Pre-Order Three New Beatdom Publications

Later this year, Beatdom Books will release three new titles. These are now available for pre-order. If you order all three together, we will provide an additional discount.

Beatdom #25

This is the 25^th issue of our long-running Beat Generation journal. Each issue has a theme and this time we are looking at the San Francisco Renaissance, which arguably began on October 7, 1955, with the 6 Gallery reading. We will publish this issue on the 70^th anniversary as a tribute to that pivotal moment in American literature.

We are still finalising the contents for this issue, but it will include essays on the 6 Gallery reading, the poetry scene in San Francisco before that event, the jazz-poetry scene that came about later, local poets including Robert Duncan and ruth weiss, the feud between Jack Kerouac and Kenneth Rexroth, and much more. We will post an update with a full table of contents later this month. It looks set to be another big, book-length issue.

You can pre-order this issue of Beatdom here:

A Remarkable Collection of Angels: A History of the 6 Gallery Reading

We mentioned the 6 Gallery reading above and that is of course one of the most famous moments in Beat history. Oddly, almost nothing was really known about it until now. The reading was not well documented at the time and so Beat historians have had to rely upon later interviews, all of which came several decades later. This has resulted in a huge amount of myth.

The 6 Gallery reading is mentioned in several hundred books and an uncountable number of articles and essays, yet until now there have been no comprehensive accounts. In this book, David S. Wills provides a long history of that event, beginning with the founding of San Francisco, chronicling the development of its arts scene, charting the history of the odd building that would house the reading, and then examining how that night came about. It follows a great many characters through a colourful history. The book then looks at the fallout from the 6 Gallery reading and the turbulent months following it that saw Allen Ginsberg and his friends attempt to capitalise on their sudden success as the city’s poetry scene rapidly expanded.

This book will also be published on October 7, 2025. There is some more information about it here. It can be pre-ordered here:

The Bunker Diaries

Stewart Meyer met William S. Burroughs in the mid-seventies and became a good friend of the writer, often spending time with him at Burroughs’ residence in New York, known as “The Bunker.” The Bunker Diaries draws from Meyer’s journals to provide an intimate look at life in The Bunker during an important period: the years 1978 to 1983.

At that time, Meyer was working on his first novel and receiving feedback from Burroughs, and so this book is filled with the elder writer’s advice. It is not just advice related to writing but in fact a whole range of Burroughsian Wisdom. The book also includes conversations between Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, and we get to meet other Beat personalities, including Herbert Huncke and Gregory Corso. Outside of the Bunker, Meyer takes us into the drug scene of New York as he scores for heroin and, at the same time, tries to run his own publishing business.

The Bunker Diaries goes on sale November 1, 2025. Learn more about this book here. It can be pre-ordered here:

Pre-Order Together and Save

You can purchase these books individually for £14 each using the links above, which is lower than the RRP of £16. As a pre-order, that will include free shipping. If you want to buy all three books, we will give you an additional discount. If you pre-order them together, you will get them for £40.

As always, we can offer discounts for bulk purchases and review copies are available. Get in touch at editor [at] beatdom (dot) com for details.