The Beat Generation Writers: Supplemental Background

The Beat Generation Writers: Supplemental Background

Most educated of the Beats (PhD at University of Sorbonne in Paris) Owner and operator of City Lights Books, bookstore in San Francisco and a small press publisher Was arrested in 1957 for publishing and distributing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, which was considered obscene at the time Also a painter, many of Ferlinghetti’s poems are inspired by the works of other artists Lawrence Ferlinghetti

First paperback bookstore in the United States Became a social meeting place for the artists and writers in North Beach Also a small press that published many of the Beats for the first time, including Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” Small presses were extremely important in furthering the careers on many unknown and countercultural writers and thinkers

Ferlinghetti’s most famous volume of poetry It has sold more copies than any single volume of poetry in United States history (over 1 million !) Note Ferlinghetti’s sense of humor and irony in his poetry A Coney Island of the Mind

Gregory Corso Grew up in foster homes and on the street Least educated of the Beats; only had a 6th grade equivalent Went to an adult prison at age 13, was in and out of jail through his teens Got introduced to British Romantic poetry in jail; became the most classical in style of all the Beat poets

Gasoline: Corso’s 2nd publication and first major volume of poetry (contains Many of the San Francisco poems) “Bomb,” first published as a broadside, was a concrete poem written in the shape of an atomic mushroom cloud Figures prominently as the rival for Kerouac’s girlfriend in The Subterraneans

Zen Buddhist who wrote poetry based on ancient Chinese and Japanese models Attended Reed College in Oregon with Phil Whalen and Lew Welch; came to San Francisco during the Poetry Renaissance Read at the Six Gallery Reading Gary Snyder Hero of Jack Kerouac’s novel The Dharma Bums

Riprap: First major volume of poems Mountains and Rivers Without End: An epic poem written over a period of 40 years. Based on Chinese landscape painting Turtle Island: Taken from he native name for America, this volume won the Pulitzer Prize and contains some of Snyder’s most ecological important essays

Michael McClure Poet, playwright, and environmentalist thinker – He once said the Beat Generation was an environmentalist movement Read at the Six Gallery, including the poem “For the Death of 100 Whales” His poems are bisymmetrical so that they resemble living organisms Composed some poems in Beast Language in order to get in touch with his mammal self

“Peyote Poem” was composed after McClure’s first experience with the drug. It one of the first times in literature where the psychedelic experience was described in such intimate detail First published by Assemblage artist Wallace Berman as a broadside in his Semina series

The Beard is a play that features two American icons as its characters: Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow The play is about sexual tension and seduction and culminates with a scene of oral sex on stage Because of the strong language and graphic sexuality, The Beard was taken to trial but ultimately won its civil liberties battle Pop artist Andy Warhol did an unauthorized film version of the play. He was sued and all copies were destroyed except for the one that resides in McClure’s archive at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia

Philip Whalen Attended Reed College with Gary Snyder and Lew Welch Read at the Six Gallery reading Considered his long meandering poems a “Map of Consciousness” Became abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center in later life

Philip Lamantia Surrealist poet who spent time with Salvador Dali and other Surrealists in New York Reader at the Six Gallery reading His poems delve into the worlds of dreams and the subconscious Engaged in Peyote rituals with the Washo Indians of Nevada Embraced his Catholicism in later life and wrote many poems with Catholic themes

Kenneth Rexroth Established west coast poet in the 1950s with Socialist anarchist philosophy Influenced by Asian and Greek lyric poetry Master of Ceremonies at the Six Gallery Reading Did a weekly literary radio show on KPFA in Berkeley After initially embracing the Beats, Rexroth eventually became critical of the movement

LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) During the Beat period, Jones lived in Greenwich Village and operated Totem Press, a small press that published Beat and avant-garde literature. At this time he was married to a white woman named Hettie Cohen. After the assassination of Malcolm X, Jones left his wife, moved to Harlem, and became a member of the Black Nationalist movement Founded the Black Arts Movement while in Harlem

Wrote poetry, experimental plays, fiction, social essays and jazz criticism Dutchman, a play with a black man and white woman set on a subway won an Obie award (given to the best Off Broadway play) Later renounced Black Nationalism and embraced Marxism and Third World Liberation struggles

Poet and artist whose poetry was inspired by jazz rhythms During the height of the Beat craze, Joans created a business that rented out genuine Beatniks for parties, which was later parodied in MAD Magazine As a visual artist, Joans was considered part of the surrealist movement Ted Joans

Collage by Ted Joans

Bob Kaufman Surrealist poet whose poetry was inspired by jazz rhythms Very popular in France (called the Black Rimbaud) His goal was to be forgotten A street hustler known for his spontaneous antics, he often recited poetry on the fly at coffee shops and bars in North Beach Arrested 37 times (once for urinating on a police officer Many urban myths surround the obscure life of Kaufman

Was rumored to carry his son Parker around in a clarinet case Took a 10 year Buddhist vow of silence on the day John F. Kennedy was shot Co-founder (with Allen Ginsberg) of Beatitude Magazine, a small press publication in North Beach “The Ancient Rain” is Kaufman’s most famous poem. Similar to Langston Hughes’s “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” in its treatment of the universality of water Solitudes Crowded With Loneliness is Kaufman’s most well Known volume of poetry, published by New Directions, a larger press specializing in experimental literature

Diane DiPrima Raised in New York & deeply influenced by her anarchist Italian grandfather Founded the Poets Press and co-founded the New York Poets Theatre Published The Floating Bear newsletter with LeRoi Jones

Memoirs of a Beatnik is an erotic feminist account of a young poet living on her own in New York, taking on multiple lovers, and trying to make it in a male dominated literary world. It has been an underground classic.

Loba is DiPrima’s epic poem, a work that celebrates feminine energy and interweaves various spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, Mother Goddess worship, and Greek mythology. The central figure of the interrelated poems in this work is the female wolf who represents the feminine principal. Revolutionary Letters is a series of poems praising a revolutionary lifestyle, revelatory of DiPrima’s background in anarchist ideology

Anne Waldman 2nd generation Beat poet, sometimes associated with the New York School of poets Director of the St. Marks Poetry Project in NYC Known for her very dramatic and dynamic reading style Two Time World Heavyweight Poetry Bout Champion Buddhist scholar and translator

Iovis (full title translated: All is Full of Jove) is a two part epic poem that celebrates male energy. It is a collage work, modeled on William Carlos Williams’s Paterson and H.D.’s Helen in Egypt. Iovis incorporates selections from letters, conversations, and other sources from the important males in the poet’s life along with Buddhist themes

Waldman is the co-founder (along with Allen Ginsberg) of The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, CO, the only accredited Buddhist college in the United States. The Jack Kerouac School is the Creative Writing arm of the University and offers a summer writing program with many well known poets in residence (see Sam Kashner’s book When I Was Cool for an interesting view of the school from its very first student!).

Joanne Kyger Came to San Francisco in 1957, was affiliated with the Beats and the Black Mountain School of poetry Married Gary Snyder and traveled to Japan and India with him (accompanied by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky in India) Kyger and Snyder Her poetry is heavily influenced by Buddhism

Studied zazen under Shunyru Suzuki Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals details Kyger’s travels with Snyder, Ginsberg, and Orlovsky and the difficulty of being a poet in a male dominated world of literature

Lenore Kandel A student of Zen who moved to San Francisco in the 1960s where she met Gary Snyder and Lew Welch and even dated Jack Kerouac The Love Book, a small pamphlet of four poems was seized by police in 1966 because it was considered hard core pornography Only woman to speak on stage at the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park in 1967

John Clellon Holmes Wrote the first Beat novel ever published (Go in 1952) An early spokesman for the emerging Beat Generation since he was the first to use the term in print Also wrote The Horn, a novel about the downfall and eventual death of a jazz saxophonist, modeled, in part, on the life of Charlie Parker

A jazz poet and guitarist who uses jazz rhythms in his poetry His interest in Kabbalah and his Jewish heritage figure into his poetry David Meltzer

William Everson (Brother Antoninus) Worked closely with Kenneth Rexroth and was influenced greatly by the poet Robinson Jeffers Had anarchist and pacifist views Joined the Dominican order of the Catholic Church in 1951 and changed his name to Brother Antoninus Operated a small fine press during the Beat years Lived just north of Santa Cruz for many years of his life

Herbert Huncke Times Square hustler who was friends with Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg in the ‘40s and introduced them to the hipster underworld in NYC. He was a small time criminal living in Times Square who carried on intellectual discussions and drug experimentation with the fledgling Beats.

Other Beats or Affiliated Writers Janine Pommy Vega ruth weiss Jack Micheline Lew Welch Jack Hirshman Jack Spicer Harold Norse Stewart Perkoff Ed Sanders Hettie Jones Joyce Johnson Kenneth Patchen

The Beat Generation Writers: Supplemental Background