This Is the Beat Generation: New York–San Francisco–Paris

Author:   James Campbell
Publisher:   University of California Press
ISBN:  

9780520230330


Pages:   333
Publication Date:   19 November 2001
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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This Is the Beat Generation: New York–San Francisco–Paris


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Overview

"Beginning in New York in 1944, James Campbell finds the leading members of what was to become the Beat Generation in the shadows of madness and criminality. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs had each seen the insides of a mental hospital and a prison by the age of thirty. A few months after they met, another member of their circle committed a murder that involved Kerouac and Burroughs as material witnesses. This book charts the transformation of these experiences into literature, and a literary movement that spread across the globe. From ""The First Cut-Up""--the murder in New York in 1944--we end up in Paris in 1960 with William Burroughs at the Beat Hotel, experimenting with the technique that made him notorious, what Campbell calls ""The Final Cut-Up."" In between, we move to San Francisco, where Ginsberg gave the first public reading of Howl. We discover Burroughs in Mexico City and Tangiers; the French background to the Beats; the Buddhist influence on Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and others; the ""Muses"" Herbert Huncke and Neal Cassady; the tortuous history of On the Road; and the black ancestry of the white hipster."

Full Product Details

Author:   James Campbell
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780520230330


ISBN 10:   0520230337
Pages:   333
Publication Date:   19 November 2001
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Foreword PART I: I CAN FEEL MYSELF DRIFTING... 1. Crazy wisdom 2. The first cut-ups Behind the beat: Hipikats 3. The muses: Huncke-junkies and Neo-Cassady Behind the beat: Naked Neal 4. The little auto Behind the beat: Neurotica 5. The place of dead roads Behind the beat: The scroll 6. Beat, in black and white Behind the beat: Broyard PART II: ...FURTHER AND FURTHER OUT 7. Sutra on the subway Behind the beat: City Lights 8. You're a Genius all the time Behind the beat: As food as Proust 9. Death to Van Gogh's Ear 10. The birth of the beatnik Behind the beat: as he leaps Updike swing 11. Terminal cut-up Notes index Illustrations

Reviews

Literary biography serves the delightful function of providing its reader with a little lurid gossip, if not a critical history. Thankfully, James Campbell dishes out plenty of both in This Is the Beat Generation, wherein he chronicles one of the most (in)famous literary movements of the twentieth century. This book nicely illustrates, in a tone neither worshipful nor deploring, how resolutely the Beat movement was borne out of friendship, and is often less tiresome than reading actual beat writing. -- Flaunt magazine


"""What is it that imbues the Beats with such a mystical aura of glamour, and causes their lives, as much as their books, to be regarded as sacred texts of a particular school of non-conformism? These are the questions that James Campbell has addressed in this brilliantly sympathetic and compelling analysis of the Beat phenomenon."" * The Guardian * ""The effect of reading this admirable account of the Beats is like looking down the wrong end of a kaleidoscope: the colourful flutter of fun seems a long way off but, if you narrow your eyes, still vivid and vital."" * The Spectator * ""A hugely entertaining history . . . a simply terrific book. Racy, perceptive, and beautifully written. It is an indispensable addition to the library of books already written about the Beat Generation, and the perfect starting point for anyone who has ever wondered what the fuss was all about."" * Literary Review * ""Literary biography serves the delightful function of providing its reader with a little lurid gossip, if not a critical history. Thankfully, James Campbell dishes out plenty of both in This Is the Beat Generation, wherein he chronicles one of the most (in)famous literary movements of the twentieth century. This book nicely illustrates, in a tone neither worshipful nor deploring, how resolutely the Beat movement was borne out of friendship, and is often less tiresome than reading actual beat writing."" * Flaunt * ""The tale is anchored in a set of ideas, rather than merely a suite of personalities. Campbell’s breadth of reference is more deeply historical than is common in this field. He has an agreeable style, as well. . . . Campbell sorts out the story much more coherently, thoughtfully and skillfully than others with the same mission. He writes with genuine sympathy, though he’s not a Beat mythologizer. Nor a Beat debunker, either. He’s a Beat contextualizer."" * Vancouver Sun * ""William S. Burroughs once wrote that the word 'hip' defies definition, 'because, if you don't dig what it means, no one can ever tell you.' He is probably right, but you would certainly have a better idea after reading James Campbell's sharp, dark, and often funny book. . . . Probably the best single book on the subject so far, this really is the Beat Generation."" * Sunday Times *"


William S. Burroughs once wrote that the word 'hip' defies definition, 'because, if you don't dig what it means, no one can ever tell you.' He is probably right, but you would certainly have a better idea after reading James Campbell's sharp, dark, and often funny book. . . . Probably the best single book on the subject so far, this really is the Beat Generation. * Sunday Times * The tale is anchored in a set of ideas, rather than merely a suite of personalities. Campbell's breadth of reference is more deeply historical than is common in this field. He has an agreeable style, as well. . . . Campbell sorts out the story much more coherently, thoughtfully and skillfully than others with the same mission. He writes with genuine sympathy, though he's not a Beat mythologizer. Nor a Beat debunker, either. He's a Beat contextualizer. * Vancouver Sun * Literary biography serves the delightful function of providing its reader with a little lurid gossip, if not a critical history. Thankfully, James Campbell dishes out plenty of both in This Is the Beat Generation, wherein he chronicles one of the most (in)famous literary movements of the twentieth century. This book nicely illustrates, in a tone neither worshipful nor deploring, how resolutely the Beat movement was borne out of friendship, and is often less tiresome than reading actual beat writing. * Flaunt * A hugely entertaining history . . . a simply terrific book. Racy, perceptive, and beautifully written. It is an indispensable addition to the library of books already written about the Beat Generation, and the perfect starting point for anyone who has ever wondered what the fuss was all about. * Literary Review * The effect of reading this admirable account of the Beats is like looking down the wrong end of a kaleidoscope: the colourful flutter of fun seems a long way off but, if you narrow your eyes, still vivid and vital. * The Spectator * What is it that imbues the Beats with such a mystical aura of glamour, and causes their lives, as much as their books, to be regarded as sacred texts of a particular school of non-conformism? These are the questions that James Campbell has addressed in this brilliantly sympathetic and compelling analysis of the Beat phenomenon. * The Guardian *


Author Information

James Campbell is the author of Exiled in Paris: Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett and Others on the Left Bank(1995), Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin (1991), and Invisible Country: A Journey through Scotland (1984). He works for the Times Literary Supplement.

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