"Your blasphemous howl still
resounds in a neon desert
where
the human tribe wanders, sentenced to unreality"
Howl
by Allen Ginsberg, Barry Miles
"The epigraph for Howl is from Walt Whitman: "Unscrew
the locks from the doors!/Unscrew the doors themselves from their
jambs!" Announcing his intentions with this ringing motto,
Allen Ginsberg published a volume of poetry which broke so many
social taboos that copies were impounded as obscene, and the publisher,
poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was arrested. The court case that followed
found for Ginsberg and his publisher, and the publicity made both
the poet and the book famous. Ginsberg went on from this beginning
to become a cultural icon of sixties radicalism. This works seminal
place in the culture is indicated in Czeslaw Milosz's poetic tribute
to Ginsberg: "Your blasphemous howl still resounds in a neon
desert where the human tribe wanders, sentenced to unreality".
"Ginsberg's powerful mixture of Blake, Whitman, Pound, and
Williams, to which he added his own volatile, grotesque, and tender
humor, has assured him a memorable place in modern poetry."
Published in 1956 as the title poem of Allen Ginsberg's first collection,
"Howl" is a prophetic masterpiece that overcame censorship
trails to become one of the most widely read poems of the century.
The annotated Howl is the poet's own re-creation of the long process
of composition of a revolutionary poem that broke new ground in
America poetry through its expansive poetic form, tonal range, and
freshness of spirit.
Kaddish
and Other Poems : 1958-1960
by Allen Ginsberg
Great strange visionary poems by the author of Howl, "in the
midst of the broken consciousness of mid-twentieth century . . ."
In the midst of the broken consciousness of mid-twentieth century
suffering anguish of separation from my own body and its natural
infinity of feeling its own self one with all self, I instinctively
seeking to reconstitute that blissful union which I experience so
rarely. I took it to be supernatural an gave it holy Name thus made
hymn laments of longing and litanies of triumphancy of Self over
mind-illusion mechano-universe of un-feeling Time in which I saw
my self my own mother and my very nation trapped desolate our worlds
of consciousness homeless and at war except for the original trembling
of bliss in breast and belly of every body that nakedness rejected
in suits of fear that familiar defenseless living hurt self which
is myself same as all others abandoned scared to own unchanging
desire for each other. These poems almost unconscious to confess
the beatific human fact, the language intuitively chosen as in trance
& dream, the rhythms rising on breath from belly thru breast,
the hymn completed in tears, the movement of the physical poetry
demanding and receiving decades of life while chanting Kaddish the
names of Death in many worlds the self seeking the Key to life found
at last in our self.
Collected
Poems 1947-1980
by Allen Ginsberg
"Tortured by the paranoia and mental illness of his immigrant
mother, and by his own homosexuality in a society that was homophobic,
Allen Ginsberg's early work was as much a measure of his self-loathing
as his detestation of social hypocrisy and injustice. His poems
reached depths of humiliation and shame that presaged a mental breakdown,
followed by recovery with the help of Buddhist philosophy. Ginsberg's
political commitment was fired by his involvement with Jack Kerouac
,Gary Snyder and others in the Beat movement, a poetry of social
protest that refused perceived elitist boundaries. Despite a tendency
toward propaganda, Ginsberg's best poetry is infused with satiric
comedy and cheerful self-parody, and is most readily appreciated
when read aloud."
Spontaneous
Mind: Selected Interviews, 1958-1996
by Allen Ginsberg
"From his conversation with the conservative William F. Buckley
on PBS to his testimony at the Chicago Seven trial to his passionate
riffs on Cezanne, Blake, Whitman, and Pound, the interviews collected
in Spontaneous Mind , chronologically arranged and in some cases
previously unpublished, were conducted throughout Allen Ginsberg's
long career. From the late 1950s to the mid-1990s, Ginsberg speaks
frankly about his life, his work, and major events, allowing us
to hear once again the impassioned voice of one of the most influential
literary and cultural figures of our time." (Amazon Review)
Indian
Journals March 1962-May 1963: Notebooks Diary Blank Pages Writings
by Allen Ginsberg
This collection of diary entries, pieces of poems, personal reflections,
and other notations written by Allen Ginsberg (poet + prophet) reveals
a lot not only about Ginsberg, but about India itself. The conditions
on the streets of Calcutta, Bombay, and other Indian cities are
presented in stark clarity; many of the images he invokes are startling
(like the burning ghats, or burial mounds), and sometimes even disturbing,
but they are always described in a way that is at once personal
and human. Ginsberg frequently writes about different Hindu gods
and goddesses, reflecting his deep interest in and knowledge of
Indian culture. There are a series of photographs that compliment
the written words very well; as opposed to the original printing
of this book, there are several new photographs included. I highly
recommend this book to anyone interested in Allen Ginsberg, the
Beats, Poetry, India, or the human spirit and it's compassionate
nature....
American
Scream : Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation
by Jonah Raskin
When shy, soft-spoken 29-year-old Allen Ginsberg appeared before
an audience at San Francisco’s Six Gallery on the evening of
October 7, 1955, he was virtually unknown, but the unpublished poem
he (with mounting fervor) read would propel him to fame with the
suddenness and inevitability of Byron. By the time of Ginsberg’s
death in 1997, "Howl" had sold 800,00 copies, and the
incendiary, visionary poem is now the subject of Sonoma State professor
Raskin’s thorough, accessible history. The strength of Raskin’s
book is the balance it strikes between the personal drama of the
poem’s composition and reception and the unfolding background
of its historical circumstance. For instance, Raskin sketches the
larger generational tensions "Howl" records against the
young Ginsberg’s personal struggles both with the poetic conservatism
of his father Louis and the narrow liberalism of his Columbia professor
Lionel Trilling. Unlike such misfits as Kerouac and Burroughs, Ginsberg’s
artistic radicalization was slow, deliberate and marked with false
starts and hesitations, a series of titanic struggles toward form
(tempered by worldly ambition) that Raskin records with careful
attention. Another feature of Raskin’s book-which judiciously
uses newly released journals, letters and psychiatric reports-is
his refusal to either worship or pathologize Ginsberg. He reminds
us that "Howl"’s singular achievements-and nearly
universal appeal-are fundamentally human.
The
Fall of America : Poems of These States 1965-1971
by Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg peaks with this volume of wonderful, meditative poetry.
Although many would claim he hit his prime early, circa Howl, The
Fall of America, though not as stylistically dynamic as Howl or
Kaddish, is more meditative, maturely political, and tender. Many
of the poems in this volume are diaphonous reflections on Ginsberg's
American travels, presumably without Kerouac(don't get too excited,
hipsters). His poetic stylings seem to be dream woven, with a touch
of substance induced mania and distinctly Ginsbergian patriotism
thrown in for good measure. The themes of his poems range widely
from a picnic with Einstein at Princeton to a shadowy image of Richard
Nixon peering eerily into the righteous protest of a diverse group
of anti-Vietnam activists, Ginsberg, of course, included. Whereas
Howl and Kaddish are more anthology worthy poems, in contrast to
most of the poems in this volume, The Fall of America is a richly
spirited glimpse of America from a modern Whitman, a true American,
Allen Ginsberg. Aum. Aum. Aum. shanti shanti shanti...
Deliberate
Prose : Selected Essays 1952-1995
by Allen Ginsberg
"Whether criticizing the American government, protesting the
war in Vietnam, or denouncing capitalism, Ginsberg gave voice to
the moral conscience of the nation.His personal essays on Jean Genet,
Andy Warhol, Philip Glass, and others, give us compelling portraits
of his fellow artists. And his views on poetry, free speech, Buddhism,
and the Beats reflect the concerns of the postwar American culture
he helped shape.
Provocative, playful, eloquent, and of the moment, these essays
offer a social history of modern America that remind us of the events
and issues that preoccupied the minds of a nation -- and one of
its most influential citizens -- in the postwar years." (Amazon
Review)
Death
& Fame : Last Poems 1993-1997
by Allen Ginsberg
"Allen Ginsberg was one of the bravest and most admired poets
of this century. Famous for energizing the Beat Generation literary
movement upon his historic encounter with Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac,
and William Burroughs in mid-century New York City, Ginsberg influenced
several generations of writers, musicians, and poets. When he died
on April 5, 1997, we lost one of the greatest figures of twentieth-century
American literary and cultural history. This singular volume of
final poems commemorated the anniversary of Ginsberg's death, and
includes the verses he wrote in the years shortly before he died."
(Amazon Review)
Screaming
With Joy: The Life of Allen Ginsberg
by Graham Caveney
"The first fully illustrated tribute to Allen Ginsberg--the
best-known American poet of the post-war generation, mother of the
Beats, and walking embodiment of Western counterculture.
Ginsberg's poetry, influenced by the writings of Walt Whitman and
the spontaneous prose of his friend Jack Kerouac, is open, forthright,
didactic, and written fast without revision. Much of his writing
has a raw, confessional quality appropriate to his roles as one
of the first gay spokespeople and a leading anti-Vietnam War activist.
From the publication of his first book, Howl and Other Poems , in
1956, Ginsberg became known as the champion of counterculture concerns:
sexual freedom, pacifism, drug experimentation, opposition to censorship
and authority, and acceptance of Eastern religions. The youngest
of the Beat writers, Ginsberg was a lover to both William Burroughs
and Kerouac and acted as the prophet and public face of the group--serving
as Kerouac's unofficial agent for On the Road and helping Burroughs
bring The Naked Lunch to the attention of publishers.
Screaming with Joy , overflowing with more than 150 photographs
and illustrations, is a passionate documentary of Ginsberg's zealous
life. His untimely death in 1997 silenced a voice that expanded
the capacity of our language, and his cultural icon status makes
his work and life of even greater interest today." (Amazon
Review)
MICHAEL
MCCLURE
1932-
Once he
begins stripping away the layers of human skin and exposes his
truer self,
hard
and raw, raw and vulnerable, you no longer are listening to
music, but are moving through poetry.
Touching
the Edge
by Michael Mcclure
"Beat poets McClure and [others] caused a great seismic
shift in literature with their fresh and liberated approaches
to language and focus on the chimerical workings of the mind.
Their meditative perspectives led not only to revolutionary
poetry but to sustained and beautifully articulated Buddhist
practices. In his new collection, McClure presents a series
of dharma devotions -- lithely observant and gently philosophical
musings -- that flow down the center of elongated pages like
brooks, tree trunks, reeds, or the brush strokes of calligraphy.
As the reader's eyes slide happily down these wavy word columns,
joyful images of the natural world -- hummingbirds and raccoons,
honeysuckles and waterfalls, fog and stone -- open like flowers
in the verdant field of McClure's sweetly bemused commentary
on our wayward nature. Delicate as his poems are, they nevertheless
pack a punch, powered by the tension of dualities and charged
with agile leaps of thought."
_Touching the Edge_ does a beautiful job of reminding today's
readers why and how Buddhism spoke to the original Beat generation
-- and continues to speak to its heirs.
Acorn
Alone: A Story for Children
by Michael Robert McClure, Nancee Jean McClure (Illustrator)
An engaging story for children who sometimes feel alone, and
an allegory of the cycles of life and death.
The forest in which an acorn lives is cut down and he is swept
away by floods, until in the spring he is reborn as part of
a new forest.
Michael
McClure
by Rod Phillips
Michael McClure's artistic career began as one of the poets
at the famous Six Gallery reading in 1955 with other Beat poets
like Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder (Jack Kerouac was in the
audience). Since then, over the last 50 years, Michael McClure
has gone on to write poetry, plays, and polemics--and he's made
music with Janis Joplin and Ray Mazarek of the Doors. A true
artist!
The author of this study, Rod Phillips, is a university professor,
who has written another book on the Beats as proto-environmentalists
that I've also read and found very convincing (I teach college
as well). In this latest effort, Phillips locates McClure in
several literary, philosophical and scientific traditions, including,
to use McClure's own term, "mammalian" tradition.
Moreover, Phillips does an excellent job creating a sense of
the effect upheavals like the Vietnam War had on McClure's work
and what he in turn did to influence the art and politics of
the day.
Rain
Mirror: New Poems
by Michael McClure
In McClures latest, two long poems (Haiku Edge and Crisis Blossom)
comprise one surprisingly unified volume that succeeds in conveying
both the rhythms and the terrors of ordinary life. McClure has
a profoundly Eastern consciousness and displays a Zen-like affinity
for simplicity and white space, a proclivity reflected most
obviously in the visual arrangement of his verse into short
lines centered on the page and having a sharp vertical thrust.
Haiku Edge, a seemingly random construction of haiku, portrays
the disparate elements and experiences of life in McClures hometown
of Oakland (Calif.). Although the pieces all display the impressionism
and narrative restraint typical of the haiku form (MAROON /
suitcase / by / a / garbage can. / My / white / breath / in
/ air.), taken together they form a kind of mosaic of the daily
world, at once sharply patterned and unobtrusive. Crisis Blossom,
written in very similar style, nevertheless presents almost
a mirror image of the world of Haiku Edge. Its a sharply interior
collection of three works written in the aftermath of an airplane
crash that nearly caused the authors death. Narrating the experience
from the unexamined peace of take-off (Smell of greasy food
/ in the airport) to the final peace of recovery (SPRING BEAUTY
/ THANKSGIVING / THANKS GIVING / GIVING THANKS), the poetry
follows a familiar Dante-esque route from tragedy to rebirth.
Gasoline
by Gregory Corso
Of all the Beat poets, Gregory Corso is said to have been the
one to fully show what the Beat Spirit was through his poetry.
His poems are entertaining, thought-provoking, and memorable.
His visual imagery is astounding - the details he provides in
these short poems will blow you away. Corso is rarely given
the proper credit he deserves. His poetry is amazing, and if
you pick up this book, you'll see why. This book is probably
the best collection of poems he has, and two of his best poems
appear in this book, "I am 25" and "The Mad Yak."
Elegiac
Feelings American.
by Gregory Corso
Corso in this book writes in a clear, concise language, a rabid
indictment of alot of America. He is written off as one of many:
standing in the line of poets behind Ginsberg and Kerouac BUT,
at least technically, probably either equals or surpasses them.
This was the book that allowed me to see mid-twentieth century
American poetry okay (in high school) when I wanted to write
it off as a bunch of wasted filth. I've since come around to
a lot more of it.... ;)
Definatley read this book if you have the oppurtunity. Well
worth your effort.....
An
Accidental Autobiography: The Selected Letters
by Patti Smith (Foreword), Gregory Corso, Bill Morgan
This book fills in great holes in Corso's biography. Not only
do we get an account of major periods of his adulthood, but
for the first time his childhood is explored. The letter to
his father is especially revealing. A major biography still
needs to be done of this poet, among America's most important
poets, and almost certainly the most important surrealist poet
America has produced. It is especially interesting to see earlier
drafts of now famous poems. The drafts are not nearly as good
as the finished works, which to my mind proves that Corso was
a conscious artist, and not the naif that he is often portrayed.
Corso said the most important part of writing a poem was the
editing. This voluminous group of letters probably gives first
drafts of something like eighty poems. They are nowhere close
to the hard sharp brilliance of the finished works. This book
is indispensable to anyone who likes Corso's poems. It offers
a very revealing insight into the biographical background.
Collected
Poems of William Carlos Williams: 1909-1939, Vol. 1
by William Carlos Williams ,A. Walton Litz ,Christoph Macgowan
This first volume of a projected two-volume set contains all
the published poems written from 1909 to 1939, a year that Williams
saw as a turning point leading to greater experimentation. Nearly
100 poems not found in Collected Earlier Poems or Collected
Later Poems are included. Poems appear in chronological order
Williams himself grouped poems thematically in the earlier collections
and extensive annotations include early versions of poems modified
later, significant textual variants, and background information.
Collected
Poems of William Carlos Williams, 1939-1962, Vol. 2
by William Carlos Williams ,Christopher MacGowan
The second volume of The Collected Poems contains The Wedge
(1944), The Clouds (1948), The Pink Church (1949), The Desert
Music (1954), Journey to Love (1955), and the Pulitzer prize-winning
Pictures from Brueghel (1962), plus uncollected poems grouped
chronologically between the titled works. Appendixes include
"A Note on the Text," "Annotations," "Tables
of Contents for The Broken Span, Selected Poems, and Collected
Later Poems ," and two translations from And Spain Sings.
Indexes of titles and first lines for volumes 1 ( LJ 10/1/86)
and 2 are included. An excellently edited volume of a major
American poet.
Autobiography
of William Carlos Williams
by W. C. Williams
This autobiography will be recognised 100 years from now as
the key to understanding the genius of Williams. He is the preeminent
figure in 20th Century American Literature and will inevitably
be recognized as such.
Tropic
of Cancer
by Henry Miller
No punches are pulled in Henry Miller's most famous work. Still
pretty rough going for even our jaded sensibilities, but Tropic
of Cancer is an unforgettable novel of self-confession. Maybe
the most honest book ever written, this autobiographical fiction
about Miller's life as an expatriate American in Paris was deemed
obscene and banned from publication in this country for years.
When you read this, you see immediately how much modern writers
owe Miller.
Autobiographical novel by Henry Miller, published in France
in 1934 and, because of censorship, not published in the United
States until 1961. Written in the tradition of Walt Whitman
and Henry David Thoreau, it is a monologue about Miller's picaresque
life as an impoverished expatriate in France in the early 1930s.
The book benefited from favorable early critical response and
gained popular notoriety later as a result of obscenity trials.
Containing little plot on narrative, Tropic of Cancer is made
up of anecdotes, philosophizing, and rambling celebrations of
life. Despite his poverty, Miller extols his manner of living,
unfettered as it is by moral and social conventions. He lives
largely off the resources of his friends. In exuberant and sometimes
preposterous passages of unusual sexual frankness, he chronicles
numerous encounters with women, including his mysterious wife
Mona, as he pursues a fascination with female sexuality. Tropic
of Cancer was the first of an autobiographical trilogy, followed
by Black Spring (1936) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939).
Tropic
of Capricorn
by Henry Miller
"Capricorn" blew my mind and turned me on to a realm
of writing and chronicling of personal experience that influenced
me more than any other work of literature I have ever read.
This book is a comic (and cosmic) masterpiece on many levels.
It is also a vicious social commentary of the times and culture
(the 1920's in New York City). More than anything, it is a vibrant
work of literature, a lusty and no-holds-barred celebration
of the human spirit with all its faults and foibles.
Sexus
(Rosy Crucifixion, Book One)
by Henry Miller
In this book Henry Miller emerges as a writer, genius, poet,
catalyst, comic, contradiction, devil, and ultimately an enigma,
defying all categorization. In my estimation Sexus is the work
of genius... I couldn't help but marvel as Henry Miller took
me on a literary roller-coaster ride that was at turns a thriller;
tragedy; was ribald and outrageous; pious; disgusted me; inspired;
and finally an awakening. When I first read this book it made
me aware as the myriad of possibilities that life offers the
brave few that are willing to follow their dreams unflinchingly,
and without apology. What makes this book unique to me is its
breadth, and its masterful treatment of the many ridiculous
scenarios Henry Miller constructs; full of contradictions; hilarious
characterizations; brutal honesty; and a rawness of spirit that
is rarely captured so eloquently in print. It's not for everyone,
it's often a tough read, and can be quite crude, but if you
can hold on to the book through all the razor sharp twists and
turns I think it's worth the ride.
Plexus
(Rosy Crucifixion, Book 2)
by Henry Miller
Perhaps the following quotes from Plexus will help to convey
something of the insight that can be found throughout Henry
Miller's writing - "The moment one gives close attention
to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious,
awesome, indescribably magnified world in itself." AND
- "It isn't age which makes us wise. Nor even experience,
as people pretend. It's the quickness of the sprit." AND
- "There are only two classes in this world -- and in every
world-- the quick and the dead. For those who cultivate the
spirit nothing is impossible. For the others, everything is
impossible, or incredible, or futile." AND - "...
if one is at all intelligent and sensitive, one naturally ends
up in the world of art."
Nexus
(Rosy Crucifixion, Book 3)
by Henry Miller
This work is unbelievably striking and poignant. Perhaps it
is how human every aspect of this book is (down even to the
flaws), it writhes and rears its head like the humanity that
created it. Miller is, beyond anything, a man that is mired
in the mass that constitutes this humanity and, from that vantage
point, is a writer that creates pure genius.
Even though the book is loosely based around his tumultuous
years with his wife (referred to as Mona in this trilogy) before
leaving for Paris, the reader gets far more than that. Miller
uses this concrete platform to churn out ideas on most anything
else in existence. His writing is lucid, thought-provoking,
and intelligent here, some of the best he has ever created.
Overall, a fantastic summation of the points articulated throughout
the Rosy Crucifixion and Miller's own life. This is an absolutely
amazing writer at his best, not to be missed!
ANAIS
NIN
1903-1977
Anais
Nin Website
"There were always in me, two women
at least,
one woman desperate and bewildered,
who felt she was drowning and another who
would leap into a scene, as upon a stage,
conceal her true emotions because they
were weaknesses, helplessness, despair,
and present to the world only a smile,
an eagerness, curiosity, enthusiasm, interest."
Henry
and June: From "A Journal of Love" (1931-1932)
by Anais Nin
The text in Henry & June is taken from her journals
between October 1931 to October 1932. It is quite amazing
how her feelings change over one year.
This "Diary" is really about an interesting and
intelligent woman who tries to find what is missing in her
life and explores her deepest desires with a man of equal
intellect. This almost throws her into a state of insanity
and she must seek help to survive her inner torment.
The insights into her torrid affair with Henry Miller are
fascinating. As in her fiction, she displays a knack for
tasteful eroticism. She disarmingly admits to her propensity
for embellishing reality. Anais Nin is narcissistic, but
who could not be fascinated by a woman of such candor, talent,
and complexity?
This
is not Anais--I found this and found it apropo.-LH-
Delta
of Venus
by Anais Nin
In Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin penned a lush, magical
world where the characters of her imagination possess the
most universal of desires and exceptional of talents. Among
these provocative stories, a Hungarian adventurer seduces
wealthy women then vanishes with their money; a veiled woman
selects strangers from a chic restaurant for private trysts;
and a Parisian hatmaker named Mathilde leaves her husband
for the opium dens of Peru. Delta of Venus is an extraordinarily
rich and exotic collection from the master of erotic writing.
The
Diary of Anais Nin: Vol. 1 (1931-1934)
by Anais Nin
After decades of producing fiction that was rejected by
mainstream readership and reviewers for being self-centered,
exotic in prose, filled with psychological theory, and coterie
in style, Anais finally found acceptance by integrating
all of the above in this published version of her diary.
Timing is everything, I suppose. The world of the 1930s-50s
simply was not ready for her. The Aquarian generation of
the 1960s was. When originally published this volume did
not have a number in the title because no one thought it
would sell enough to warrant a second volume. To the surprise
of many, it would become the first in seven volumes - and
then over 20 years later the unexpurgated versions of her
diaries would be published, revealing that Anais was at
the time having an affair with Henry Miller. Eventually
this material would be fashioned into the movie "Henry
and June" (which I highly recommend). It would also
pave the way for the re-issue of many of Anais Nin's long
since out-of-print earlier fiction.
Little
Birds
by Anais Nin
Anaïs Nin explores passion in all its forms, from two
strangers on a moonlit Normandy beach to a woman's sudden
fulfillment at a public hanging. Evocative, compelling,
superbly erotic, Little Birds is a powerful journey into
the mysterious world of sex and sensuality.
Evocative and superbly erotic, Little Birds is a powerful
journey into the mysterious world of sex and sensuality.
From the beach towns of Normandy to the streets of New Orleans,
these thirteen vignettes introduce us to a covetous French
painter, a sleepless wanderer of the night, a guitar-playing
gypsy, and a host of others who yearn for and dive into
the turbulent depths of romantic experience.
Fire:
From "A Journal of Love" The Diary of Anaïs
Nin, 1934-1937
by Anaïs Nin
In this provocative and provoking uncensored diaries finds
our madly scribbling femme fatale in New York, where she's
gone to get away from her doggedly loyal husband and from
adored lover Henry Miller and indulge her fancy for analyst
Otto Rank. Once again, Nin is blithely honest about her
profound dishonesty, admitting that she loves telling "marvelous
lies" to the men who desire her. She tires of Rank
just as Miller and her husband catch up with her, then,
suddenly, enters a whole new realm of potent romance with
a fiery man of Inca descent, Gonzalo More. More, a man of
conscience and lyrical intensity, inspires Nin to new poetic
and mystical heights. These unexpurgated volumes are of
particular interest to readers of the original published
versions because they fill in so many puzzling omissions,
but they are also remarkable for their audacity and prolificity.
Just one page of Nin's extraordinary diaries contains more
sex, melodrama, fantasies, confessions, and observations
than most novels, and reflects much about the human psyche
we strive to repress.
Anais
: The Erotic Life of Anais Nin
by Noel Riley Fitch "
Anais Nin (1903-1977) projected the image of a free woman
designing her own life and world into something beautiful,
but the multiple selves of her diaries, in Fitch's estimate,
are fictive constructs. Tapping hundreds of interviews,
library archives and Nin's unpublished erotica and fiction,
Fitch ( Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation ) convincingly
portrays Nin as a complex, neurotic artist, alienated from
her own anger and pain, who worked out her neuroses through
her art. She traces the psychological damage inflicted by
Nin's father, who photographed her nude, beat her and seduced
her in childhood, then seduced her again in 1933. Fitch
ably reconstructs Nin's simultaneous romantic involvement
with Henry and June Miller in Paris, and her bicoastal,
bigamous life divided between Hugh Guiler in New York and
Rupert Pole in California. Written in the present tense,
a risky device that wears thin, and occasionally marred
by rose-tinted Nin-like prose, this remarkably intimate,
hypnotic, probing portrait nevertheless helps explain the
charismatic power and abiding appeal of Nin.
Junky:
The Definitive Text of "Junk"
by William S. Burroughs, Oliver Harris
"Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch, an unknown
William S. Burroughs wrote Junk, his first book, a candid,
eyewitness account of times and places that are now long
gone. This book brings them vividly to life again; it is
an unvarnished field report from the American postwar underground.
For this definitive 50th-anniversary edition, eminent Burroughs
scholar Oliver Harris has painstakingly re-created the author's
original text, word by word, from archival typescripts.
Here for the first time are Burroughs's own unpublished
Introduction and an entire omitted chapter, along with many
"lost" passages and auxiliary texts by Allen Ginsberg
and others. Harris's comprehensive Introduction reveals
the composition history of Junk's text and places its contents
against a lively historical background." (Amazon Review)
Naked
Lunch
by William S. Burroughs
"He was," as Salon's Gary Kamyia notes, "20th-century
drug culture's Poe, its Artaud, its Baudelaire. He was the
prophet of the literature of pure experience, a phenomenologist
of dread.... Burroughs had the scary genius to turn the
junk wasteland into a parallel universe, one as thoroughly
and obsessively rendered as Blake's."
Why has this homosexual ex-junkie, whose claim to fame rests
entirely on one book--the hallucinogenic ravings of a heroine
addict--so seized the collective imagination? Burroughs
wrote Naked Lunch in a Tangier, Morocco, hotel room between
1954 and 1957. Allen Ginsberg and his beatnik cronies burst
onto the scene, rescued the manuscript from the food-encrusted
floor, and introduced some order to the pages. It was published
in Paris in 1959 by the notorious Olympia Press and in the
U.S. in 1962; the landmark obscenity trial that ensued served
to end literary censorship in America.
Burroughs's literary experiment--the much-touted "cut-up"
technique--mirrored the workings of a junkie's brain. But
it was junk coupled with vision: Burroughs makes teeming
amalgam of allegory, sci-fi, and non-linear narration, all
wrapped in a blend of humor--slapstick, Swiftian, slang-infested
humor. What is Naked Lunch about? People turn into blobs
amidst the sort of evil that R. Crumb, in the decades to
come, would inimitably flesh out with his dark and creepy
cartoon images. Perhaps the most easily grasped part of
Naked Lunch is its America-bashing, replete with slang and
vitriol. Read it and see for yourself." (Amazon Review)
Speed/Kentucky
Ham: Two Novels
by William S., Jr. Burroughs
"This book touches you especially if you have had an
addiction to anything like drugs. William Jr can make you
laugh and weep in the same chapter. These books leave you
with a profound sadness but they stay with you even after
you are done reading them. The thing is you are never done
because I have returned to them over and over again. This
is an honest look into the world of addiction. It's not
a pretty picture but it is not a preachy book on the "
evils " of drugs. It just describes the author's experience
with speed. A terrific read. I know it will touch you as
it has touched me. It is a shame that William Jr left us
so early." (Amazon Review)
Burroughs
Live: The Collected Interview of Wiliam S. Burroughs, 1960-1997
(Double Agents) by William S. Burroughs,
Sylvre Lotringer (Editor), Sylvere Lotringer
"For a man who hated interviews, William Burroughs
(1914-1997) ended up doing quite a few of them over 30-plus
years, appearing in print everywhere from Mademoiselle to
Semiotext(e). Gathered for the first time in Burroughs Live:
The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, edited
and annotated by Sylvere Lotringer, the 99 pieces begin
with the fictional interviews that Burroughs wrote himself,
elaborating his hallmark junkie personae, and ending on
a conversation with Allen Ginsberg about Burroughs's exorcism.
In betweem, the writer discusses interplanetary invasions,
morphine addiction treatments, the influence of Rimbaud
and Celine, his three lines of defence against criminals
(a mace gun, a cobra, and a cane) and more."
A
Burroughs Compendium: Calling the Toads
by Allen Ginsberg, Lee Ranaldo, Ron Whitehead
"The ultimate compendium of previously unpublished
interviews, memories and messages on William Burroughs by
some of the people that knew him best. most of these pieces
relate to his later years up to his death in 1997.
This is a compelling, inspiring read that provides an insight
into numerous aspects of Burroughs' exploits and thoughts
in later life. The book also includes some rare photographs
of Burroughs by Allen Ginsberg, Beat photographer extraordinaire
Chris Felver, Lee Ranaldo, John Blumb and Mellon Tytell
amongst others.
This book is a treasure not to be missed and represents
an outstanding addition to the deep reservoir of works on
one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the
20th Century." (Amazon Review)
The
Burroughs File
by William S. Burroughs
This installment to the W.S. Burroughs library is a good
one. It's full of interesting anecdotes, general thoughts,
bits of conversations, and the classic Burroughs cut-up
style prose. This book contains not only these things, but
some original pages out of Burroughs' personal cut-up notebooks.
These pages contain pictures from his travels abroad, newspaper
clippings, and referrences to characters in his novels.
This is a nice compilation of short works from foreign press
publications, but it merely lacks one element, and that
is "purpose". Burroughs did not write this book
as he did his others to prove a point, or to introduce a
new thought into the mainstream of our collective psyche.
In fact, this book was produced as sort of a "Greatest
Hits" compilation.
