Beat Generation

This month's profiled writers are those whose works became recognized as part of what came to be known as the Beat Generation. They were close associates and friends whose written works changed the landscape of American literature. Their talents gave rise to this movement and the effect went far beyond literature and would come to influence the arts, music, generational attitudes and popular culture as a whole.
 

Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957 - 1958
By Joyce Johnson

Joyce Johnson was closely involved with Jack Kerouac during the late 1950s. This book chronicles their relationship in correspondence exchanged between the two. The reader can almost hear the voices of Kerouac and Johnson in these letters. Though much younger than Kerouac, Johnson's maturity exceeded her years and she was a stabilizing influence to Kerouac whose life was somewhat chaotic. She would later be widely recognized as an accomplished writer winning the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1983 for Minor Characters. Her first book Come and Join the Dance was published in 1962. It was the first book of its time to portray a young woman in the 1950s living the non-conventional lifestyle of a Beat woman.
 

On the Road
By Jack Kerouac

This novel chronicling the cross county adventures of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty truly has had a lasting cultural and literary influence that has endured since its publication in 1957. These characters mirror the relationship and life outside the mainstream shared by Kerouac and his close friend Neal Cassady and the entourage of individuals who formed their Beat community. If you never got around to reading this, give it a try and see for yourself why it has made such a lasting impression on generations of readers. And if you read it in your youth, it's an interesting book to revisit as an adult having experienced so much more of life.
 

Kerouac: A Biography
By Ann Charters

This book was published in 1973 and is considered to be the definitive biography on Kerouac. Charters was one of the primary Beat women writers to emerge from the movement in the most visible way, more so than her female contemporaries of the time that included Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, and Diane di Prima. Charters and Kerouac knew each other over a period of years and he was very open and revealing with her about his life.

Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression
Edited by Bill Morgan and Nancy J. Peters

No poem like Allen Ginsberg's Howl had ever made it into print before Howl and Other Poems was published by City Lights Books in San Francisco in 1956. The use of language, imagery and free verse presented a startling new type of poetry that had not been widely read and distributed. Ginsberg was taken to court over his use of obscene language and the homosexual content used in the poem in one of the most famous censorship cases ever. The editors of this book have put together an extensive chronology of literary censorship.


Cosmopolitan Greetings, Poems 1986 - 1992
By Allen Ginsberg

This collection of poems written by Ginsberg over the decades reflect a more multi-dimensional aspect of his work than what many know him for, that being Howl. There's humor, irony, elation, sadness, and a sense of humility and honesty that comes forth from these poems. Ginsberg's poems reflect the openness that was a signature of the Beat writers.
 

Jack Kerouac's Book of Haikus
Edited by Regina Weinreich

Kerouac was a prolific writer who had a life long habit of having pen and paper on hand so he could make a quick note of whatever insight or thought presented itself at the moment. With numerous books to his name, what often go unnoticed are the hundreds of poems he produced in haiku (a poem written in the Japanese tradition of three lines with seventeen syllables). They were produced over a long time period and certain influences make themselves apparent, whether it was his interest in Zen Buddhism or too much alcohol as his drinking habit began to escalate in the later stage of his life.

My Education: A Book Dreams
By William S. Burroughs

Made famous by the publication of his book Naked Lunch, Burroughs would live forever in the glare of fame and controversy. A talented writer in terms of style and his use of imagery, most of his books were semi-autobiographical in nature, a common trait of the Beat writers. He was a man entangled in both legal controversy and complicated personal relationships. To his credit he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1984. My Education: A Book of Dreams is a collection of writings brought together over three decades that closely mirror the many facets of Burroughs' life.