Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 358

March 23, 2018Simon Pettet

[“Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his office with pooch, Whitman photo, files, coatracks, bookbags, posters, at City Lights up on balcony, B’way and Columbus Avenues, San Francisco, October 1984.”]

Tomorrow is Lawrence Ferlinghetti‘s 99th birthday. There’ll be more about that tomorrow. Meanwhile, for today…

Lawrence Ferlinghetti interviewed by John McMurtrie in the San Francisco Chronicle – don’t miss it!

[Bai Juyi (772 AD – 846 AD)]

Don’t miss too David S Wills of Beatdom and his fascinating research into Allen’s “great China poem” – “Reading Bai Juyi” – “The Mystery of Allen Ginsberg’s “Reading Bai Juyi”

“It is the final … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 302

February 10, 2017Simon Pettet

jack-kerouac-e-neal-cassady

[Neal Cassady and Jack  Kerouac]

[Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac – The Joan Anderson Letter via Heritage Auctions]

The legendary Joan Anderson letter is back in the news again. “The seminal piece of literature of the Beat Generation”, Neal Cassady’s epic letter to Jack Kerouac, which, for almost sixty years, was thought missing and then was miraculously rediscovered and put up for auction (only to, surprisingly, fail to reach its asking price) is up for auction again.

The auction date is March 8. Bidding begins approximately February 17th (next week). Full details may be found at Heritage … Read More

Allen Ginsberg on Jack Kerouac – 1

March 10, 2014admin

This week (Wednesday) is Jack Kerouac’s birthday. As a warm-up, we present today, a little fugitive item – Allen’s “Letter on Kerouac”. It appeared in the inaugeral (Spring 1970) issue of the magazine Madrugada Dear Barry (Gifford) – Thanks for your kind letter made sense – Someone mentioned reading Desolation Angels (not in paperback yet!) [editorial note – it is now!] and I’ve been thinking about (The) Dharma Bums – those two plus Lonesome Traveller come into focus this decade [the 1970’s] as Gary Snyder also comes into focus. Put all the books side by side and perhaps Vanity of … Read More