The Beats: A Literary Reference

A rare book countaining a lot of various sources from newspapers reviewing the various writters such as Burroughs, Ginsberg, Corso, Kerouac. Many rare documents are imprinted such as original manuscript, rare pictures as well, cover of books in various languages and many reviews from the time the book has come. Presented in a great 500 pages edition with many cuts to read. This is one of the greatest book on the Beat movement along with many photographs and articles and documents wich are very valuable as for any lovers of the Beats.

I grew up 30 blocks or so from the psychic heart of the Beat Generation . . . same place, same time, but a different world. I found Beat Generation works hard to read, hard to understand, until Matt Theado's excellent reference book. To "get" the Beat Generation you have to understand the world from their point of view. Providing us with a context -- the world through their eyes then -- makes the body of Beat Generation literature a lot more relevant now.

I recieved this book for my birthday without knowing much about the Beats, but that changed quickly. The book details all the major literary players of the era with interviews, letters often supplimented with lithiographed reproductions of the originals so you get to see handwritten & type written pages along with photographs. A really easy book to read that can be picked up casually here and there, but would also be useful for an academic doing research. Hats off the the editor.