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 … [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.
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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]
Remembering Surrealist 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 … [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 … [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. … [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 … [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, … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]
About 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 … [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 … [Read more...]
Remembering 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 … [Read more...]