F I R S T  W O R D S

Last updated May 11, 2008

To email Beat Scene kev (at) beatscene (dot) freeserve (dot) co (dot) uk

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 now available. Copies in the UK are £5.95. Click below for A UK copy only.      Overseas please send me an email.

I've heard in the past week that Tom Clark suffered a stroke last Autumn. I wondered why I hadn't heard from him in a while. He is a big English football fan like me. He is not well at all and this came as funding for the college he worked at in San Francisco collapsed. It never rains but it pours. Observers will recall Tom's biographies of Olson, Dorn, Kerouac and others and a substantial shelf of his own writing over the years. I wish him a full recovery.

Check out this little trailer for a forthcoming film about Jack Kerouac. ONE FAST MOVE AND I'M GONE http://video.aol.com/video-detail/one-fast-move-or-iand39m-gone-kerouacand39s-big-sur/1057071876

My lovely wife has a friend, Geoff Thompson, he's a writer, lovely man. He invited us to a showing of a film he wrote the screenplay for ROMANS:12:20 and we saw it last night. Being a very lapsed catholic it struck a few chords with me and is a deeply moving film borne out of sad personal experience for the writer. I don't normally post anything other than Beat Generation material here but I wanted to share this with you. Go to http://www.romans1220.com/index1.html

Recently LETTERS TO BEAT SCENE from Charles Bukowski became number 15 in the Pocket Books series. 125 numbered copies. Click below for a copy.

                                                                                   John Fante would have been ninety nine years old last week.

  I've just taken delivery of a box of the new Dan Fante book, KISSED BY A FAT WAITRESS. A lovely USA paperback. If you live in UK or Europe and would like a copy click on the button below. It is £12.95

BEAT SCENE MAGAZINE,

absolutely dedicated to the Beat Generation

We are a site dedicated to the Beat Generation and 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, photos. The magazine has been published since 1988. Which of course makes it now twenty 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. My preference is always for a printed magazine. I'm interested in playing a small part in keeping certain things alive. Issue 55 has gone off to be printed and I'd expect it to be ready in a week. Like No 54 it will disappear quickly, so get your order in now. I also have No 15 in the Beat Scene Pocket Book series ready in a few days and that is £5.95 in the UK.

If you want to know a little more about BEAT SCENE, click on 'about us.' (above right)

On Friday February 15 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 recently 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.

There have been some nice comments from subscribers to Beat Scene in the past week or so, since issue 54 appeared. It is so heartening to read an encouraging letter or email from places around the world. Bless you all. A link to a site that recently posted some lovely supportive sentiments is placed here. The Australian site run by writer Lachlan Jobbins is well worth investigating. http://www.control-edit.com/?p=78

BEAT SCENE 54 OUT NOW. Scroll down a little to buy a copy.

  The latest 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.

Advance orders have snapped up most of the forthcoming issue of Beat Scene, number 54. Only a few left. If you haven't ordered a copy now is the time. For UK only click below. Overseas please email for advice.

Sad to report the passing of ace photographer Fred McDarrah, a man who captured the Beat Generation in New York during the 1950s. Read this review from the New York Times. Above is one of his pictures, Corso, Ginsberg, Burroughs & Maretta Greer in NYC, 1967.

photo by Janie Eisenberg

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/arts/design/08mcdarrah.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Was Charles Bukowski a fan of Hitler? This unlikely scenario is being played out around the run down shell of his former home at De Longpre Avenue, see http://www.laweekly.com/la-vida/a-considerable-town/bukowskis-ruin/17756/?page=1

Longtime Beat Scene subscriber Paul Hillery sent me this Kerouac link. A brilliant few minutes in a troubled world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IU0yHycuz0

The Beat Scene Press has recently published SCENES FROM EAST HILL FARM: SEASONS WITH ALLEN GINSBERG by Gordon Ball.  It is Number 13 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series. An edition of 125 signed and numbered copies. If you would like a copy click on the button below. Copies are £6.95

"(We brought) a return to an older, more personal, but no less rigorous code of ethics, which includes the inviolability of comradeship, the respect for confidences, and an almost mystical regard for courage - all of which are the ethics of the tribe, rather than the community; the code of a small compact group living in an indifferent or a hostile environment, which it seeks not to conquer or change, but only to elude."

John Clellon Holmes, "The Philosophy of the Beat Generation," 1958

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

 http://www.slate.com/id/2173279/nav/tap1

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 ...

All copies of Dan Fante's ARIZONA HIGHWAY was published recently. Thank you the small band of discerning readers who booked a copy.

If you would like a copy - click on the button below

  David Ohle's MUTATE OR DIE: WITH BURROUGHS IN KANSAS was an even more recent chapbook in the series. Get in touch if you would like to book a copy. It is signed and numbered. or click below for a copy.

  OUT NOW....from The Beat Scene Press...JACK KEROUAC AT 681 LEXINGTON AVENUE by Elizabeth Von Vogt, the sister of John Clellon Holmes. The chapbook is a warm memoir of Kerouac in late 1940s New York. It is a signed and numbered edition. Orders being taken now, see the Beat Scene Press page for more information on how to do this.. or you can simply pay into my Paypal at kev (at) beatscene dot freeserve dot net (excuse me putting it like that - it stops those awful spam people getting my email)

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.

You can see images of Ben Woitena's work at http://www.benwoitenasculptor.com/

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 Silva and her husband George Silva. 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.

I have copies of THE KODAK MANTRA DIARIES signed by Iain Sinclair. If you would like one of these they are £10 including post in the UK.

I think the fairly recent 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

Beat Scene Press, in collaboration with Sean Lynch's Ten Point Press in Ireland has published Dan Fante's THE SUPERMARKET (see above) in a handpress limited edition broadside of 100, signed and numbered. Available NOW. I am taking orders. Copies are £10  including post.

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.