The Beats A Graphic History

by Pekar, Harvey; Buhle, Paul; Piskor, Ed

• ISBN13: 9780809016495
• ISBN10: 0809016494
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-13
• Publisher: Hill and Wang

Summary

InThe Beats: A Graphic History, those who were mad to live have come back to life through artwork as vibrant as the Beat movement itself. Told by the comic legend Harvey Pekar, his frequent artistic collaborator Ed Piskor, and a range of artists and writers, including the feminist comic creator Trina Robbins and theMadmagazine artist Peter Kuper,The Beatstakes us on a wild tour of a generation that, in the face of mainstream American conformity and conservatism, became known for its determined uprootedness, aggressive addictions, and startling creativity and experimentation. What began among a small circle of friends in New York and San Francisco during the late 1940s and early 1950s laid the groundwork for a literary explosion, and this striking anthology captures the storied era in all its incarnationsfrom the Benzedrine-fueled antics of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs to the painting sessions of Jay DeFeo's disheveled studio, from the jazz hipsters to the beatnik chicks, from Chicago's College of Complexes to San Francisco's famed City Lights bookstore. Snapshots of lesser-known poets and writers sit alongside frank and compelling looks at the Beats' most recognizable faces. What emerges is a brilliant collage ofand tribute toa generation, in a form and style that is as original as its subject.

Author Biography

Harvey Pekar is best known for his graphic autobiography, American Splendor, based on his long-running comic-book series that was turned into a 2003 film of the same name. Paul Buhle is a senior lecturer at Brown University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
The Beats: Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs	p. 1
Jack Kerouac	p. 3
Allen Ginsberg	p. 51
William S. Burroughs	p. 78
The Beats: Perspectives	p. 95
The San Francisco Poetry Renaissance	p. 97
Michael McClure	p. 102
Philip Whalen	p. 104
Between Rexroth and Gary Snyder in the Bay Area	p. 107
Robert Duncan	p. 110
Lawrence Ferlinghetti	p. 112
Gregory Corso	p. 114
LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka	p. 116
Charles Olson	p. 118
Robert Creeley	p. 120
City Lights and the Beats in San Francisco	p. 122
Kenneth Patchen	p. 132
Lamantia	p. 140
Gary Snyder	p. 148
Diane di Prima	p. 150
The Janitor story and art	p. 154
Beatnik Chicks	p. 160
Jay DeFeo: The Rose	p. 171
Art Beats	p. 175
Jazz and Poetry	p. 177
The Harassment of d.a. levy	p. 179
Tuli Kupferberg	p. 184
About Our Artists and Writers	p. 195
Acknowledgments	p. 199
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