Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 662

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) – Varanasi, photo (from the February 1963 series taken by Pete Turner (1934-2017) for Esquire magazine that appeared later that year

Twenty-seven years ago today, in the early hours of the morning, Allen passed away – April 5th – we note the anniversary of his passing. Check out our April 2021 posting with Rosebud Feliu-Pettet‘s definitive account. See also Gelek Rimpoche‘s retrospective account – here

 

Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso c.1980 – photo by Chris Felver

Gregory – remembering Gregory (Corso) (we remembered him a week or so back on the occasion of his birthday). News of a forthcoming Corso recollections book (from Leon Horton) – later this year from Roadside Press –  Gregory Corso – Ten Times A Poet

Author-scholar, Douglas Field points out:   “Composed of memoir, poems, biography, interviews, and literary criticism, Gregory Corso: Ten Times a Poet celebrates and explores the contradictions and brilliance of a misunderstood street bard and visual artist. This fresh appraisal of Corso, which fills in biographical gaps, tells new stories, and appraises his verse, is a reminder that he never stopped being a poet even when his reputation preceded his artistry. As the writers gathered here attest, Corso’s description of poetry as “risked and fevered thinking” belies his mastery of form. His poems were a “refinement of beauty out of a destructive atmosphere,” as Allen Ginsberg put it, in which death, humor, truth, and beauty, love, laugh and brawl.”

The title pays homage to this intriguing little item (from Diane di Prima‘s Poets Press, back in 1968)

see also – here

 

Neeli Cherkovski (1945-2024), 2016 at The Beat Museum – photo by Ria Berman

Neeli Cherkovski, who passed away in San Francisco this past month and who was given a somewhat summary obituary notice in his local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, is properly eulogized in the New York Times by obituary writer, Michael Rosenwald – see here

Notice of an upcoming Neeli Cherkovski – Selected Poems 1959-2022 

Here’s Neeli Cherkovski  on Gregory Corso –

 

 

More obit notices – The great and legendary poet musician and activist, John Sinclair passed away this past Tuesday – see here  – Rest in peace, John

 

and another recent passing – pre-eminent literary critic and scholar in the fields of modern and post-modern poetry and experimentalism and avant-garde aesthetics – Majorie Perloff

Here’s Majorie Perloff on Allen

 

More raves for Material Wealth (they just keep coming!) –  Check out the feature here on Perfect Sound Forever – an intro, book excerpt, and an interview by Pat Thomas with Allen (from back in 1984) (We featured it back here in 2013)

and, speaking of previous posts, we wrote, back in 2022, on a remarkable and forgotten Beat figure Dick McBride.  We’re very pleased to announce that you can now learn more via his new (newly-renovated) website

and further updates, Kenneth Tynan’s “We Dissent” – see here 

 

2 comments

  1. Thank you so much for including my (as editor) forthcoming book, “Gregory Corso: Ten Times a Poet” in your weekly roundup. It means a lot to me, and to Roadside Press. Sharing is caring as they say.

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