Beat Down to Your Soul: What Was the Beat Generation?

I've always admired Charters work concerning the Beats . It's scholarly and entertaining at the same time. Back in the sixties, if you asked an English professor why Beats weren't covered in the textbook ,you'd probably get a sideways look of disdain. If I were teaching a course on American Lit today, this would be mandatory. Some of the source material has been more or less unobtainable which makes this a true goldmine. It always seems like the Beat movement as a literary topic has been pretty much exhausted, but Ms. Charters has proven that not to be true.