Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 305

March 3, 2017Simon Pettet

ag-kaddish

Hot news from Real Gone Music – reissues of two essential Beat albums (limited editions in vinyl) – Allen’s classic 1966 recording of Kaddish and the Jack Kerouac-Steve Allen‘s recording Poetry For The Beat Generation, (Jack’s debut as a recording artist).

Both are officially due out April 7, but pre-ordering will be available and details will be announced soon.

For further information on both these records – see this comprehensive article –  here 

jack-k-album

& Just out from the Cambridge University Press, and available in paperback – The Cambridge Companion to The Beats – edited by Steve Belletto… Read More

Herbert Huncke Centennial

January 9, 2015admin

[(“Old-timer & survivor, Herbert E Huncke, Beat Literary Pioneer, early decades thief, who introduced Burroughs, Kerouac & me to floating population hustling & drug scene Times Square 1945. From ’48 on, he penned remarkable musings, Collected as autobiographical vignettes, anecdotes & storyteller’s tales in the classic The Evening Sun Turned Crimson (Cherry Valley, 1970) and later Guilty of Everything. Here age 78 in basement back-yard, his apartment East 7th Street, near Avenue D, New York, May 18, 1993)” – (Photograph and Inscription by Allen Ginsberg)]

January 9 1915, the birthday of Herbert Huncke, original Beat – yes, today marks the … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round Up – 139

August 16, 2013Peter Hale

Sometime last Monday, the one millionth page-viewing of The Allen Ginsberg Project took place. Thank you anonymous page-viewer. We sort of like the idea of not knowing who you are. Thank you all our page-viewers, all our visitors, all our regulars (most especially, our “Google Friends” – here’s another request/invite to become a “Google Friend”, if you’re not already one – also, another previously-offered request, don’t be shy in getting back to us on individual posts, using the “Comments” button).

Now, on with our regular “Friday Round Up”.

Well, a relatively quiet one this week. Patti Smith (and collaborator/accompanist, Philip … Read More

Herbert Huncke – American Hipster

August 10, 2013Peter Hale

American Hipster – Hilary Holladay‘s long-awaited biography of the legendary Herbert Huncke – is now out. Holladay, former director of the Kerouac Center for American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (and, in that capacity, long-time co-ordinator of the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac celebrations) now teaches at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Here she is, discussing the book on WAMU (American University radio) with Allison Quantz, (recorded earlier in the year).

She recently (just last month, in fact) gave a presentation of the book in San Francisco, at The Beat Museum. Here‘s their pre-view/over-view.… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 136

July 26, 2013Simon Pettet
[Allen Ginsberg’s old shoes (a pair of sneakers made in then-communist Czechoslovakia) and a letter from Lawrence Ferlinghetti – part of the Allen Ginsberg Archives at Stanford University]

An interesting review/profile/spotlight, coming off Bill Morgan’s recent talk at Stanford, the home of Allen’s Archive – and an enthused response (to that curious thing – the poetry archive) lead off the Friday Round-Up this week.

and we mentioned already Peter Orlovsky’s archives, right?

Pat Nolan’s “The Quantum of Kerouac” in the current Poetry Flash is definitely worth a read.

… Read More

Herbert Huncke (1915-1996)

January 9, 2012admin
Beat aficionados, today is the birthday of Herbert Huncke, “the original Beat”. Comprehensive info’ on him is available here, here and here.
American Hipster, Hilary Holiday’s long-awaited biography is due out this Spring (a brief excerpt from the opening chapter can be read here).
and, for those of you who missed it, there’s a quaint story Jonathan Lethem tells in a recent (October 2011) issue of the New Yorker. “Allen Ginsberg had taken a carton of his collection Planet News and autographed every copy “To Herbert from Allen with love”. He then gave them to Huncke … Read More