Beat Generation Page at Maison d'Être Coffeehouse

The phenomenon of the Beats [popularly 'Beatniks'] arose in public consciousness in the Summer of 1959, primarily in New York City and San Francisco and Venice Beach, California. The key personalities of the Beat movement included Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

The earliest event was the first road trip across America by Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady in 1948. In late 1949, Kerouac first used the term 'Beat generation', in the sense of 'worn down' or 'down and out' or 'exhausted'. The second Kerouac-Cassady road trip took place in 1950, to Mexico City to visit Burroughs. In late 1952, the publication of John Clellon Holmes' novel "Go" and of his New York Times Magazine essay "This Is The Beat Generation" brought this new movement to the attention of the intellectuals and the media. In 1953, Lawrence Ferlinghetti founded the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. In August of 1954, an article by Malcolm Crowley in Saturday Review referred to Kerouac's unpublished novel "On The Road", and named Kerouac as the man who invented the Beat generation.
Kerouac attended the seminal 7 October 1955 "Six Gallery" reading in San Francisco, which featured Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Philip Lamantia, Kenneth Rexroth, and Philip Whalen; Allen Ginsberg recited his epic poem "Howl" for the first time publicly. In 1956, City Lights published Ginsberg's "Howl and Other Poems" as #4 of its Pocket Poets Series, resulting in an obscenity fight that was eventually won in Federal court.

Kerouac's "On the Road" was published 5 September 1957, and was a bestseller. Throughout 1957, San Francisco's 'Poetry and Jazz' scene erupted, at The Cellar and at The Blackhawk, with similar activity in Venice Beach, CA at the GasHouse and the Venice West Cafe, as well as coffeehouses in towns big and small. On 2 April 1958, Herb Caen, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, coined the term 'beatnik' (a pun on 'sputnik'). The year 1958 also saw publication of Kerouac's "The Subterraneans" (February) and "The Dharma Bums" (October).
In 1959, the national and international media discovered the Beats, with cover articles published by Life Magazine, Time Magazine, and others. Also in 1959, Burroughs's "Naked Lunch" was published by Olympia Press of Paris. The year 1960 saw a rash of books published on the Beat phenomenon, but public attention moved on to the Kennedy era and to the civil rights movement.

The influence of the Beat ethic continues in America and around the world, with new books and movies being created. And the world of 'poetry slams' in coffeehouses attracts hordes of adults young and old. In fact, this is the most-visited of the 9 websites at this URL; though I know not where the traffic is coming from, something is drawing the attention of many, including whoever is reading this now...
There is lots of information on these pages, with more being added on-goingly, and lots of cool books and audio and videos and even a few posters and sound-bites.

Beatnik Film Festival
includes movies & videos about individual beats, plus rare & obscure films

"The Beat Generation" [1959]
hokey exploitation flick produced by Albert Zugsmith, with cameos by
Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong, 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom & Vampira; filmed in Cinemascope
video/DVD not available; full credits from IMDb

	"Beat Poets" [2002] Edited by Carmela Ciuraru listed in 'Los Angeles Times Best Books of the West 2002' Knopf Everymans Library 6¼x4½ hardcover [5/2002] for $10.00
	"The Jazz & The Blues" [2002 novel] by G. Arthur Woods PublishAmerica 9½x6½ pb [4/2002] for $13.97
	"Go" [1952] by John Clellon Holmes generally acknowledged as the first published Beat novel Thunder's Mouth 7¼x5.4 pb [10/2002] for $11.17 Thunder's Mouth Press 8x5¼ pb [10/97] out of print/used Thunder's Mouth Press hardcover [10/88] out of print/used NAL Trade pb [10/80] out of print/used
	"Beat Voices: An Anthology of Beat Poetry" [1996] Edited by David Kherdian Beech Tree 7x4 YA pb [9/96] for $4.95 Henry Holt 8½x5¾ hardcover [5/95] for $11.96
	"Who Walk In Darkness" [orig 1952; uncensored version 2000] by Chandler Brossard Herodias Press 8x5¼ pb [8/2000] out of print/used
	"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" [1967] by Tom Wolfe BDD 8½x5½ pb [10/99] for $10.47 Farrar Straus Giroux hardcover [1967] out of print/used BooksOnTape audio [1/92] out of stock/used

	"This Is The Beat Generation: New York - San Francisco - Paris" [2001] by James Campbell Univ CA Press 9x6 pb [11/2001] for $12.57
	"Beat Down To Your Soul: What Was The Beat Generation?" [2001] Edited by Ann Charters Penguin 8x5¼ pb [6/2001] for $11.90
	"San Francisco Beat: Talking With The Poets" [2001] Edited by David Meltzer City Lights Books 8½x5½ pb [5/2001] for $13.97
	"Forest Beatniks & Urban Thoreaus: Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Lew Welch & Michael McClure" [2001] by Rod Phillips Peter Lang Publg hardcover [2/2001] for $45.95
	"The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs & Corso In Paris, 1957-1963" [2000] by Barry Miles Grove Press pb [7/2001] for $11.20 Grove Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [7/2000] for $17.50
	"The Beat Generation & The Popular Novel In The United States, 1945-70" [2000] by Thomas Newhouse McFarland & Co 9x6 hardcover [4/2000] for $29.95

	"A Different Beat: Writings By Women of The Beat Generation" [1997] Edited by Richard Peabody High Risk Books 8.4x5.3 pb [8/97] for $11.19
	"Naked Lens: Beat Cinema" [1997] by Jack Sargeant 'a stunning piece of scholarship' Creation Books 9.6x6.6 pb [5/2002] for $13.97 Creation Publng hardcover [6/97] out of print/used
	"Beat Generation: Glory Days In Greenwich Village" [1996] by Fred W. & Gloria S. McDarrah Schirmer/Music Sales Corp 11¼x8¾ hardcover [7/2000] for $21.00
	"Beat Speak: An Illustrated Beat Glossary - Circa 1956-1959" [1996] Written & illustrated by Ashleigh Talbot Water Row Press 11¼x8¾ hardcover [12/96] for $29.95
	"Women of The Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists & Muses At The Heart of A Revolution" [1996] Edited by Brenda Knight Conari Press 8x6¾ pb [11/98] for $11.53 Diane Publng hardcover [10/96] for $25.00 Conari Press 8¼x7.4 hardcover [10/96] out of print/used UNABR Sonic Audio read by Debra Winger [8/2000] 3 tapes for $27.94
	"The Beat Book: Writings From The Beat Generation" [1996] Edited by Anne Waldman Shambhala Publns 8.4;x5¼ pb [2/99] for $13.56 Shambhala Publns hardcover [3/96] out of print/used
	"The Beat Generation" (Perspectives on History Series) [1996] Edited by Juliet H. Mofford Discovery Enterprises Ltd. 7¾x6¾ pb [9/98] out of print/used
	"Beat Culture & The New America, 1950-1965" [1995] from the Whitney Museum of American Art Whitney Museum pb [11/95] out of print/used Flammarion 11¼x9 hardcover [11/95] for $55.00

	"Venice West: The Beat Generation In Southern California" [1993] by John Arthur Maynard Rutgers Univ Press 8¾x6 pb [7/93] for $18.00
	"The Portable Beat Reader" [1992] Edited by Ann Charters Penguin/Viking 7¾x5 pb [11/92] for $12.76 Pantheon 8x7¾ hardcover [11/95] for $30.00
	"Understanding The Beats" [1992] by Edward Halsey Foster Univ of SC Press pb [1/94] out of print/used Univ of SC Press hardcover [4/92] for $29.95
	"Naked Angels: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs" [1991] by John Tytell Grove Press 8¼x5.4 pb [7/91] for $10.36
	"The Daybreak Boys: Essays On The Literature of The Beat Generation" [1990] by Gregory Stephenson SIU Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [9/90] for $29.00
	"Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation & America" [1980] by Dennis McNally DaCapo Press 9x6 pb [3/2003] for $7.00 Delta pb [5/90] out of print/used McGraw-Hill pb [8/80] out of print/used
	"Beat Generation: The Tumultuous 'Fifties Movement and Its Impact On Today" [1971; rev 1994] by Bruce Cook Wm. Morrow 8¼x5½ pb [6/94] out of print/used Greenwood hardcover [6/83] out of print/used Scribner hardcover [6/71] out of print/used
	"The Holy Barbarians" [1959 classic] criticism of the Beat movement by Lawrence Lipton Olympia/Grove Press pb [1959] long out of print/rare

	"Beat" [video release April 2000] Written & directed by Gary Walkow; starring Kiefer Sutherland, Courtney Love, Norman Reedus, Ron Livingston & Daniel Martínez An account of the events in Mexico in 1951 between Bill Burroughs, his wife Joan Vollmer, Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr and others that resulted in the accidental (maybe) shooting death of Joan Lions Gate widescreen DVD [10/2002] for $22.49 full credits from IMDb
	"The Source" [1999 PBS documentary] Written, produced & directed by Chuck Workman; starring Johnny Depp [as Kerouac], John Turturro [as Ginsberg] & Dennis Hopper [as Burroughs] Fox Lorber VHS [5/2000] for $17.99 Fox Lorber DVD [7/2000] for $21.49 full credits at IMDb
	"Beat Poets Box Set" [1999] Performances by Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Corso, Burroughs, McClure & Manzarek Mystic Fire color VHS [3/99] 5 tapes out of stock/used
	"Last Time I Committed Suicide" [Kushner-Locke June 1997] Written & directed by Stephen T. Kay; starring Thomas Jane, Claire Forlani, Gretchen Mol & Keanu Reeves Based on a letter from Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac Universal color VHS [2000] out of stock/used Blue Note soundtrack CD [7/97] out of stock/used full credits from IMDb

	"The Beat Face of God: The Beat Generation Writers As Spirit Guides" [2006] by Stephen D. Edington Trafford Publng 8¾x6 pb [7/2006] for $18.00
	"American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl & The Making of The Beat Generation" [2004] by Jonah Raskin Univ CA Press 8¼x6 hardcover [4/2004] for $17.47
	"When I Was Cool: My Life At The Jack Kerouac School" [2004] by Sam Kashner Harper Perennial 8x5¼ pb [2/2005] for $11.86 HarperCollins 9¼x6¼ hardcover [2/2004] out of print/used

	"The Beats: A Literary Reference" [2003] Edited by Matt Theado Carroll & Graf 10x7 pb [1/2003] for $16.80
	"The Beat Generation" [2002] by Jamie Russell Pocket Essentials pb [8/2002] for $6.95
	"Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing The Beat Generation" [2002] Edited by Ronna Johnson & Nancy M. Grace Rutgers Univ Press 9x5¾ pb [7/2002] for $22.00 Rutgers Univ Press 9.3x6 hardcover [7/2002] for $60.00

	"The Rolling Stone Book of The Beats" [1999] Edited by Holly George-Warren Hyperion 10x7 pb [7/2000] for $12.76 Hyperion 10.3x7.4 hardcover [7/99] for $19.25
	"Mad To Be Saved: The Beats, The '50s & Film" [1998] by David Sterritt SIU Press 9¼x6¼ pb [9/98] for $22.40
	"The Beat Generation In New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City" [1997] by Bill Morgan City Lights 8½x4½ pb [11/97] for $10.36

	"Beat Cafe" [2004 hit album] by Donovan Leitch Appleseed Records audio CD [8/2004] for $17.98
	"The Best of The Beat Generation" [2002] voices include Jack Kerouac, Lord Buckley, Ken Nordine, Allen Ginsberg, Wm. S. Burroughs, Kenneth Patchen, Langston Hughes & Lenny Bruce Rhino Records audio CD [2/2002] for $17.98
	"Diggin' The New Breed: The Beat Generation & Post-War America" [2001] Compiled by Keith Rodway & Robin Clifford voices include Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Snyder, Huncke, Lucien Carr, Ferlinghetti, Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman, Peter Orlovsky, Anne Chambers & Patti Smith Phantom audio CD w/booklet [2/2001] for $13.49

	"The Beat Generation: An American Dream" [1987 documentary] Produced & directed by Janet Forman; hosted by Steve Allen Fox Lorber VHS [9/98] for $17.99 full credits at IMDb
	"Poetry In Motion" [Canada Sept 1982] Directed by Ron Mann; participants include Burroughs, Bukowski, Ginsberg, McClure, Ed Sanders, Gary Snyder, Tom Waits & Anne Waldman Public Media color DVD [7/2002] for $17.96
	"Beat Girl" [1961] Co-written & directed by Edmond T. Gréville; co-written by Dail Ambler; starring Gillian Hills, Noëlle Adam, Adam Faith, Shirley Anne Field, Nigel Green, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee & Carol White British B-movie melodrama, partly filmed among the beatnik 'caves' of London. Red Distrbn widescreen b&w DVD [10/2003] for $17.97 Victory Multimedia b&w VHS [3/92] for $9.49 Kino Video b&w VHS [11/2001] for $18.95 full credits at IMDb
	"The Beatniks" [1960] Co-written & directed by Paul Frees Gotham Disrtbn DVD [1/2004] for $6.98 Englewood b&w VHS [11/98] for $17.99 full credits at IMDb

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Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore
Beatnik Coffeehouse
The Beat Generation