See Beat News
for a link to ON THE ROAD film news.....
Dennis Hopper,
Tuli Kupferberg R.I.P.
To email Beat Scene kev (at) beatscene (dot)
freeserve (dot) co (dot) uk
Have you
written to me recently and not had a reply? I ask because the UK Post Office
have sent me an envelope, containing something addressed to me & say they
have lost the contents of it. The medium sized letter was posted in the UK on
July 15. If this sounds like you, please get in touch. You've got my email
address above.
The
Ginsberg/Kerouac book of letters, what can be said....? Just brilliant
spellbinding reading. It is a reminder, if one was ever needed, of why
Ginsberg and Kerouac hold a fascination for so many people. This big
collection will tell you more about them than fifty biographies.
Their fears, hopes, frustrations. As they wonder when America will discover
them. They have that dogged belief that they are very talented writers and
that they have big things to say. They are a little support group of two,
sustaining each other through difficult times. About three quarters of these
letters are previously unpublished and they reveal almost everything you need
to know about them both. That around the time of the John Clellon Holmes
debut novel GO, he wasn't their best friend. Kerouac is openly dismissive and
hostile towards him in letters. But then, that was Jack. As fickle as the
wind it seems. Chart his friendship with J.C. Holmes by contrasting the
letters between them at similar points. It lets you know Kerouac, for all his
study and espousal of Buddhism, (and Catholicism for that matter) was as
capable of envy, jealously, tetchiness as anyone, he was human after all and
not really a king. Ginsberg and Kerouac fall out and reconvene, friendly as
you like weeks later, mostly touchiness on Kerouac's part. But its good that we get to know more about less
celebrated people like Sheila Williams from Ginsberg & Al Sublette and
Stanley Gould from Kerouac, amongst a whole squadron of unsung friends and
fellow artists & writers that they mixed with in New York and San Francisco.
First meetings with Robert Duncan, Philip Lamantia are transmitted in
letters. So funny to hear how friendships that later flowered got off to
inauspicious starts. I've got to mid 1955, they are still waiting for their
breaks in their lives that will hurl them headlong into notoriety as much as
critical acclaim. Arguably one of the biggest 'Beat' books of the past ten
years or more. So much more could be said, but it would spoil it all for you. If you haven't got a copy, what are you waiting for?
Recently
back
home
from going to the Michael McClure reading at the Ledbury Festival on July 2. On the face of it a 'Beat poet' at a sleepy small town literary
event seems out of the ordinary. So credit must be given to the organisers
and Worcester University who, I understand, sponsored the event. Ledbury is a
lovely little town - traditional long high street. I half expected the ghost
of Thomas Hardy to be strolling down the street - it has that air. It is
impressive that they have two venues like this to put things on in. The
Prince of Wales pub in that little alleyway of a street was lovely. Michael's event kicked off the whole festival and it was a very well
attended gig at the Community Hall, which looked to hold about 250 people.
Michael was introduced by his friend filmmaker Colin Still. (see
www.opticnerve.co.uk) Despite some
debilitating illness, both himself and wife Amy, in recent times Michael read many favourites and
delighted the crowd with little stories and a memory or two. Good to meet up
with Chris Moughton from Lechlade. And Glen Storhaug of Five Seasons Press.
See www.fiveseasonspress.com
As well as young film maker Nic Saunders. Nic is currently working on an
Allen Ginsberg film. Today, Saturday, saw four films presented by Colin
Still. documentaries on Frank O'Hara, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Michael
McClure. Colin and Michael discussed the films with the audience and answered
questions. The McClure film was aired for the first time in public. I wasn't
aware of how well McClure knew O'Hara. Obviously I'd associated him with Gary
Snyder and Allen Ginsberg, so this was something new. He is not especially
interested in talking about Bob Dylan, his expression when asked about that
link said it all. It was a long time ago. His new book, MYSTERIOSOS (New
Directions Press) emphasised that while McClure will forever be associated
with the Beats he has moved on and remains a fully active, developing
American poet as concerned with the modern world as he was in the heyday of
Kerouac & co. Performances with Ray Manzarek, Charles Lloyd and Terry Riley,
amongst others are more relevant to him these days. He also read at the
London Review Bookshop in Bury Place by the British Museum in London
on Thursday evening, July 8, and Collin Still also screened his documentary
Michael McClure: Abstract Alchemist of Flesh. It was a lovely evening
in a lovely bookstore. A full house packed into every nook and cranny.
Kerouac biographer Steve Turner was there, playwright Richard Deakin (Angels
Still Falling - the controversial Kerouac play) also there, a big McClure
fan, a bunch of household names on the English poetry scene that I know
nothing about and the event was introduced by the sheer excellent Iain
Sinclair. Iain, I was looking to see if you had notes, but you didn't - how
do you do that? Setting the scene with your special mix of erudition and
idiosyncrasy. Good to round off the evening with a visit to the Museum pub
just around the corner. By the time you read this Michael McClure will be
home in California.
Oh, I forgot to
mention. Beat fan Johnny Depp wrote a letter in recent times. Not every day a
letter comes in the mail from a star of the silver screen I can tell you.
Johnny was very nice and encouraging about Beat Scene. He really does follow
the history of the Beats and reads the books. It was lovely of him to drop a
line, he must be very busy. Thank you Johnny.
It has a terrific
Ann Charters photo of Allen Ginsberg having a quiet moment at his Cherry
Valley farm in New York State and inside features an interview with Beat
photographer Larry Keenan, Suzanne Hines and her diary of being on the road
with Herbert Huncke on a reading tour of Europe, big stuff on the death of
Allen Ginsberg, including an interview with 1965 Wholly Communion film man
Peter Whitehead, plus Michael McClure on Ginsberg, Jim Burns looks at
Ginsberg in Paris, an interview with Charles Bukowski, and there's more.
Beat Scene 28 - from the vaults - in the UK only at just £3 including
post. Click here for your copy.
Many
people remain fascinated by the late poet Lew Welch. An aura of mystery still
envelopes him. Is he truly dead? Or did he walk off and choose another life
somewhere else? His body has never been discovered. As well as being a member
of the Reed College trio with Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder, he was an
integral part of the West Coast Beat Generation, he must have been in the
frame to read at The Six Gallery in the mid 1950s. Of course Welch was also a
good friend to Jack Kerouac, along with their mutual friend Albert Saijo, he
penned TRIP TRAP, with Jack, and the pair exchanged many, many letters in the
1950s and 1960s. So I'm doubly pleased to say that The Beat Scene Pocket Book
No 26 is LETTERS FROM LEW WELCH and it is available NOW.
Published in an edition of 125 numbered copies. If you would like to
order you can do it - UK and Europe only
- on the button below. Overseas, please email me.
Beat Scene62 is out now. Charles Bukowski and Dan Fante are amongst the
contributors. There is a new interview with Carolyn Cassady, an interview
with Richard Brautigan's first wife, Virginia Aste. John Cohassey writes on
Kerouac in Chicago, Daniel Bratton files a terrific article on Eric Mottram,
Gillian Thomson recalls Elise Cowen, Jim Burns on Migrant magazine, plus
there is an extract from a new book about Charles Bukowski, Kevin Opstedal
returns to the Bolinas scene, Thea Snyder Lowry, Gary Snyder's late sister,
contributes, the Beat Hotel & more... Oh and you subscribers only received another broadside with your copy. All subscriber copies will include extras
in the future. Single copies in the
UK are £6.95 including postage in a reinforced envelope. If you would like to
order a copy, click the button below. THIS IS UK ONLY - Overseas
see under Gary Snyder just below.
Belated best
wishes to Gary Snyder, 80 in May. A monumental poet and force for good.
FOR BEAT
SCENE 62 IN USA, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA & similar regions. Please click on
this button.
Out NOW is
another issue of my other little Beat Generation influenced magazine. This is number 23. In this latest issue is poetry from
Anne Waldman, ruth weiss, Neeli Cherkovski, Ed Sanders, David Meltzer, Jack
Micheline, Diane di Prima, Barry Gifford, Charles Plymell, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, Tim Hunt on Slim Gaillard, and an excerpt from Charles
Bukowski's Scarlet by Pamela 'Cupcakes' Wood. Copies in the UK are £5
including postage. (Cheques payable M.Ring) OVERSEAS please email me.
I have a copy of Transit 22 up for
grabs. William Burroughs cover, the issue includes poetry from Joanna Mcclure,
Jack Micheline, Janine Pommy Vega, Tom Pickard, Barry Gifford, Ruth Weiss,
Neeli Cherkovski, Charles Plymell and a James Birmingham essay on William
Burroughs. Copies are £5 in the UK and £6 elsewhere. For UK only click this
button below. Overseas please email me.
If you have
about 26 minutes to spare, why not click on this link and watch PULL MY
DAISY where Jack narrates the film. In his own spontaneous way, I do
believe this is truly off the cuff, no editors involved.
That lovely man musician David Amram sent this
photo taken of him in 1957 at The Five Spot in NYC. The place that he
accompanied Jack Kerouac and others in - doing jazz readings way back. The
photo is by Burt Glinn.
A recent chapbook
is CHARLES BUKOWSKI: CENSORSHIP DOES
PAY
by Abel Debritto.
A fine piece of research. 125 numbered
copies. If you would like to order a copy, click the button here.
A few people
have asked me what I'm reading, surely it will be wall to wall Beat
Generation books? It ain't necessarily so. Of course the Beats take
precedence and Charles Bukowski's Absence of the Hero is one
I've read lately. He's not a Beat I hear you cry, he is around these
parts. These are very early writings, essays, little stories from Buk.
Bill Morgan is a well respected Beat writer and he has a happy knack of
writing for everyone without being stuffy, yet remaining scrupulously
rigorous in his research. THE TYPEWRITER IS HOLY: THE COMPLETE UNCENSORED
HISTORY OF THE BEAT GENERATION is a new hardcover book published by Free
Press, I'm delving into that now. Bill Morgan has got to be given top marks
for ambition, what a heroic effort in taking on this overview of the Beat
Generation. ......... Also a
big academic book on Han Shan, Gary Snyder and Zen by Joan Qionglin Tan,
HAN SHAN, CHAN BUDDHISM AND GARY SNYDER'S ECOPOETIC WAY. Surprisingly
readable and not as 'prof speak' as you might imagine. I've
just put down Iain Sinclair's Dining On Stones. A wonderful
writer, elements of Charles Olson, William Carlos Williams, but very English
with it. Sometimes baffling but always fascinating. What does he do? Novels?
Not really. More idiosyncratic excursions into another England possibly. Currently
just back from a world tour of Athens & Gateshead. (Did you see him at The
Sage?) - A little book I'm eager to read is another in the series of
chapbooks published by Henry Denander's Kamini Press, The Poet Tree
by T. Kilgore Splake. Henry puts so much thought into what he does. Visually
his little books are a delight and Splake's poems look promising. Michael McClure's new collection of previously unpublished poetry
Mysteriosos - published by New Directions, is a must for me. Another that I'm dipping into, its that kind of book, is An
Encyclopedia ofThe New York Poets edited by Terence Diggory. A vast
collection that goes into some detail about that whole scene, including poets
like Ted Berrigan of course. And a curious one.
Turn Off Your Mind: The Dedalus Book of the 1960s by Gary Lachman.
This has an emphasis on
the darker side of that era. Aleister Crowley, Lovecraft, Timothy Leary,
magic, occult, comic book heroes alongside the Beats, Herman Hesse and
others. Thinking about it the left field perspective on the 1960s is a
refreshing change from that 'Summer of Love' nonsense that gets published
usually. Seductive. And a book before bedtime?
Edwin Drood by our man Dickens. He always has too many characters,
some of them are overblown but he's a master of building a story and painting
a scene. I love him. By way of contrast you can imagine I'm excited by the
prospect of reading the Kerouac/Ginsberg letters collection, that has
just arrived. Kerouac and Ginsberg seem so full of themselves in the 1940s,
brash even. Articulate, verbose just for the hell of it. Trying to outdo each
other in what they've read, who they've seen. Analysing every minute detail
of each other.
Call me a Luddite but books will never be
bettered by technology. You can download & digitise forever and read stuff on
your orangeberry or whatever it is, nothing beats paper. It's a little like I
read about that guy out of The White Stripes, Jack somebody, talking the other day, he
downloads music but he has to have the vinyl album, its a tactile thing. Same
with books. And speaking of books, isn't it such a pity that all our used
bookstores are disappearing with the encroachment of the internet. My home
town has never been overly blessed with them. The actual town centre had one
for a while, though I never go into Coventry. There was one on the other side
of town which I went into quite a bit. It wasn't great, the owner didn't seem
to add to his stock at all. There is a barn like place right out of town - it
is very English in the stock it has, as though they haven't realised America
has been discovered. The poetry section is filled with Larkin, Betjeman,
Chaucer and the like. Disappointing mostly. The only one that saves the day
in Coventry is Robert Gill's Gosford Books. Situated opposite the Art
College in the remnants of a row of old Coventry housing. He has been there
for about twenty years. Its small, gloomy, dusty - there is a clock ticking
away. An old two up two down house. There are books lined on the steep
stairs, but the upper floor isn't open. I don't know why. On a wet
gloomy morning it isn't the most uplifting of places. The owner is often
to be found having his lunch at the desk, some classical music or Bob Dylan
in the background. He doesn't spend any money on the decor that's for sure.
But it has the look of a 1950s Charing Cross Road emporium, the window
display is from that era and there are books outside in baskets. He even has
a little shelf of Beat titles on his desk, usually run of the mill stuff, but
now and then. He's quite friendly when you get to talk a little, though not
expansive and he lets you alone. He owns the place and says he isn't going
anywhere. Doesn't have anything to do with the internet, and says if you want
to buy a book off him you have to visit his shop. He's mainly open in the
afternoons, including Sundays. In an age where Amazon and the like have wiped
the floor with used bookstores, Robert Gill's little bookshop is a most
welcome anachronism. What's it like in your town? (As Ken Nordine might say).
------------------------------------------------- Going for 15
years, my other little Beat Generation themed magazine TRANSIT has
number 23 out NOW. A smaller 6" x 8" inches format, this issue is
filled with poetry from Anne Waldman, ruth weiss, Neeli Cherkovski, Ed
Sanders, David Meltzer, Diane di Prima, Barry Gifford, Charles Plymell,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Tim Hunt on Slim Gaillard and an excerpt from Pamela
'Cupcakes' Morgan's memoir of her time with Charles Bukowski. In the UK this
is £4 including postage. Cheques to M.Ring (better for me) or by the button
below. Overseas please email me.
Whilst rounding off
mailing out the current issue and taking a few minutes for a breather, an
interesting statistic sprung up while doing the post. The percentage
split between UK subscribers and overseas is uncannily virtually a 50%
figure. Subscriptions from America make up a sizeable proportion and an
increasing number from Scandinavian countries. The UK proportion is actually
falling, which is in very direct contrast to the earlier days of the
magazine. This is disappointing and something I'm puzzled and dismayed about,
I feel the magazine has improved with every issue. If I wasn't so modest
(ahem), I'd say nobody is ever really appreciated in their own backyard. At
the moment America likes Beat Scene more than the English do. Subscriber
copies are all posted now, so all you loyal subbers should have your copies
now, complete with subscriber only Kerouac broadside. Certainly
helping to keep me fit. Drop me a note when you receive your copy. Comments
always welcome. Go on, go crazy.
One development
that intrigued me of late is yet another deluxe edition of On The Road
has surfaced. Going for a cool $1,000 it puzzles me why there is a need for
such a publication. It does include paintings from one of America's most
noted artists
but does this justify such a fee? It smacks of blatant exploitation to be
honest. And it diminishes Jack Kerouac in my view. There is so much more to
him, a string of novels and poetry collections. People rave about Mexico
City Blues, Dylan waxes lyrical about that, as does Michael McClure, yet
it is consigned to the shadows. Maggie Cassidy? A beautiful novel.
Visions of Cody. A book that many rate more highly than On The Road,
Kerouac certainly thought much of it. Fine as On the Road is - I still
prefer the edited first edition if I'm honest - Kerouac is no one hit wonder.
Only those with fat wallets will opt for this exercise in pure money making.
Let them have it I say. It is far from the reasons that Jack wrote.
Beat Scene 61 is
out now. It includes Harold Norse, Burroughs, Jim Carroll, Seymour Krim,
Lenore Kandel, Dan Fante, Michael McClure, Jack Kerouac & more.
Subscriber copies and advance orders have all been mailed. You should have
your copy by now. Work is progressing daily on No 62 and I'm looking at late May for that
issue.
A couple of Beat Scene Press chapbooks have
been prepared. One of them is John Fante: A
Conversation with Ben Pleasants. That is out NOW. There is a button below for people in the
UK to click on. If you live overseas email me and I'll send you details. As always let me know if books in this
ongoing series are of interest to you. Once again they are in editions of
just 125 copies. Numbered as always. And, I'm working on a new
departure which I hope to bring news of in the near future. Watch this space.
REALLY TRULY Absolutely dedicated to the
Beat Generation and nothing else besides THEM. At all Ever..
This is a site always dedicated to
America's Beat
Generation and all the associated people and promoting the magazine
BEAT SCENE (a real paper magazine) which is
totally focused on them, concentrating on them historically and in a
contemporary way with interviews, news, profiles, reviews, photos. The
magazine has been published since 1988. Which of course makes it now twenty
two years old. I don't plan on putting up articles here from the paper
magazine. I get asked when I'm going to do this quite amazingly. (Talk about
shooting myself in the foot) - My
preference is always for a printed magazine. Something you can actually hold
in your hands. I'm interested in playing a small part in keeping certain
things
alive.
Our Jack Kerouac special
came out in October2009. Sadly it wasn't delivered by Aubrey, who has brought it here for a very long time, he died
after a short illness. I'll miss his sharp Yorkshire wit and stories about the biggest fish you ever saw getting
away. Marking forty years since the death of Jack. Contributors include
Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Ann Charters, Iain Sinclair, Barry Gifford,
David Amram and others. Subscribers have been contacted by email about an
offer on this issue. ( I thank the 35 people who have taken me up on this
offer). Subscribers got a Kerouac broadside with their copy.
If you would
like a copy please get in touch. There are only a few left.
If you live
inside the UK here is a button above to order at £6.95 including post. REMEMBER, THIS IS A UK ONLY BUTTON. Scroll down a little for Overseas
Incidentally
Helen Weaver has a site and she has some words about her new book
about her times with Jack Kerouac and others THE AWAKENER - go to
http://www.helenweaver.com/?p=1121
Later in 2009
LETTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO by Philip Lamantia was collected from
the printer. It is number 23 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series. It
is a long essay/letter from a teenage Lamantia that was sent to an English
literary magazine in 1947. In it Lamantia lays out his hopes and dreams for
the future. The essay has languished in oblivion since then, possibly a
victim of Lamantia's notorious tendency to throw things away or destroy them.
So, I'm pleased that permission was given to republish after all these years. If you would like a copy, they are all numbered. Click on the box
below. They are £6.95 each, and that includes postage worldwide.
You may have read one or two of his books, CHUMP
CHANGE, SPITTING OFF TALL BUILDINGS, MOOCH, CORKSUCKER, KISSED BY A FAT
WAITRESS, ARIZONA HIGHWAY, DON GIOVANNI and others, but have you heard
Dan Fante read? In a revealing and sometimes
heartrending half hour interview on NPR radio in the USA, Dan talks with
great candour. His new book, the fourth in the Bruno Dante series, his alter
ego, is recently published. If you think you knew Dan Fante, just wait til
you hear him. At this link you will also be able to read an extract from the
new novel.
THE GAME & OTHER POEMS by Jack Hirschman
is a very recent Beat Scene Press Pocket Book. Number 22 in the series.
Limited to 125 signed and numbered copies. It is £6.95 in the UK. Everywhere
else please send me an email.
Out
late Summer in 2009 was a new Beat Scene Press Pocket Book. Number 21 in the series -
Tom Pickard's WORK CONCHY relates the story of how a teenage poet from
Newcastle upon Tyne in the North east of England brought the Beat poets to an
ancient tower on the old city wall in the 1960s. Allen Ginsberg, Gregory
Corso, Robert Creeley, David Meltzer, Jack Hirschman, Ed Dorn and so many
others - they all made the trek there over the years. The chapbook also
chronicles the fight Pickard had with the local authorities to be a poet in
an age when young men were expected to do as they were told. Published in an
edition of 125 signed and numbered copies. It can be got in the UK by clicking on the button below. All other regions please email me.
David Amram
got in touch recently with news of Ted Joans, which I'll be posting up as
soon as I can. Meanwhile here is a little five minute clip of David with
Alfred Leslie, talking about PULL MY DAISY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4mQCnhKCd4
Beat Scene magazine No 59 came out later in 2009. It sports a Charles Bukowski
cover image. In a packed issue William Burroughs, David Meltzer, Kay Johnson,
Herbert Huncke, Jack Kerouac, Tom Pickard, and Harold Norse all feature. Plus
an article about seminal New York Beat magazine Intrepid & more besides.
Click below for a copy in the UK ONLY
News to us later in 2009
The Kerouac Court Case...Will found to be a
forgery......
A Message from Gerald Nicosia
There has been a monumental ruling today in the Circuit
Court of the Sixth
Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County, Florida, Probate Division.
Judge George W. Greer, who presided at the trial of the challenge to the
Gabrielle Kerouac's will on April 1 of this year, ruled that Gabrielle
Kerouac's purported will is indeed a forgery. The evidence presented at
trial, both medical and that of a handwriting expert, which he cited in his
ruling, indicates that Gabrielle Kerouac was incapable of signing the will
as it is signed on the purported document. This means, quite simply, that
any possession of the Kerouac Estate by the Sampas family, more than the
one-third interest to which Stella Kerouac was entitled by a dower's right,
was obtained purely and simply through a criminal act of fraud.
Jan Kerouac has been vindicated, at last, more than 13 years after her
death.
Yours,
Gerald Nicosia
Our
Jack Kerouac special issue is out NOW.
Marking 40 years since Kerouac's death. Subscribers will get their copy as it
will be Beat Scene 60. A little landmark. If you would like a copy or an
extra copy get in touch. At the above email. Copies will be sent to
subscribers as normal and any after that are strictly on a first come first
served basis. Overseas it is $15. If you live OVERSEAS you can click this
button to order.
Readers ofGary
Snyder might well be keen to see him being interviewed by Lew Sitzer on
NCTV11. The filmed intervew is fractionally over an hour long. Don't expect a
trip down memory lane. Snyder is firmly and mostly in the here and now. He is
preoccupied with bio-regionalism. biodiversity, language, fire management
where he lives and so on. Have a look at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7493184569903349861
RecentlyTransit magazine, issue 21, was published.
As the discerning among you will know, it is a little magazine devoted to all
things Beat Generation. Measuring approximately 6" x 9" it includes poetry
from Jack Hirschman, David Meltzer, Barry Gifford and Dan Fante. Plus there
is a big essay on Leroi and Hettie Jones and their seminal 1950s magazine
YUGEN. Hettie Jones was happy with it. The issue is now sold out.
A little five
minute film of Herbert Huncke reminiscing at Cafe Nico in 1994. The film
quality is good, the sound is good. Have a look at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3xMtnpZcfo
A little poser for you Beat 'Sherlock Holmes'
characters out there. On the official Allen Ginsberg site there is a five
minute movie of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr on a street
corner in New York City around 1964, Peter Hale of the Allen Ginsberg project
reckons. Can you fill in any details? Give names to the other individuals/
See it at
http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/
Out from the Beat Scene Press is CARL WEISSNER,
CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S SECRET AGENT. An edition of one hundred numbered
copies. It is number 20 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series. It is £6
including postage. Click here to buy a copy.
Not many people this side of the pond will have heard
that Bukowski's photographer, Michael Montfort, died late last year. Montfort
gave us many striking images of Bukowski. Being a man who liked his privacy
it was somehow surprising that Bukowski allowed Montfort in. But the two got
on and for many years Montfort kept snapping. You'll see his pictures in
books such as SHAKESPEARE NEVER DID THIS. But in many more besides. There
is a feature on Michael Montfort in Beat Scene 59.
A recent Beat Scene Press Pocketbook is Barry Gifford's NEW POEMS.
It is number 19 in the series. It is a signed
and numbered edition of 125 copies. You may know Barry Gifford as the
co-author with the late Lawrence Lee of the biography of Jack Kerouac JACK'S
BOOK. Many years ago Gifford also penned KEROUAC'S TOWN. Since those days he
has become an acclaimed writer. WILD AT HEART, THE IMAGINATION OF THE HEART,
PORT TROPIQUE and many others. Get in touch if you would like a copy, these
little brown books prove very popular.
Click below if you would like a copy
Beat Scene
came out just before last Christmas. Number 57. I was very pleased with it, especially the lovely cover photo of Allen
Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, which was taken by Gordon Ball. I've been very
busy mailing out subscriber and store copies, both for England and overseas.
(Like an idiot I actually spent Boxing day morning doing this!) - I'm sending out copies to everyone in reinforced
envelopes these days. It is very time consuming and more expensive doing this but I figure it
helps to get the issue to you in a decent shape it is worth the time and
money. I did
subscribe to the English music monthly MOJO in recent years but when my first
subscriber copy came through the mail in a flimsy plastic bag - all dog eared
and unloved - I cancelled my sub with them and went back to buying it off the
shelf. And I thought I don't want the same thing happening to your copies. I
know a lot of you store your copies carefully and would like to get them in
neat shape. So this should do the trick. Hands up those that leave them down
the back of the sofa with a coffee cup ring on the front cover!?
THIS ISSUE NOW SOLD OUT.
And continuing with the William Burroughs theme - you may
recall an interview with film maker Lars Movin we conducted in a recent issue
of Beat Scene - Lars sent a number of Burroughs photos taken in Sweden that
we were not able to use for one reason or another. So here are a couple of them
here.
During
October there was a Beat Generation Symposium held in Chicago. Joanne Kyger
and Michael McClure were there. Also there was Liz Von Vogt who recently had
681 LEXINGTON AVENUE: A BEAT EDUCATION IN NEW YORK CITY 1947-1954
published. In that book she recalls her young life mixing with her brother
John Clellon Holmes and his friends such as Jack Kerouac. You can hear Liz
speak and read from her book if you click the link here.
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=29934
A
recent issue of Transit magazine, number 20,
is
out. It features an extended essay on the interview Jack
Kerouac did with The Paris Review a year before his death. Plus an interview
with Joanne Kyger, poetry from Michael McClure and Barry Gifford, Jim Burns
on William Wantling and a little feature on Anne Waldman's new recording.
Copies are £4 in the UK. If you live in the UK and would like to order,
click the box below.
Issue 56 is out NOW.
SEE BELOW.
If you would
like to order a copy of Beat Scene 56 and you live
in the UK- click on the button below
A recent book in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series
is a signed and
numbered story by Dan Fante. Not many of this one left.
If you would like a copy -
Click here
A few of you might know I publish another Beat influenced magazine.
Transit. No 19 is now ready. In fact it is almost sold out. Featuring poetry from David Meltzer, Diane di Prima, Barry Gifford and Jack Foley with an essay on Charles Olson and
Projective Verse. A single issue in the UK is £4 including post. Either by
cheque payable to M.Ring ( I much prefer that) - OR by paypal to the Beat
Scene email address. To the USA it is $12 cash OR by paypal. Europe is 10
Euros OR by paypal - FOR UK only click below.
.
COOL KEROUAC, by Jim Burns - number 17 in the
Pocket Books series, out now. Signed and numbered.
REMEMBERING JACK KEROUAC
by John Clellon Holmes is number 16 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book
series. 125 numbered copies. Click below for a copy
IN THE UK ONLY (Overseas please email
me).
BEAT SCENE 55 is still available. Copies in the UK are
£6.50. Click below for A UK copy only.
Overseas please send me an
email.
LETTERS TO BEAT SCENE from Charles Bukowski is number 15 in the Pocket Books series. 125 numbered copies. Click below
for a copy.
For something special on Allen Ginsberg - you can go to
http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/winter2008/features/the_beats/and hear the earliest
known recording of Allen Ginsberg reading major parts of HOWL, recorded at
Reed College in Oregon prior to his first public reading at the Six Gallery.
The recording was co-discovered by John Suiter who is writing a biography of
Gary Snyder.
"1963. On the way to Bolinas we stopped for gas and I borrowed Ginsberg's
camera after taking that photo from backseat of Neal under torn headliner in
his '39 Pontiac." (Charles Plymell from Neal and Anne at Gough Street.)"
The Beat Scene Press has published NEAL AND ANNE AT GOUGH STREET by
Charles Plymell. Number 14 in the pocket book series, it is numbered in an edition of 125 copies and signed by Charles Plymell. Copies
in the UK are £5.95 ...........OVERSEAS - please email for price.
BEAT SCENE 54 OUT NOW.
Scroll down a little to buy a copy in the UK.
Overseas please email.
A recent issue of my other little Beat Generation magazine, Transit, is out
now. Number 18 is given over to an essay on Gary Snyder. Copies are
£3.50 in the UK. Overseas please ask.
See this link
here for some famous people talking about Jack on a day that marked 50 years of ON THE
ROAD. Though of course we all know that it was published in Heaven years
before that
NOW OUT in the continuing Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series is
REXROTH, BUKOWSKI AND THE POLITICS OF LITERATURE by Ben Pleasants. 125
signed and numbered copies, out NOW. £5.95
Beat Scene 53
. Articles include interviews
with both Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones, big stuff on Burroughs, Yugen
magazine, Jack Kerouac & more besides. Copies are £5.95 in the UK.
Overseas please scroll down the page just past this image of Jack Kerouac
USA copies of BEAT SCENE 53 here, click on the
button below for a copy to be airmailed ...
Allen Ginsberg - Died 1997
I met Allen Ginsberg years ago outside a pub in Lowell
in Massachusetts. June 1988. He had done a reading and my diary tells me he
had been signing copies of his new book of photographs, something that took
over more and more of his time later in his life. He was talking to a lot of
people outside the bar, it was a cold and windy night and I recall him kindly
saying to me that my young son shouldn't be out so late at night, it was
around midnight. My son Nathan was eight. I agreed and said I didn't have
much option as we were on holiday together alone. We talked about John
Clellon Holmes who had died around that time. Allen spoke of one or two
ailments of his own. It was late and yet he seemed keen to talk to everybody
despite the hour and that it had been a long day for him, beginning at The
Whistler Museum early in the day. I had just started Beat Scene by then and
he encouraged me to use his photos in it. I was impressed by his generosity.
He wrote me a couple of brief letters afterwards and then years later sent a
postcard or two asking about the magazine. I always sent him copies but
whether he always saw them I don't know, as he was always moving around. A
few days earlier I had been sitting in Brighams ice cream shop in Kearney
Square in Lowell, having a chocolate milk shake with Ben Woitena, the creator
of the terrific Kerouac park in Lowell. Ben was from Texas and told me all
about the work on the big monolith type slabs he'd created with Kerouac's
words carved into each one. He loved an American band The Sir Douglas
Quintet, probably because they too were from Texas. He seemed pleased when I
said I had heard them. I'm certainly the right age. A lovely man. Sitting in
the next booth were Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg. Not sure
whether they were having a milkshake. We walked down to the Kerouac park with
Ben, pouring with rain and looked and admired them. In the late afternoon I
went into a council office in the centre of Lowell and got to see Kerouac's
typewriter and to try on his rucksack. I almost sank to my knees. Even later that day we were at
the Pawtucketville Social Club, quite a gathering there. Allen, Lawrence,
Henri Cru, Edie Parker, lots of fans like me as well. There was an electrical
sorm and the power was out and candles were lit. I recall going to a
Greek restaurant with a few people, the friendly Henry Hefco and his wife,
(my son was very impressed with Henry's gym), Dean Contover, Tony Sampas amongst them. I think Allen
was there.
JACK KEROUAC - born March 12, 1922
- would've been 85 in 2007. The photo below on the right is one the English
Sunday Times used for his obituary notice.
left here, JK on the Steve Allen TV show in
1959...Are you nervous Jack? Right, in The Kettle of Fish Bar in NYC,
1957
BEAT SCENE friend and subscriber Joe Lee attended a reading by Carolyn
Cassady in San Francisco in recent times and sent in a few photos of the
event. To
start, from left to right - here's one of Joe Lee, Al Hinkle (Jack Kerouac's
big buddy from late 1940s and 1950s and heavily featured in ON THE ROAD of
course), Carolyn Cassady's daughter Cathy Cassady Sylvia and her husband
George Sylvia. Thanks for sending them in Joe.
above, Carolyn Cassady with Joe Lee
Left, Joe Lee, Al Hinkle & Cathy Cassady
right above, here's another of Carolyn Cassady from
a few years ago in Scotland when she attended a play about herself, Neal
Cassady and Jack Kerouac, the actors who played them are with her.
above, another photo sent in by arch snapper Joe Lee of
John Cassady and Jami Cassady, two children of Carolyn and Neal Cassady.
Photo taken 2006 in San Francisco.
and above, Carolyn Cassady in Florida in 1999 with film
maker Judy Sharples.
above, Neal Cassady & the ill fated Natalie Jackson in
SF, 1955.
In
the early 1970s Iain Sinclair and his friends battled their way though the
making of a film about Allen Ginsberg in London and efforts to interview him
and others including William Burroughs. That filming developed into a book -
THE KODAK MANTRA DIARIES. A distinctive spiral bound affair that quickly sold
out. In it Sinclair captured something of the spirit of the times - both for
Ginsberg and for London, not to mention he and his friends. Just before Christmas 2006 I published Iain's book
once again in an expanded edition of 500 copies.
I have
copies of THE KODAK MANTRA DIARIESsigned by Iain Sinclair. If
you would like one of these they are £12 including post in the UK.
I think Beat Scene 51 (see below) issue is desirable simply because of the very
special Jack Kerouac content alone. I guarantee it is something you won't have seen before. And
people have commented on the big Bolinas content, I believe this is the
biggest focus those times has received to date and hope it will push others
into further research of the era and the poets who gathered there. I
wanted to really investigate this late 1960s, early 1970s loose community of
poets and so spoke to a number of them to get their recollections of the
time. Writers included were David Meltzer, Joanne Kyger, Anne Waldman, Lewis
Warsh, Larry Kearney, Duncan McNaughton, Tom and Angelica Clark, Alice Notley
and others. I
know of at least one writer who has been enthused enough to begin putting
together a book about this community. On the cover are Lewis Warsh and Anne Waldman, over 35 years
ago. Two poets who are still going strong. Copies of this issue are down to the last few boxes and my
garage is emptying.
If you live in the UK click here for a copy of BEAT SCENE 51 for UK buyers ONLY below
USA, JAPAN & AUSTRALIA go to BACK ISSUES
TO PURCHASE A COPY
TRANSIT magazine, our other little Beat Generation hued magazine continues.
Number 17 is not long out. Includes poetry from Tom Clark, Alice Notley, David Meltzer, Anne
Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Barry Gifford, Diane di Prima, Dharma Bum John Montgomery, Janine Pommy Vega, Joanne Kyger,
Ruth Weiss, Beat archivist Arthur Winfield Knight. £4.25 including
post in the UK.
BEAT SCENE 51 for EUROPEAN residents only, BUY HERE
If
you live in Europe, USA/Australia, Japan
click below for a copy of the Beat Scene Special issue THE KODAK MANTRA
DIARIES. Cost is £7.50 inc post.
AND, Beat Scene Press published the fifth in the Beat Scene
Pocket Books series, which is poet and biographer Tom Clark's LETTERS HOME FROM CAMBRIDGE
1963-65. Clark studied in Cambridge, England in that period and his letters
are a snapshot of poetic life in the early 60s. Produced in an edition of 100 signed and numbered copies. Strictly
on a first come first served basis. Copies are £5.95 each including postage
in the UK.
BEAT SCENE SUBSCRIPTION FOR USA, JAPAN,
AUSTRALIA ---CLICK HERE
TRANSIT 16
is available, it features Barry Gifford, Tisa Walden, Michael McClure,
Diane di Prima, David Meltzer, Tom Clark, Ted Joans, Jack Hirschman, Dan
Fante, Arthur Winfield Knight, Janine Pommy Vega, Anne Waldman, Henry
Denander, Ron Whitehead & Roger Taus on William Carlos Williams.. copies are
£4.25 including post. Either by cheque in UK payable to M.Ring. OR BY
CLICKING HERE BELOW
AND, SPEAKING OF TRANSIT, I'VE FINALLY FOUND THE BOX OF
TRANSIT 3 FROM 1993. THIS IS THE KEROUAC SPECIAL ISSUE,
A LONG ESSAY BY JIM BURNS ON KEROUAC AND JAZZ. A NUMBER OF PEOPLE HAVE ASKED
ABOUT THIS ISSUE OVER THE YEARS. HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO GET A COPY. BEFORE
THEY GET LOST AGAIN.
TRANSIT No 15
is out now. It includes essays on Gary
Snyder and Jack Kerouac, poetry from Dan Fante, Diane di Prima, Tom Clark,
David Meltzer, Arthur Winfield Knight, Charles Plymell, Anne Waldman, Neeli
Cherkovski, Barry Gifford, Robert Creeley, Tisa Walden and Jim Burns You can
buy a copy by clicking below.
OUR CHARLES
BUKOWSKI SPECIAL ISSUE
In 2004 we decided to mark the 10th anniversary of the
death of Charles Bukowski (above). To mark the date Beat Scene magazine published an entire special
issue devoted to the man.
We included interviews with his longtime friend and Black Sparrow Press
publisher John Martin, a substantial interview with the man who
photographed him over the decades, Michael Montfort. Girlfriends, he had
a few, but Linda King was a significant
woman in his life, we interview Linda. We look at Bukowski at the racetrack, his time with Jon and Lou
Webb down in New Orleans being published by the Loujon Press. We
investigate his longterm publishing history with Marvin Malone's
Wormwood Review magazine and publish a photo of Marvin Malone, a rarity.
There's an interview with his German translator Carl Weissner and much
more. Full colour covers, including two striking portraits of Bukowski.
All this for £6.50 including post - either by cheque payable to
M.Ring or by clicking below.
Recently
back
home
from going to the Michael McClure reading at the Ledbury Festival on July 2. On the face of it a 'Beat poet' at a sleepy small town literary
event seems out of the ordinary. So credit must be given to the organisers
and Worcester University who, I understand, sponsored the event. Ledbury is a
lovely little town - traditional long high street. I half expected the ghost
of Thomas Hardy to be strolling down the street - it has that air. It is
impressive that they have two venues like this to put things on in. The
Prince of Wales pub in that little alleyway of a street was lovely. Michael's event kicked off the whole festival and it was a very well
attended gig at the Community Hall, which looked to hold about 250 people.
Michael was introduced by his friend filmmaker Colin Still. (see
It has a terrific
Ann Charters photo of Allen Ginsberg having a quiet moment at his Cherry
Valley farm in New York State and inside features an interview with Beat
photographer Larry Keenan, Suzanne Hines and her diary of being on the road
with Herbert Huncke on a reading tour of Europe, big stuff on the death of
Allen Ginsberg, including an interview with 1965 Wholly Communion film man
Peter Whitehead, plus Michael McClure on Ginsberg, Jim Burns looks at
Ginsberg in Paris, an interview with Charles Bukowski, and there's more.
Beat Scene 28 - from the vaults - in the UK only at just £3 including
post. Click here for your copy.
Many
people remain fascinated by the late poet Lew Welch. An aura of mystery still
envelopes him. Is he truly dead? Or did he walk off and choose another life
somewhere else? His body has never been discovered. As well as being a member
of the Reed College trio with Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder, he was an
integral part of the West Coast Beat Generation, he must have been in the
frame to read at The Six Gallery in the mid 1950s. Of course Welch was also a
good friend to Jack Kerouac, along with their mutual friend Albert Saijo, he
penned TRIP TRAP, with Jack, and the pair exchanged many, many letters in the
1950s and 1960s. So I'm doubly pleased to say that The Beat Scene Pocket Book
No 26 is LETTERS FROM LEW WELCH and it is available NOW.
Published in an edition of 125 numbered copies. If you would like to
order you can do it - UK and Europe only
- on the button below. Overseas, please email me.
Beat Scene
62 is out now. Charles Bukowski and Dan Fante are amongst the
contributors. There is a new interview with Carolyn Cassady, an interview
with Richard Brautigan's first wife, Virginia Aste. John Cohassey writes on
Kerouac in Chicago, Daniel Bratton files a terrific article on Eric Mottram,
Gillian Thomson recalls Elise Cowen, Jim Burns on Migrant magazine, plus
there is an extract from a new book about Charles Bukowski, Kevin Opstedal
returns to the Bolinas scene, Thea Snyder Lowry, Gary Snyder's late sister,
contributes, the Beat Hotel & more... Oh and you subscribers only received another broadside with your copy. All subscriber copies will include extras
in the future. Single copies in the
UK are £6.95 including postage in a reinforced envelope. If you would like to
order a copy, click the button below. THIS IS UK ONLY - Overseas
see under Gary Snyder just below.
Belated best
wishes to Gary Snyder, 80 in May. A monumental poet and force for good.
Out NOW is
another issue of my other little Beat Generation influenced magazine. This is number 23. In this latest issue is poetry from
Anne Waldman, ruth weiss, Neeli Cherkovski, Ed Sanders, David Meltzer, Jack
Micheline, Diane di Prima, Barry Gifford, Charles Plymell, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, Tim Hunt on Slim Gaillard, and an excerpt from Charles
Bukowski's Scarlet by Pamela 'Cupcakes' Wood. Copies in the UK are £5
including postage. (Cheques payable M.Ring) OVERSEAS please email me.
I have a copy of Transit 22 up for
grabs. William Burroughs cover, the issue includes poetry from Joanna Mcclure,
Jack Micheline, Janine Pommy Vega, Tom Pickard, Barry Gifford, Ruth Weiss,
Neeli Cherkovski, Charles Plymell and a James Birmingham essay on William
Burroughs. Copies are £5 in the UK and £6 elsewhere. For UK only click this
button below. Overseas please email me.
A recent chapbook
is CHARLES BUKOWSKI: CENSORSHIP DOES
PAY
Beat Scene 61 is
out now. It includes Harold Norse, Burroughs, Jim Carroll, Seymour Krim,
Lenore Kandel, Dan Fante, Michael McClure, Jack Kerouac & more.
Subscriber copies and advance orders have all been mailed. You should have
your copy by now. Work is progressing daily on No 62 and I'm looking at late May for that
issue.
A couple of Beat Scene Press chapbooks have
been prepared. One of them is John Fante: A
Conversation with Ben Pleasants. That is out NOW. There is a button below for people in the
UK to click on. If you live overseas email me and I'll send you details. As always let me know if books in this
ongoing series are of interest to you. Once again they are in editions of
just 125 copies. Numbered as always. And, I'm working on a new
departure which I hope to bring news of in the near future. Watch this space.
Our Jack Kerouac special
came out in October2009. Sadly it wasn't delivered by Aubrey, who has brought it here for a very long time, he died
after a short illness. I'll miss his sharp Yorkshire wit and stories about the biggest fish you ever saw getting
away. Marking forty years since the death of Jack. Contributors include
Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Ann Charters, Iain Sinclair, Barry Gifford,
David Amram and others. Subscribers have been contacted by email about an
offer on this issue. ( I thank the 35 people who have taken me up on this
offer). Subscribers got a Kerouac broadside with their copy. 
Later in 2009
LETTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO by Philip Lamantia was collected from
the printer. It is number 23 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series. It
is a long essay/letter from a teenage Lamantia that was sent to an English
literary magazine in 1947. In it Lamantia lays out his hopes and dreams for
the future. The essay has languished in oblivion since then, possibly a
victim of Lamantia's notorious tendency to throw things away or destroy them.
So, I'm pleased that permission was given to republish after all these years. If you would like a copy, they are all numbered. Click on the box
below. They are £6.95 each, and that includes postage worldwide.
You may have read one or two of his books, CHUMP
CHANGE, SPITTING OFF TALL BUILDINGS, MOOCH, CORKSUCKER, KISSED BY A FAT
WAITRESS, ARIZONA HIGHWAY, DON GIOVANNI and others, but have you heard
Dan Fante read? In a revealing and sometimes
heartrending half hour interview on NPR radio in the USA, Dan talks with
great candour. His new book, the fourth in the Bruno Dante series, his alter
ego, is recently published. If you think you knew Dan Fante, just wait til
you hear him. At this link you will also be able to read an extract from the
new novel.
Out
late Summer in 2009 was a new Beat Scene Press Pocket Book. Number 21 in the series -
Tom Pickard's WORK CONCHY relates the story of how a teenage poet from
Newcastle upon Tyne in the North east of England brought the Beat poets to an
ancient tower on the old city wall in the 1960s. Allen Ginsberg, Gregory
Corso, Robert Creeley, David Meltzer, Jack Hirschman, Ed Dorn and so many
others - they all made the trek there over the years. The chapbook also
chronicles the fight Pickard had with the local authorities to be a poet in
an age when young men were expected to do as they were told. Published in an
edition of 125 signed and numbered copies. It can be got in the UK
by clicking on the button below. All other regions please email me.
Our
Jack Kerouac special issue is out NOW.
Marking 40 years since Kerouac's death. Subscribers will get their copy as it
will be Beat Scene 60. A little landmark. If you would like a copy or an
extra copy get in touch. At the above email. Copies will be sent to
subscribers as normal and any after that are strictly on a first come first
served basis. Overseas it is $15. If you live OVERSEAS you can click this
button to order.
Readers of
Gary
Snyder might well be keen to see him being interviewed by Lew Sitzer on
NCTV11. The filmed intervew is fractionally over an hour long. Don't expect a
trip down memory lane. Snyder is firmly and mostly in the here and now. He is
preoccupied with bio-regionalism. biodiversity, language, fire management
where he lives and so on. Have a look at
RecentlyTransit magazine, issue 21, was published.
As the discerning among you will know, it is a little magazine devoted to all
things Beat Generation. Measuring approximately 6" x 9" it includes poetry
from Jack Hirschman, David Meltzer, Barry Gifford and Dan Fante. Plus there
is a big essay on Leroi and Hettie Jones and their seminal 1950s magazine
YUGEN. Hettie Jones was happy with it. The issue is now sold out.
Charles Plymell,
Zap, Robert Crumb, I wanted to pass on this a little belatedly to you all.
Click the link and away you go.
Beat Scene
came out just before last Christmas. Number 57. I was very pleased with it, especially the lovely cover photo of Allen
Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, which was taken by Gordon Ball. I've been very
busy mailing out subscriber and store copies, both for England and overseas.
(Like an idiot I actually spent Boxing day morning doing this!) - I'm sending out copies to everyone in reinforced
envelopes these days. It is very time consuming and more expensive doing this but I figure it
helps to get the issue to you in a decent shape it is worth the time and
money. I did
subscribe to the English music monthly MOJO in recent years but when my first
subscriber copy came through the mail in a flimsy plastic bag - all dog eared
and unloved - I cancelled my sub with them and went back to buying it off the
shelf. And I thought I don't want the same thing happening to your copies. I
know a lot of you store your copies carefully and would like to get them in
neat shape. So this should do the trick. Hands up those that leave them down
the back of the sofa with a coffee cup ring on the front cover!?
THIS ISSUE NOW SOLD OUT.
A
recent issue of Transit magazine, number 20,
is
out. It features an extended essay on the interview Jack
Kerouac did with The Paris Review a year before his death. Plus an interview
with Joanne Kyger, poetry from Michael McClure and Barry Gifford, Jim Burns
on William Wantling and a little feature on Anne Waldman's new recording.
Copies are £4 in the UK. If you live in the UK and would like to order,
click the box below.
If you would
like to order a copy of Beat Scene 56 and you live
in the UK- click on the button below
A few of you might know I publish another Beat influenced magazine.
Transit. No 19 is now ready. In fact it is almost sold out. Featuring poetry from David Meltzer, Diane di Prima, Barry Gifford and Jack Foley with an essay on Charles Olson and
Projective Verse. A single issue in the UK is £4 including post. Either by
cheque payable to M.Ring ( I much prefer that) - OR by paypal to the Beat
Scene email address. To the USA it is $12 cash OR by paypal. Europe is 10
Euros OR by paypal - FOR UK only click below.
REMEMBERING JACK KEROUAC
by John Clellon Holmes is number 16 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book
series. 125 numbered copies. Click below for a copy
IN THE UK ONLY (Overseas please email
me).
"1963. On the way to Bolinas we stopped for gas and I borrowed Ginsberg's
camera after taking that photo from backseat of Neal under torn headliner in
his '39 Pontiac." (Charles Plymell from Neal and Anne at Gough Street.)"
A recent issue of my other little Beat Generation magazine, Transit, is out
now. Number 18 is given over to an essay on Gary Snyder. Copies are
£3.50 in the UK. Overseas please ask.
See this link
here for some famous people talking about Jack on a day that marked 50 years of ON THE
ROAD. Though of course we all know that it was published in Heaven years
before that
Beat Scene 53
. Articles include interviews
with both Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones, big stuff on Burroughs, Yugen
magazine, Jack Kerouac & more besides. Copies are £5.95 in the UK.
Overseas please scroll down the page just past this image of Jack Kerouac
left here, JK on the Steve Allen TV show in
1959...Are you nervous Jack? Right, in The Kettle of Fish Bar in NYC,
1957
In
the early 1970s Iain Sinclair and his friends battled their way though the
making of a film about Allen Ginsberg in London and efforts to interview him
and others including William Burroughs. That filming developed into a book -
THE KODAK MANTRA DIARIES. A distinctive spiral bound affair that quickly sold
out. In it Sinclair captured something of the spirit of the times - both for
Ginsberg and for London, not to mention he and his friends. Just before Christmas 2006 I published Iain's book
once again in an expanded edition of 500 copies. 
AND, Beat Scene Press published the fifth in the Beat Scene
Pocket Books series, which is poet and biographer Tom Clark's LETTERS HOME FROM CAMBRIDGE
1963-65. Clark studied in Cambridge, England in that period and his letters
are a snapshot of poetic life in the early 60s. Produced in an edition of 100 signed and numbered copies. Strictly
on a first come first served basis. Copies are £5.95 each including postage
in the UK.
