It’s the Anniversary of the mad and inspired 17th Century English poet Christopher Smart (1722-1771) today, a significant influence on Allen and on “Howl” – “Smart West Crazy”
For more on Smart on The Allen Ginsberg Project – see our posting from 2022 on the occasion of the Christopher Smart Tri-Centennial
Bob Kaufman Centennial starts next week (next Thursday) in San Francisco. Celebrations begin with an event at the Live Worms Gallery on Grant Street, featuring Will Alexander (followed by a screening of rare footage). More to follow on Friday and Saturday
David S Wills triumphs (once again!) with another deep dive – this time it’s the remarkable Karena Shields (ever heard of her?) – “Señora in Xbalba – Ginsberg’s Jungle Queen”
Wills quotes from a letter of Allen’s, from January 1954, to Jack Kerouac and Neal and Carolyn Cassady: “I was walking around Palenque and ran into a woman who grew up around here – the edges of the most inaccessible jungle area of South Mexico – who had returned six years ago after various careers in the States, a professional archaeologist whose family had owned the Palenque site so that she knows it inside out..”
Ah, but she was so much more than that!
Matthew Levi Stevens reviews the recently-published Burroughs-Warhol Connection – see here
Marc Olmsted reviews the new (upcoming) Kerouac – Charles Shuttleworth‘s Jack Kerouac – The Buddhist Years – see here – and Nina Živančević reviews it – here
& Simon Warner examines at length Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan. Just when exactly did Dylan first get to read On The Road ? – Warner ponders the question and tries to find out.