Every October, I think of Jack Kerouac's short story, "October in the Railroad Earth." Jack recorded it for his album with Steve Allen, Poetry For The Beat Generation; take a listen … [Read more...]
Paul Maher Jr. considers Kerouac’s Haunted Life
The Haunted Life and Other Writings / Da Capo Press / March 11, 2014 / 208 pp. Seventy years ago, in May 1944, Jack Kerouac toiled over a novella-length work set in Lowell, Massachusetts. It was … [Read more...]
Kerouac Before the Jazz: a review of “The Haunted Life”
There are some great lost manuscripts in American literature and some are truly lost. Ernest Hemingway famously lost the only draft of the first short stories he ever wrote on a French train. Most … [Read more...]
“Street Corner” and “Process” – Matt Hill
A hypothetical encounter between poets Philip Lamantia and Bob Kaufman on a San Francisco street corner. Since both lived in the same North Beach neighborhood, loitered in the same cafes, and more … [Read more...]
Movie Review – Kill Your Darlings
Long before Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs would be celebrated as the poetical and political figureheads of a 'beat generation,' there was a murder. In the new film, Kill … [Read more...]
Ginsberg and Lowell
the alignment of planets parents and the cost of going ensured that I missed the Albert Hall in 1965 it was just an early disappointment and not outstanding because over years it joined … [Read more...]
Neal Cassady Birthday Bash
Denver's 5th Annual Neal Cassady Birthday Bash! Friday, Feburary 7th, 2014, 8pm Mercury Cafe / 2199 California Street / Denver, CO Featuring: Cathy, Jami and John Allen Cassady presenting a … [Read more...]
Interview – Paul Maher Jr., author of Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road
Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's On the Road is an accurate, up-to-date, meticulously researched account of how Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel, On the Road came to be … [Read more...]
St. Huncke
St. Huncke Christ was hung between the thieves and forgave them amid the blaze and fly buzz of Golgatha, maybe he finally reckoned that thievery is nothing if not a borrowing of … [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...]
Six poems by Patrick Mackay
Jack Spicer and the Loyalty Oath “The testing of a University faculty by oath is a stupid and insulting procedure. If this oath is to have the effect of eliminating Communists from the faculty, we … [Read more...]
Two Songs for Samson: An Invective Poem for Carl Solomon
Two Songs for Samson (an invective poem) for Carl Solomon Where goes your nose, Old Sam? How mighty a germ that nestled there Could cause so mighty a blow? Does a note so dissonant … [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...]
Excerpt from Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road
Editor's note: Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's On the Road is an accurate, up-to-date account of the development of Jack Kerouac's groundbreaking 1957 novel, On the Road. … [Read more...]
Beat Generation film – Kill Your Darlings trailer released!
Kill Your Darlings dramatizes an actual event that took place in 1944, as the writers who would later be identified with the Beat Generation became embroiled in a murder that made headlines. While … [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...]
I Am San Francisco
I have witnessed the waterfront decay the ships disappear the piers given over to tourists and sunbathing sea lions Gone the Haight Theater in the old Haight Ashbury where as a kid I … [Read more...]
On Being Corso’s Lover
In the Cadillac of my imagination unraveling in Corso's kitchen we eat verses of Homer for lunch. He becomes my Odysseus. My fingers are burnt and veins tapped. Our highs grow weary as we … [Read more...]
Charged Vision: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
The photographs of Allen Ginsberg recently were on display at the Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco. Walking through the museum is like going on a jaunt through Beat History. A spritely Jack … [Read more...]
John J. Dorfner on Jack Kerouac’s Induction into the Rocky Mount Hall of Fame
John J. Dorfner is the author of two books on Jack Kerouac, Kerouac: Visions of Lowell and Kerouac: Visions of Rocky Mount. In them, he delves into Kerouac's life in Lowell, Massachusetts, and in … [Read more...]