query I received concerned … [Read more...]
Book Review – The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder
When someone comes up with a fresh and startling way of looking at our world, you can bet that it is drawn from a combination of sources, fields, and disciplines. Gary Snyder has done just this with The Practice of the Wild, joining his backgrounds in … [Read more...]
The Rebirth of the Author in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road
"Time stops. He's filling empty space with the substance of our lives, confessions of his bellybottom strain, remembrance of ideas, rehashes of old blowing. He has to blow across bridges and come back and do it with such infinite feeling … [Read more...]
Jack Kerouac’s Books
This is a listing of Jack Kerouac's books, arranged by their date of publication. We've also noted the date(s) when the book was written. If the book covers a particular period of time, we've noted the approximate dates. Book … [Read more...]
Blowing: Poetry Meets Music in the Writing of the Beat Generation
PROCEDURE: Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching language is undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret idea-words, blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image. --Jack Kerouac (1953), quoted from The Essentials of … [Read more...]
Juxtaposition of Wor[l]ds: The Cultural and Literary Legacy of the Beat Generation
“What’s your road, man?–holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road. It’s an anywhere road for anybody anyhow.” –Jack Kerouac (1957), quoted from On the Road “Despite the skepticism I brought here, I am suddenly experiencing their … [Read more...]
Jack Kerouac’s On the Road Manuscript Scroll
Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in a unique fashion -- he typed it on a continuous roll of paper, without paragraph breaks, in a marathon writing session in 1951. It is somewhat different than the version which was published in 1957. Finally, the original … [Read more...]
Mario Cesariny
Portuguese Surrealist poet, painter, and playwright Mario Cesariny passed away on November 19, 2006 in Lisbon, at the age of 83. He met Andre Breton in Paris in 1947, was greatly influenced by the French Surrealists, and was part of the Surrealist … [Read more...]
David Amram: To Laura for Ted Joans
Dear Laura: I just heard about Ted's passing and wanted to tell you how sorry I was, and hope you will know that you are not alone, and that many like myself (I knew Ted since 1956) will always miss him, as you and his children. So will all the … [Read more...]
Robert Creeley: Ted Joans, Primary Poet
Sad news indeed that old friend and ally Ted Joans has died in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he'd been living for the past few years. Apparently his health, affected by diabetes, had not been good, and though there is as yet no clear report, that … [Read more...]
The Teducated Mouth: John Barbato interviews Ted Joans
Ted Joans, one of the original Beat poets, was born in Cairo, Illinois on 4 July 1928. By his twenties, living in New York City, he moved in the surrealist world of painters, jazz players, and poets. If a scene was happening Joans had it covered. A … [Read more...]
Philip Whalen
Philip Whalen Resources on the Web BIG BRIDGE: On the Occasion of the Publication of Philip Whalen's Collected Poems BIG BRIDGE published this feature, which includes essays on Whalen & his work by Whalen's work by Dale Smith, Ron Silliman, David … [Read more...]
Interview with Kenneth Tindall: From Bellevue to Lynæs. An Interview by Lars Movin
(First published in "Maskinfabrikken," Copenhagen) Kenneth Tindall (b. 1937) is a well-kept literary secret. He first appeared in 1967 with Vindharpen, a novel about Copenhagen in the sixties, and has in all written five novels (of which three are … [Read more...]
Pete Winslow, Beat/Surrealist Poet
Best known for his poetry, Pete Winslow was also a newspaper columnist, essayist & novelist. A surrealist poet, Pete was also sometimes associated with the Beat Generation. Born October 19, 1934 in the state of Washington, Winslow passed away in … [Read more...]
Poet Kay Johnson, aka Kaja
Gerry George: i knew kay johnson as swami-ji in berkeley in 1973 when we were very close friends for a time. she gave me the typewriter she had carried in greece, an orange portable with a large white "om" painted on it. i gave it to a friend from … [Read more...]
Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso passed away on January 19, 2001 at the age of 70, after a long illness. Corso was one of the major figures of the Beat Generation. He was a poet, painter, traveler, and occasional lecturer. His vibrant, vital, authentic poetry celebrates the … [Read more...]
A.D. Winans on A.D. Winans
I was born in San Francisco, and have lived here almost my entire life. I was born at home, premature. My mother said the doctor told her I would not live a long life. Now I'm 71 and the doctor is long dead. My father was seventeen years older than my … [Read more...]
About Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey passed away on November 10, 2001 at the age of 66, of complications following surgery for a tumor on his liver. The following biographical sketch was written by Jason Reott several months before Kesey's death. Ken Kesey Perhaps Ken … [Read more...]
Book Review – The Beat Hotel by Barry Miles
With the July 2000 Grove Press release of The Beat Hotel, author (Barry) Miles revisits 9 rue Git-le-Coeur, an historic set of decaying digs amid a rat infested slum on the Left Bank of Paris, "a decrepit rooming house with hole-in-the-floor toilets … [Read more...]
Max Douglas, Poet
Max Douglas was a Kansas poet who died much too young, leaving behind many admirers, and a thick volume's worth of really fine work. Douglas, born in 1949, passed away in 1970 of an accidental heroin overdose. During his life, many of his poems were … [Read more...]
Remembering poet Howard Hart
SOME LINES FOR YOUWRITTEN UNDER A REDWOOD IN THE CITY PARKNOT YET THREE MONTHS SINCE YOU DIED IN MY ARMSIN OUR HOME ON CHESTNUT STREET, SAN FRANCISCO Drawn to the Temple where you worshipped I slink along the edges of the city like a cat Hawk … [Read more...]
Beat Generation Writer Seymour Krim
Seymour Krim was born in 1922 and moved into Greenwich Village in 1943 to hang around the New York Intellectuals and wait for the arrival of the Beats. Krim knew he was a writer, but he complained later that the book reviews he wrote for the Times and the … [Read more...]
Mary Norbert Korte
A former nun, Mary Norbert Korte has been publishing her poetry since the mid-1960s. She lives in Northern California, where she has dedicated herself to the environment, poetry, and teaching. A chapter, "Redwood Mama Activist," in the book Women of … [Read more...]
A. D. Winans Looks Back at the Beat Generation
Generally speaking, counter-culture describes the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group or subculture in conflict with those of the cultural mainstream of the day, a visible phenomenon that reaches critical mass and persists for some time. … [Read more...]
An Interview with David Amram: By Your Works Ye Shall Be Known
A friend of mine is so artistically fascinating and creative that labeling him "eclectic" or "multi-faceted" understates his cultural contributions. Full of life, he incessantly looks for beauty in all that surrounds him. The following is his story, plus … [Read more...]
Jack Foley: Goodbye, Ted Joans
GOODBYE, TED JOANS Don't let the minute spoil the hour. --Ted Joans Ted Joans died April 25th, 2003 at the age of 74. He was alone in his apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia. His body wasn't found until May … [Read more...]
Ted Joans Lives! Words by T. Paul Ste. Marie
My fortune in life, my true fortune of connecting with wonderful people, grew intensely as a result of knowing Ted & Laura here in Vancouver, B.C.. I had first met them at a reading Ted was giving at Bukowski's Bar & Grill. Being a poet and an artist … [Read more...]