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Herbert Huncke – Times Square Superstar
by Spencer Kansa. I first met Herbert Huncke in the Spring of 1992, during a layover in New York, en route to visiting William Burroughs at his home in Lawrence, Kansas. Shortly after my Manhattan arrival, I received a phone call at my hotel from Burroughs’ consigliere, James Grauerholz, who graciously welcomed me to [...]
Down These Mean Streets: Raymond Chandler’s L.A.
by Chris Dickerson Certain cities belong to a few writers. They may not own the towns exclusively, but they’ve put their stamp on them so indelibly in their books and stories that anybody who writes about the places after them can’t help but live in their shadow. Dashiell Hammett long ago claimed San Francisco. [...]
The Voice is All: Joyce Johnson Talks about Her Latest Book
Joyce Johnson’s role in Beat history is too often viewed simply as that of Jack Kerouac’s girlfriend. There is surprise when one first learns that she was a novelist in her own right and at the disdain for her position as a scholar of the Beat Generation. She is derided as “milking” her brief relationship [...]
Jack Kerouac’s Poetry—Where is the Gold, if There’s Gold?
This paper is a short inquiry into the quality of Jack Kerouac’s poetry. Kerouac is an American writer who has maintained an enduring hold on succeeding generations of readers through his long prose works, such as On the Road and The Dharma Bums. He wrote numerous books of poetry, approaching the art seriously and passionately. [...]
Somebody Blew Up America: A Conversation with Amiri Baraka
This interview originally appeared in Beatdom #12 – the CRIME issue. You can purchase it on Amazon and Kindle. Amiri Baraka is Beat. He walked away from the scene in Greenwich Village, where he edited literary journals Yugen, Kulchur, and The Floating Bear from 1958-65. Working with Hettie Cohen, Michael John Fles, and Diane [...]
After the Deluge
“What are you rebelling against?” the local girl asks one of the “saintly motorcyclists” in the 1953 movie The Wild One, and Marlon Brando drawls, “Whaddaya got?” That’s a biography in brief of French poet Arthur Rimbaud, who revolutionized literature and then abandoned it at age nineteen. He was born October 20, 1854, in [...]
The Beat Rap Sheet
But yet, but yet, woe, woe unto those who think that the Beat Generation means crime, delinquency, immorality, amorality … woe unto those who attack it on the grounds that they simply don’t understand history and the yearning of human souls … woe in fact unto those who those who make evil movies about the [...]
