Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 357

Howl & Kaddish & a selection of Allen Ginsberg Interviews (translated into Bengali by Malay Roychoudhury and edited by Utpal Bhattacharjee and published by Kabitirtha)

Allen Ginsberg in India Allen and the Hungryalists (we’ve pointed out this crucial connection before) – Rima Bhattacharya’s “The Common Thread Between The Beats and The Hungryalists“, (the abstract of a PhD thesis), can be read here (from the same site, another doctoral abstract – Marina Reza on The Hungryalists – here). Essential listening on this topic – Jeet Thayil’s  BBC radio documentary (now available on the BBC’s World Service – here). Here‘s a photo-text album of the Hungryalist movement – and here‘s a selection of letters to leading figure, Malay Roychoudhury, including several from Allen, amongst them, this one:

Allen Ginsberg, c/o City Lights, 261 Columbus, SF, Calif.   July 11, 1965

I have been wandering around from Moscow to Havana to Warsaw to Prague & thus didn’t get your letter of Jan 29th, much of which is obsolete by now?

I have gotten so many conflicting letters & gossip from everybody, I actually have no idea who’s doing what to who in India. Is your trial over or not, & what’s what? I’ve done all I can from here.

I went to Cuba, as judge of a poetry contest (and later got kicked out for talking too much). It was a Latin American contest, the judges (as myself) all had to be able to read Spanish. Also they’d published poetry of mine & I had friends there and I had spent years in South America. So I got invited. I’ve been back a week & leave again for San Francisco in 2 days. Then settle down to solitary poesy again. Write me news. I haven’t much time to correspond, tho, except in big emergency.

As ever  Allen.

We should also draw your attention to the special (June 2016) issue of Cafe  Dissensus  that examines the Hungryalist phenomenon –  here 

Buddhism and the Beats – We featured that topic a while back. In fact, we’ve featured the topic on numerous occasions (most recently in our notice on Robert Inchausti’s  Hard To Be A Saint in the City .  Another recent address – David S Wills’ essay in the always-interesting Beatdom “The Intersection of Buddhism and the Beat Generation”,  Like everything in Beatdom, well worth a read.

The Beat Generation and Women – “A Fleeting Moment in A Floating World -Women of the Beat Generation Through Allen Ginsberg’s Eyes”, a comprehensive essay by Katie Oates may be read here

Seeing Star Wars With Ginsberg and Burroughs in Dope Magazine

“About Ginsberg” – Ginsberg celebrations tonight in La Spezia, Italy

One comment

  1. The Book of Chocolate Saints by
    Jeet Thayil

    recently published. It has some comments to make about Ginsberg and his time in India. Just as interesting are the comments about writing and being young …. both are hard work.

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