Beat Writers
Beat writers (also collectively referred to as part of the "Beat Generation" and "Beatniks") flourished in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. The three major Beat writers were Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac; the three were friends beginning in 1943. This Web page has information on how to find information about the Beats, with an emphasis on the three major writers.
- Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997). Won the National Book Award for Poetry (1974), was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1973; he won their award in 1969), the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres (1993), and many other awards.
Most famous work: Howl and Other Poems (1956). - William S. Burroughs (1914-1977) was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983; he won their award in 1975)
Most famous work: Naked Lunch (1959). - Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) (Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac). American Academy of Arts and Sciences grant (1955). He coined the phrase "Beat Generation."
Most famous work: On the Road (1957).
Books
Check the library catalog SAGE for CSU ownership of books and/or Citation Linker/FindIt (CSU affiliates only) for articles listed in these resources. Take note: the listed titles are located in Reference, Morgan (stacks), or the Moveable Shelves (Reference items do not circulate).
- Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact. PS228.B6 B368 2005 Reference
People, places, events, forms and movements, themes, and contexts. - The Beats: A Documentary Volume. Vol. 237 of Dictionary of Literary Biography. PS221 .D5 Reference
Chronology; primary bibliography; Beats in New York City; in the West; entries (some including interview excerpts) for Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, John Clellon Holmes, and Gary Snyder; books for further reading. - The Beats: Literary Bohemians in Postwar America. Vol. 16 (2 parts, A-L, M-Z) of Dictionary of Literary Biography. PS221 .D5 Reference
Alphabetically arranged entries for over 60 Beat poets and writers. - Contemporary Authors.
The three major Beats have extensive entries that include lists of writings, details about their lives, and extensive bibliographies. Look for other Beats too (for example, the four also found in the Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 237 have entries). - Dictionary of American Slang. (Wentworth). 2nd suppl. ed. PE2846 .W4 1975 c.2 Morgan
See entries under beat, hippy, and hipster for definitions.
Bibliographies
- The Beat Generation: A Bibliographical Teaching Guide. Z1231.B4 L39 1998 Movable Shelves
Approaches to teaching, Beats in general, main three, and others. - The Bohemian Register: An Annotated Bibliography of the Beat Literary Movement. Z1231.B4 H53 1990 Movable Shelves
Chronology, works and critical studies, collections and anthologies, and items by author.
On the Morgan Library shelves (lower level), most books by the three major authors can be found:
(April 2006)
Author Call Number Number of Items (By Author) Items (By Subject & Subdivisions) Jack Kerouac PS3521 .E735 51 76 Allen Ginsberg PS3513 .I74 56 51 William S. Burroughs PS3552 .U75 45 34
Locate videos, testimony, etc. by the authors (or any other author) by doing author searches (last name first) in the library catalog SAGE. Find books about the authors by doing a subject search by name (last name first). Look through subdivisions for specific types of material (e.g. criticism and interpretation, friends and associates, etc.).
The subject headings listed in this section can be used to find books related to the Beat poets in any library catalog which uses Library of Congress Subject Headings, including CSU's SAGE. Do a subject search using the terms below to identify books in SAGE and Prospector (the Colorado Union Catalog). Books may be requested from Prospector by CSU affiliates (establish a PIN in SAGE first). Search the library catalog SAGE for:
Beat generation
Beat generation biography
Beat generation fiction
Beat generation in literatureBeat generation literary collections
Beat generation pictorial works
Beat generation poetry
See also: Finding Literary Criticism in Books.
Indexes--Identify Articles
These databases are found on the "Research Databases" page alphabetically. In these indexes/databases search: "Beat generation" (by subject or keyword) and individual writers.
- MLA Bibliography. (Also search: 1960s, left-wing politics, radicalism)
- Academic Search Premier.
- Humanities International Index .
- Social Sciences Abstracts.
- Art Abstracts.
- Book Review Abstracts.
- Essay and General Literature Index.
- Book Review Index Plus.
See also: Locating Literary Criticism in Journal Articles.
Web
Check the library catalog SAGE for CSU ownership of books and/or Citation Linker/FindIt (CSU affiliates only) for articles listed on the online bibliographies.
The Beat Generation and the Sixties: A Guide to Web Resources. Alan Keig. The University of Adelaide.
Page created to support courses at the University. Annotated links. Extensive.
Bibliography: The Beat Generation. Peter Losin and Michael L. Hall (Spring 2006 instructors of HONR 269J course). University of Maryland.
General Books, Essay Collections, Anthologies, Articles, and Audio Collections.
Sherri's Beat Bibliography. Sherri Hoffman-Hoye. Literary Kicks.
Extensive bibliography. Black background with light yellow text so may be hard to read for some (to change default view in Internet Explorer: Tools menu--> Internet Options; General tab, click Accessibility button and change the settings as needed).
The Beat Page. RookNet.
Information about a number of Beat writers (Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, Diane di Prima, Robert Duncan, William Everson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, John Clellon Holmes, LeRoi Jones, Bob Kaufman, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Philip Lamantia, Denise Levertov, Michael McClure, Frank O'Hara, Peter Orlovsky, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Anne Waldman, Lew Welch, Philip Whalen, and William Carlos Williams)--including photographs (photo gallery has over 150 pictures). CSU owns a copy of the listed top ten Beat books. Biographical information is brief. There are excerpts from the writers' own works.
The American Museum of Beat Art. Alhambra, California.
Biographical information about selected Beat writers & poets. Includes photo(s), birth date, writing excerpt, and bibliography of works. Brief biographical information and one or more selected paintings are shown online for visual artists (Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Marcel Duchamp, Ed Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, Jay Defeo, Wallace Berman, John Altoon, Ed Moses, and Lenore Jaffee). Not all links active.
The Beat Generation Archives. Colin Pringle. Copyright © 1995-2002.
Sites, articles, and reviews (page author provided) of the Beats. Brief annotations for some links. Black background, white letters, links in light blue, so may be difficult for some viewers to see (to change default view in Internet Explorer: Tools menu--> Internet Options; General tab, click Accessibility button and change the settings as needed).
Beat Generation, Author, Poetry & Art Websites. Empty Mirror Books. © copyright 2000-2006.
Links to information about Beat and related writers, festivals, visual arts, ezines, music, etc.
How Beat Happened. Steve Silberman. Copyright © 1995. ("A version of this article first appeared in the SF Weekly.")
Article author "studied at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics with Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs in 1977." Gives overview of the start of Beats; mostly about Ginsberg.
A Cultural Chronology of Early Beat Generation Literature. Larry Smith. Firelands College of BGSU.
Items in the news arranged from 1944-1960. Includes list of eight sources, which is a useful bibliography.
Muses or Maestros? Women of the Beat Generation. Angela D. Baccala. HONR 269J. University of Maryland. © 1997.
Paper on the topic of women Beats. Endnotes and bibliography.
William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg: A Select Bibliography of Works in the UCLA University Library (Contents page). Brian E.C. Schottlaeder & Raymond Soto.
Links to an essay about the two and separate bibliographies of sources, some only found in UCLA's collection. While the one (or very few)-of-a-kind materials will only be available on site, it is interesting to know about their existence.
The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. New York Public Library.
This collection has materials from Beat writers. It includes manuscripts and printed materials. This is FYI, unless one is in New York and can be considered a scholar or researcher. Otherwise, public displays of exhibits (which may or may not be about the Beats) will be the extent of viewing the collection.
Content: Naomi Lederer