Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 574

Unforgettable Allen – and the pioneer, we might argue, of the “selfie” (he took numerous self-portraits, this one, a rare color one, taken February 1997. less than two months before his death)

The European Beat Studies Network (EBSN) is the pre-eminent Beat Studies clearing-house and if you’re not familiar with it you should be – see its web-site – here.

Included on the site (and continuing) are a number of stimulating and provocative articles
We’ve already spotlighted Pedro Casusol‘s illuminating research on Allen-in-Peru – “Visiones Divinas (Divine Visions) – Allen Ginsberg’s Peruvian Trip”
More recently, Dick Ellis addresses the Allen Ginsberg-Andre Breton connection –“Surrealism, Ginsberg, Breton and ‘l’ibis-momie” – some notes” – Ellis convincingly suggests Breton’s Fata Morgana (1941) as a more immediate “intertextual involvement” than “‘L’union libre” (“Free Union)”(1931) – for the full essay – see here

Kerouac-scholar and author of  LuAnne on the road with Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac        Jean-François Duval  we’ve noted here before.  He was interviewed at length in the Swiss journal Le Temps this week – “L’ecriture de Kerouac agit en nous, Elle est contagious, elle nous enfievre” (“Kerouac’s writing acts on us, it is contagious, it makes us feverish” ) – see here

More Kerouac – Jazz Kerouac, J to Z – on BBC’s Radio 3, Jumoké Fashola takes an audio journey celebrating Kerouac’s On the Road.  Simon Warner thoughtfully provides a transcript – here

–  and  another little note on JK

New from David S Wills‘ estimable Beatdom imprint – Thomas Merton, Lawrence Ferlinghetti And The Protection of All Beings. As the publishers note:

“Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and Beat publisher, could hardly seem more different from Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, yet the two men not only respected one another but were friends and collaborators over a period of a decade until Merton’s untimely death.
In this volume, Bill Morgan examines their friendship and shares their correspondence for the first time. He looks into the poetic projects they pursued and details their final meeting, shortly before Merton’s passing, shedding new light on two of the most important writers of the 20th century.”

More Ginsberg news and Beat news next week.