Showing posts with label Allen Ginsberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allen Ginsberg. Show all posts

Wednesday

Acquisitions (59): The Beats


The Beats
[l-to-r: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs]



Barry Miles: Call Me Burroughs (2013)


Barry Miles: Call Me Burroughs (2013)
[Hard-to-find Bookshop, CBD, Auckland - 21/3/2021]:

Barry Miles. Call Me Burroughs: A Life. 2013. Twelve. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2015.


Barry Miles: Call Me Burroughs (2015)


Selling the Beats


Is there any aspect of their lives which hasn't been written about by now? You'd think not, but fresh books keep on appearing - and not just biographies and reassessments, like the one above, but even new material, all these years later.

Just the other day I was trying to check how many volumes of Allen Ginsberg's journals were available at present, only to discover the existence of a massive trilogy of 'travel journals' which I'd never even heard of before:







Journals, letters (whether correspondences with particular people or curated selections from the entire corpus) continue to appear in a steady, apparently unabating wave. Was there ever so much vicarious wish-fulfilment - and unassuaged desire to imagine yourself as once having been 'cool' - in so many sad, buttoned-up bookworms?


Jack Kerouac & Allen Ginsberg: The Letters (2011)


I've written before about the Inklings industry (and been rebuked for being such a killjoy and spoilsport as to object to such - allegedly - innocent fun). Does the same reasoning apply to the Beats - also a somewhat ill-defined group of close friends with not dissimilar views and an addiction to expressing themselves in print?


Humphrey Carpenter: The Inklings (1978)


The comparison may seem an invidious one to admirers of either group. Lewis and Tolkien fans would object greatly to their being placed cheek-by-jowl with such an ill-assorted set of drug-raddled freaks. Beats groupies would see their own heroes on a much higher and more serious plane - in both literary and philosophical terms - than this reactionary bunch of pipe-smoking Academic elf-fanciers.


Paul M. Buhle, ed.: The Beats (2009)


I suppose that it is a bit sacrilegious - in both directions. And yet, for some perverse reason, I find myself attracted to both groups of writers. And much though I may scoff at the respective publishing industries that have grown up around them, I am their beneficiary.

I'm the one who hauls off and buys the latest volume of toenail clippings from the forty-years dead J. R. R. Tolkien. But I'm also the one who has to buy each 'revised and corrected' text of such Burroughs classics as Naked Lunch or Nova Express.

Mind you, in both cases, the precise nature of the line-up is open to debate. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien are unquestionably the heavy-hitters among the Inklings - but no-one's ever seriously challenged Charles Williams' right to be considered as part of the group.

When it comes to the likes of Owen Barfield, Lord David Cecil, Adam Fox, Roger Lancelyn Green, Christopher Tolkien and other reasonably regular attendees at their meetings, it's harder to decide. They all shared a decidedly conservative Christian (or at least Theist) worldview, but does it make sense to regard them as part of the 'inner ring' (to borrow Lewis's own term)? After all, even such anomalous figures as Fascist poet Roy Campbell and pioneering Epic Fantasist E. R. Eddison held audience with the group at times, though with somewhat mixed results.



Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac, the 'big three' among the Beats, are equally dominant. In fact, one could see them as the closest modern equivalent to such famous groups as the Romantic Poets (Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, followed by Byron, Shelley, and Keats), or the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Dante Gabriel Rosetti, John Millais, and Holman Hunt; followed by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and J. W. Waterhouse).


The Big Smoke: Romantic Poets, Mark 2 (2017)
[l-to-r: Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats]


What, then, is one to say to the various and competing claims of Charles Bukowski, Lucien Carr, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Herbert Huncke, Ken Kesey, Gary Snyder, and a host of others to be regarded as core Beat writers? One can try to tidy them into sub-movements such as the Columbia University group or the San Francisco Renaissance, or else simply throw up one's hands in acknowledgment of the fact that it is, in fact, a pseudo-question.



If you can't clearly define a movement, what sense does it make to argue over who was or was not a 'genuine' member of it? The answer, I suppose, is that such arguments do have a bit more substance than just the equivalent of proposing your own dream team for the Fantasy Underground Writers League. The names of your preferred candidates combine to spell out a kind of closet definition what a real Beat is (or was) without your having to justify it in detail.

Hence my decision to sidestep all that by sticking to the inevitable three - Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs - in this post.




Norman Mailer: Four Books of the 1960s


There's an amusing passage in Norman Mailer's The Armies of the Night (1968) where he gives a blow-by-blow account of a Robert Lowell poetry reading before the famous 1967 anti-Vietnam march on the Pentagon. Mailer, who considers Lowell's attitude to him somewhat patronising, can think of no better way of puncturing the patrician poet's self-esteem than by quipping that posterity might well judge Allen Ginsberg to be the superior poet.



Once again, I have to confess myself an admirer of both of these great writers, but ever since I purchased Ginsberg's then-hot-off-the-press Collected Poems in 1985, I've been unable to regard him as the clownish showman some poetry purists still believe him to be. Kaddish is, in my opinion, one of the great poems of the century, and listening to his own reading of it is an incomparable experience.


Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1985)


So, yes, all the ampersands and tricks of verbal shorthand apart, I don't feel any doubt in admitting Ginsberg as (at the very least) a serious rival to Lowell as the greatest American poet of the mid to late twentieth century.


Peter Orlovsky: Allen Ginsberg (1972)


For many years I've taught the work and ideas of William S. Burroughs in Creative Writing classes as a useful antidote to unimaginative, middle-of-the-road realism. The sheer terrifying radicalism of his work and life are inspiring - at a distance, at any rate - and his status as a prophet of the post-nuclear, post-Auschwitz era is (once again imho) unchallengeable. For more detail, see some of my course notes on him here and here.



Can I say the same for Jack Kerouac? Well, no, not really - I do understand why he seems to many as the only true 'Beat' in such a trio of misfits, and therefore the senior partner in the group. But he's never really appealed to me in the same way as the others - though I did dutifully work my way through On the Road back in the day. Enjoyed it, too, but somehow never got into any of its numerous sequels.


Jack Kerouac (1967)


Having said that, though, it's true that he, too, has served me well in Creative Writing courses. I used to like to invite local writers to come and address our first year Writing paper until our then Department got too stingy with its funding. Among our visitors was Michael Morrissey, author of the story "Jack Kerouac Sat Down beside the Wanganui River & Wept," one of our course readings.


Michael Morrissey, ed. The New Fiction (1985)






Michael gave a most interesting talk about his experiences with this story. How he'd been courted by American collectors anxious to obtain a copy, and how it had constituted almost a parallel track in his writing career. On the one hand there were the Kerouac obsessives, on the other hand everybody else.




However, as it gradually began to dawn on me, over the years, that not only did most of the students listening to me not know who Jack Kerouac was, but that they'd never heard of James K. Baxter either, I did learn not to major on such tricksy juxtapositions.


Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters: 1940-1956 (1995)


So, while it may reach absurd extremes at times, I don't have any deep objections either to Beat-worship or Beat-commerce. If it increases people's knowledge of literature (which it inevitably will do - was there ever such a literary bunch of typists as Kerouac and his pals?) then all power to it.


Belinda Humfrey, ed.: Recollections of the Powys Brothers (2019)


It's a shame that it doesn't spill over to other, to my mind, equally interesting constellations of writers - the Powys brothers, or the Russian 'Nightingale Fever' poets - but then you can't have everything. Public taste is fickle and seemingly arbitrary at times, but there is a deep appeal to the idea of howling as you eat your naked lunch on the road which is rather hard to match with more conventional fare.







Ann Charters: The Portable Beat Reader (1992)

Beat Bibliographies


Authors:
  1. William Burroughs (1914-1997)
  2. Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)
  3. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
  4. Anthologies & Secondary Literature



Books I own are marked in bold:


      Collections:

    1. Ah Pook is Here, Nova Express, Cities of the Red Night (1981)
    2. Three Novels: The Soft Machine, Nova Express & The Wild Boys (1988)
    3. Word Virus: The William Burroughs Reader (1998)
      • Word Virus: The William Burroughs Reader. Ed. James Grauerholz & Ira Silverberg. 1998. London: Flamingo, 1999.

    4. Longer Fiction:

    5. Junkie (aka Junky) (1953)
      • Junky. 1953. Introduction by Allen Ginsberg. Harmmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
      • Junky: The Definitive Text of 'Junk'. 1953. Ed. Oliver Harris. 2003. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2008.
    6. Queer. 1951–1953 (1985)
      • Queer. 1985. London: Picador, 1986.
    7. Naked Lunch (1959)
      • Naked Lunch. 1959. Introduction by J. G. Ballard. Flamingo Modern Classics. London: Flamingo, 1993.
      • Naked Lunch: The Restored Text. 1959. Ed. James Grauerholz & Barry Miles. New York: Grove Press, 2001.
    8. The Nova Trilogy (1961-1967)
      1. The Soft Machine (1961–1966)
        • The Soft Machine. 1961 & 1966. London: Corgi, 1974.
      2. The Ticket That Exploded (1962–1967)
        • The Ticket that Exploded. 1962 & 1967. Ed. James Grauerholz. The Cut-Up Trilogy: The Restored Texts. Modern Classics. London: Penguin, 2014.
      3. Nova Express (1964)
        • Nova Express. 1964. London: Panther Books, 1968.
    9. Dead Fingers Talk (1963)
      • Dead Fingers Talk. 1963. A Star Book. London: W. H. Allen & Co., Ltd., 1977.
    10. The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (1969)
    11. The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead (1971)
      • The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead. 1972. London: Corgi, 1974.
    12. Port of Saints (1973)
    13. The Red Night Trilogy (1981–1987)
      1. Cities of the Red Night (1981)
        • Cities of the Red Night. 1981. New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, 1982.
      2. The Place of Dead Roads (1983)
        • The Place of Dead Roads. 1987. Flamingo Modern Classics. London: Flamingo, 1994.
      3. The Western Lands (1987)
        • The Western Lands. 1987. London: Picador, 1988.
    14. My Education: A Book of Dreams (1995)
    15. [with Jack Kerouac] And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. 1945 (2008)
      • [with Jack Kerouac] And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. 2008. Modern Classics. London: Penguin, 2009.

    16. Shorter Fiction:

    17. [with Sinclair Beilles, Gregory Corso & Brion Gysin] Minutes To Go (1960)
    18. [with Brion Gysin] The Exterminator (1960)
    19. Roosevelt After Inauguration and Other Atrocities (1965)
    20. Valentine's Day Reading (1965)
    21. Time (1965)
    22. APO-33 (1965)
    23. [with Claude Pelieu & Carl Weissner] So Who Owns Death TV? (1967)
    24. The Dead Star (1969)
    25. Ali's Smile (1971)
    26. [with Brion Gysin] Brion Gysin Let the Mice In (1973)
    27. Exterminator! (1973)
    28. Mayfair Academy Series More or Less (1973)
    29. White Subway (1973)
      • Included in The Burroughs File. 1984. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991.
    30. The Book of Breeething (1974)
    31. [with Charles Gatewood] Sidetripping (1975)
    32. Snack ... (1975)
    33. Cobble Stone Gardens (1976)
      • Included in The Burroughs File. 1984. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991.
    34. Ali's Smile: Naked Scientology (1978)
    35. [with Malcolm McNeill] Ah Pook Is Here and Other Texts (1979)
    36. Blade Runner (a movie) (1979)
    37. Dr. Benway (1979)
    38. Die Alten Filme (The Old Movies) (1979)
      • Included in The Burroughs File. 1984. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991.
    39. Streets of Chance (1981)
    40. Early Routines (1981)
    41. Sinki's Sauna (1982)
    42. Ruski (1984)
    43. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1984)
    44. The Cat Inside (1986)
    45. The Whole Tamale (c.1987-88)
    46. [with Brion Gysin] Apocalypse (1988)
    47. [with Tom Waits & Robert Wilson] The Black Rider: A Musical (1989)
    48. Tornado Alley (1989)
    49. Ghost of Chance (1991)
    50. Seven Deadly Sins (1992)
    51. Paper Cloud; Thick Pages (1992)
    52. Interzone (1989)
      • Interzone. Ed. James Grauerholz. 1989. London: Picador, 1990.
    53. [with Graham Masterton] Rules of Duel. 1970 (2010)

    54. Non-fiction:

    55. [with Daniel Odier] The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs (1969)
    56. [with Claude Pelieu] Jack Kerouac (1970)
    57. The Electronic Revolution (1971)
    58. [with Mohamed Choukri] Foreword to Jean Genet in Tangier (1974)
    59. [with Brion Gysin] Colloque de Tangier (1976)
    60. [with Brion Gysin] The Third Mind (1977)
    61. [with Brion Gysin & Gérard-Georges Lemaire] Colloque de Tangier Vol. 2 (1979)
    62. The Burroughs File (1984)
      • The Burroughs File. 1984. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991.
    63. The Adding Machine: Collected Essays (1985)
    64. Uncommon Quotes Vol. 1 (1989)
    65. Conversations with William S. Burroughs (2000)
    66. Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997 (2000)
    67. The Revised Boy Scout Manual: An Electronic Revolution. 1970 (2018)

    68. Journals:

    69. The Retreat Diaries (1976)
      • Included in The Burroughs File. 1984. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991.
    70. Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs (2000)
      • Last Words: The Final Journals. Ed. James Grauerholz. New York: Grove Press, 2000.
    71. Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs (2007)

    72. Letters:

    73. Letter From A Master Addict To Dangerous Drugs. British Journal of Addiction, Vol. 53, No. 2, 3 August 1956.
    74. [with Allen Ginsberg] The Yage Letters (1963)
      • [with Allen Ginsberg] Yage Letters Redux. Ed. Oliver Harris (2006)
      • [with Allen Ginsberg] The Yage Letters Redux. 1963. Ed. Oliver Harris. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 2006.
    75. Letters to Allen Ginsberg 1953-1957 (1976)
      • Letters to Allen Ginsberg, 1953-1957. 1978. New York: Full Court Press, 1982.
    76. The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959 (1993)
      • The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Ed. Oliver Harris. 1993. London: Picador, 1994.
    77. Rub Out The Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974 (2012)
      • Rub Out the Words: Letters 1959-1974. Ed. Bill Morgan. 2012. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2013.

    78. Secondary:

    79. Morgan, Ted. Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs. 1991. London: Pimlico, 1992.
    80. Miles, Barry. Call Me Burroughs: A Life. 2013. Twelve. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2015.

    David Cronenberg, dir. Naked Lunch (1991)



      Collections:

    1. The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems 1937-1952 (2006)
      • The Book of Martyrdom & Artifice: First Journals and Poems 1937-1952. Ed. Juanita Liebermann-Plimpton & Bill Morgan. New York: Da Capo Press, 2006.
    2. The Essential Ginsberg (2015)
      • The Essential Ginsberg. Ed. Michael Schumacher. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Random House UK, 2015.

    3. Poetry:

    4. Howl & Other Poems (1956)
    5. Kaddish and Other Poems, 1958-1960 (1961)
    6. Empty Mirror: Early Poems (1961)
    7. Reality Sandwiches: 1953-1960 (1963)
    8. Airplane Dreams (1968)
    9. Angkor Wat (1968)
    10. Planet News (1968)
    11. The Gates of Wrath: Rhymed Poems 1948–1951 (1972)
    12. The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971 (1973)
    13. Iron Horse (1974)
    14. First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs 1971-1974 (1975)
    15. Sad Dust Glories: Poems Work Summer in Woods 1974 (1975)
    16. Sad Dust Glories: poems during work summer in woods (1975)
    17. Mind Breaths: Poems 1972-1977 (1978)
    18. Poems All Over the Place: Mostly Seventies (1978)
    19. Plutonian Ode: Poems 1977–1980 (1982)
    20. Collected Poems 1947–1980 (1985)
      • Collected Poems 1947-1980. 1985. Viking. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985.
    21. Howl Annotated (1986)
      • Howl: Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript, and Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporary Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts, and Bibliography. 1956. Ed. Barry Miles. 1986. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. 1995. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.
    22. White Shroud: Poems 1980–1985 (1986)
    23. Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986–1993 (1994)
      • Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992. 1994. New York: HarperPerennial, 1995.
    24. Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Poems & Songs 1949–1993 (1994)
    25. Collected Poems 1947–1985 (1995)
      • Collected Poems 1947-1985. London: Penguin, 1995.
    26. Illuminated Poems (1996)
    27. Selected Poems: 1947–1995 (1996)
    28. Death & Fame: Poems 1993–1997 (1999)
      • Death & Fame: Poems 1993-1997. Ed. Bob Rosenthal, Peter Hale & Bill Morgan. Foreword by Robert Creeley. New York: Penguin, 1999.
    29. Collected Poems 1947-1997 (2006)
      • Collected Poems 1947-1997. New York: Viking, 2006.
    30. Howl & Other Poems: 50th Anniversary Edition (2006)

    31. Prose:

    32. Allen Verbatim: Lectures on Poetry, Politics, Consciousness by Allen Ginsberg. Ed. Gordon Ball (1974)
    33. Deliberate Prose 1952–1995 (2000)
      • Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952-1995. Ed. Bill Morgan. Foreword by Edward Sanders. 2000. Perennial. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.
    34. Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews 1958-1996 (2001)
      • Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews 1958-1996. Ed. David Carter. Preface by Václav Havel. Introduction by Edmund White. 2001. London: Penguin, 2001.
    35. "The Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats" (Grove Press, 2017)

    36. Journals:

    37. Indian Journals (1970)
      • Indian Journals: Notebooks Diary Blank Pages Writings March 1962-May 1963. 1970. New Delhi: Penguin, 1990.
    38. Journals Early Fifties Early Sixties (1977)
      • Journals Early Fifties Early Sixties. Ed. Gordon Ball. 1977. New York: Grove Press, 1992.
    39. Journals Mid-Fifties: 1954-1958 (1995)
      • Journals Mid-Fifties: 1954-1958. Ed. Gordon Ball. 1995. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.
    40. Iron Curtain Journals: January–May 1965. Ed. Michael Schumacher (2018)
    41. South American Journals: January–July 1960. Ed. Michael Schumacher (2019)
    42. The Fall of America Journals, 1965-1971. Ed. Michael Schumacher (2020)

    43. Letters:

    44. [with William S. Burroughs] The Yage Letters (1963)
      • [with William S. Burroughs]The Yage Letters Redux. 1963. Ed. Oliver Harris. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 2006.
    45. As Ever: Collected Correspondence Allen Ginsberg & Neal Cassady (1977)
    46. Straight Hearts Delight: Love Poems & Selected Letters, by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky. Ed. Winston Leyland (1980)
    47. The Letters of Allen Ginsberg (2008)
      • The Letters of Allen Ginsberg. Ed. Bill Morgan. A DaCapo Press Book. Philadelphia: Perseus Books Group, 2008.
    48. The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder (2009)
      • The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. Ed. Bill Morgan. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2009.
    49. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters. Ed. Bill Morgan & David Stanford (2011)
    50. I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career: The Selected Correspondence of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, 1955–1997 (2015)

    51. Secondary:

    52. Kramer, Jane. Paterfamilias: Allen Ginsberg in America. London: Victor Gollancz, 1970.
    53. Miles, Barry. Ginsberg: A Biography. 1989. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990.
    54. Morgan, Bill. I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg. 2006. New York: Penguin, 2007.

    John Krokidas, dir. Kill Your Darlings (2013)



      Collections:

    1. The Portable Jack Kerouac. Ed. Ann Charters (1995)
    2. Library of America: Jack Kerouac Edition (2007-2016)
      1. Road Novels 1957–1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome Traveler / Journal Selections. Ed. Douglas Brinkley. Library of America, 174 (2007)
      2. Collected Poems: Mexico City Blues (242 Choruses) / The Scripture of the Golden Eternity / Book of Blues / Pomes All Sizes / Old Angel Midnight / Desolation Pops / Book of Haikus | Uncollected Poems. Ed. Marilène Phipps-Kettlewell. Library of America, 231 (2012)
      3. Visions of Cody / Visions of Gerard / Big Sur. Ed. Todd Tietchen. Library of America, 262 (2015)
      4. The Unknown Kerouac - Rare, Unpublished & Newly Translated Writings: The Night Is My Woman / Old Bull in the Bowery / Private Philologies, Riddles, and a Ten-Day Writing Log / Journal 1951 / Other Writings, 1946-1968. Trans. Jean-Christophe Cloutier. Ed. Todd Tietchen. Library of America, 283 (2016)

    3. Fiction:

    4. The Town and the City. 1946–1949 (1950)
      • The Town and the City. 1950. London: Quartet Books Limited, 1974.
    5. On the Road. 1951 (1957)
      • On the Road. 1957. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1967.
      • On the Road: The Original Scroll. 1957. Ed. Howard Cunnell. Introductions by Howard Cunnell, Penny Vlagopoulos, George Mouratidis, Joshua Kupetz. 2007. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2008.
    6. The Subterraneans. 1953 (1958)
    7. The Dharma Bums. 1957 (1958)
    8. Doctor Sax. 1952 (1959)
    9. Maggie Cassidy. 1953 (1959)
    10. Tristessa. 1955-1956 (1960)
    11. Lonesome Traveler (1960)
    12. Book of Dreams. 1952–1960 (1960)
    13. Big Sur. 1961 (1962)
    14. Visions of Gerard. 1956 (1963)
    15. Desolation Angels. 1956 & 1961 (1965)
    16. Satori in Paris (1966)
    17. Vanity of Duluoz. 1967 (1968)
    18. Pic. 1951 & 1969 (1971)
    19. Visions of Cody. 1951–1952; 1959 (1972)
    20. Good Blonde & Others. 1955 (1993)
    21. Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings. 1936–1943 (1999)
    22. Orpheus Emerged. 1944–1945 (2000)
    23. [with William S. Burroughs] And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. 1945 (2008)
    24. The Sea Is My Brother. 1942 (2010)
    25. The Haunted Life and Other Writings. 1944 (2014)
    26. La vie est d'hommage. 1950-1965 (2016)

    27. Poetry:

    28. Pull My Daisy (1940s)
    29. Mexico City Blues. 1955 (1959)
    30. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity. 1956 (1960)
    31. Scattered Poems. 1945–1968 (1971)
    32. Book of Sketches. 1952–1957)
    33. Old Angel Midnight. 1956 (1973)
      • Old Angel Midnight (2016)
    34. [with Albert Saijo & Lew Welch] Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from SF to NY. 1959 (1973)
    35. Heaven and Other Poems. 1957–1962 (1977)
    36. San Francisco Blues. 1954 (1983)
    37. Pomes All Sizes. 1960 (1992)
    38. Book of Blues (1954–1961)
    39. Book of Haikus (2003)

    40. Plays:

    41. Beat Generation. 1957 (2005)

    42. Non-fiction:

    43. Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha. 1955 (2008)
    44. Some of the Dharma (1997)
      • Some of the Dharma. 1953-1956. Foreword by John Sampas. Ed. David Stamford. Viking. New York: Penguin, 1997.
    45. Safe In Heaven Dead: Interview Fragments (1990)
    46. Departed Angels: The Lost Paintings (2004)

    47. Journals:

    48. Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac (2004)
      • Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954. Ed. Douglas Brinkley. 2004. New York: Penguin, 2006.

    49. Letters:

    50. Dear Carolyn: Letters to Carolyn Cassady. Ed. Arthur and Kit Knight (1983)
    51. Selected Letters, 1940–1956. Ed. Ann Charters (1995)
      • Selected Letters 1940-1956. Ed. Ann Charters. 1995. New York: Penguin, 1996.
    52. Selected Letters, 1957-1969. Ed. Ann Charters (1999)
      • Selected Letters 1957-1969. Ed. Ann Charters. Viking Penguin. Harmondsworth: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1999.
    53. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters (2010)

    54. Secondary:

    55. Charters, Anne. Kerouac: A Biography. 1973. Warner Paperback Library. New York: Warner Books Inc., 1974.
    56. Johnson, Joyce. Door Wide Open (2000)

    John Byrum, dir. Heart Beat (1980)



    1. Charters, Ann, ed. The Portable Beat Reader. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
    2. Miles, Barry. The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Corso in Paris, 1957-1963. New York: Grove Press, 2000.


    Beats (late 1950s):
    clockwise: Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, Jack Kerouac, David Amram, & Allen Ginsberg