All this Centennial activity, so a number of items have passed us by, but we wanted to alert you to them, notably gems from our ever-reliable Substack sources, Simon Warner’s Rock and The Beat Generation and David S Wills’ Beatdom
Simon’s recent first-person Kerouac piece takes off from another piece we missed (it was behind a fire-wall) – Joyce Johnson’s recent article in the New Yorker – “What Gets Kept” (“What Jack Kerouac left behind”) – and builds on meditations on one particular object that in the course of her essay, she chances to muse on – Jack’s iconic checked shirt!
David S Wills (acknowledging earlier work on the subject on Rock and The Beat Generation) examines, re-examines the legendary 1965 London (Royal Albert Hall) reading – see here
see also his notes on the late William Burroughs book, Ghost of Chance – here
notes also on two recent Beatdom books, the first, a breakthrough book in Burroughs studies, Thomas Antonic’s – The Three Wives of Queer William Burroughs
Oliver Harris: ““Whatever you thought you knew about Burroughs’ life before he became a published writer, Thomas Antonic will make you think again. And this isn’t just a book of meticulous archival scholarship and great detective work, it’s also an exhilarating journey down the rabbit holes of research itself that shows the reader how it’s done. He has shown the way, let others follow!”
This book, Wills writes, “significantly changes how we look at the life of William S. Burroughs”..”No one -not even his closest friends and most trusted confidantes—appears to have known” (about his secret marriage to a Mexican woman, María Lucrecia Barquera. in 1949). That alone would make this book essential reading but there is much more. There is so much more, in fact, that it is hard to summarise. Nor do I want to give away everything that is in it, for part of the joy of reading this book is that it continuously reveals surprising new information.”
Laudatory reviews on The Three Wives of Queer William Burroughs, and more, can be found – here
Wills writes further and at length – here
Harris’ interview with Antonic for the European Beat Studies Network can be found here
and the second, Marc Olmsted‘s Beat Dharma, “A collection of work that discusses the links between Buddhism and the Beat Generation, with a particular focus on Allen” The book also includes miscellaneous essays, reviews, and poems.
Anne Waldman writes: “A heartfelt memoir and dedicated short study of the Beat writers engaged with Buddhist study and the “fellaheen” worlds of subterranean experience, mysticism and tantra. A useful crossroad in this time when so much of our spiritual yearnings and freedoms are quelled by ignorance and politics”
She goes on: “Olmsted’s field notes will be a useful guide when we’ll need empathy and human compassion to survive the Kali Yuga. And when we’ll know we are not alone. Along with sages of old, are some of the Post-Modern’s “best minds” that have meditated to the other shore. Liberation!
and Roger R Jackson (in the preface to the volume) writes: “Steeped in Beat literature and lore and deeply conversant with the wisdom of Tibetan Vajrayana traditions, poet, filmmaker, and raconteur Marc Olmsted is a perfect guide to the busy intersection where, for the past seventy-five years, Beatdom and Buddhadharma have crossed”.
Allen Ginsberg and Carlos Edmundo de Ory – James Hartley notes an important bond – “Allen Ginsberg at 100 – The Forgotten Friendship with a Spanish poet”
from de Ory’s Wikipedia page:
“Ory’s role in Spain is analogous to that of Allen Ginsberg and the Beat poets in the United States – he opened Spanish poetry up to new possibilities of poetic language and content. In fact, Ginsberg, along with Edith Grossman, translated a volume of Ory’s poetry, though the book never made it into circulation. Ginsberg also dedicated a poem to Ory in his book Cosmopolitan Greetings. For almost six decades Ory has been one of Spain’s most innovative and original writers, publishing numerous works of poetry and criticism.” – See here
More Centennial hommage – Interview magazine reprints, in honor of the 100th birthday, their interview with Gregory Corso (from the December 1989 issue of the magazine) – “Allen Ginsberg on Jack Kerouac, Doing Acid, and the Legacy of Howl”) – here (see also, on the Allen Ginsberg Project – here)
Necrology – We recognize the recent passing of two great, much-loved, much-venerated spirits – the painter, David Hockney and Buddhist scholar, Robert Thurman
David Hockney’s 1989 lecture at Naropa may be listened to – here (and photos from that occasion may be glimpsed – here)
Robert Thurman’s New York Times obituary may be read here See also here, here and elsewhere
We fondly remember them.