#americanwriters

[internatural]

Ray Bradbury, Paris, 1984.

#Photo (c) Sophie Bassouls. Syma Corbis

[ginzyblog]

Jack Kerouac, railroad brakeman’s rule-book in pocket, couch pillows airing on fire-escape  overlooking backyard clotheslines, south view three flights up, my apartment 206 East 7th Street between Ave B and Ave C, Lower East Side Manhattan. He’d completed On The Road,Visions of Cody, Dr.Sax &’d begun Book of Dreams and Pic, was in midst Subterraneans affair with “Mardou Fox”, that novel completed some year along with the romance Maggie Cassidy. Burroughs then in residence edited Yage Letters & Queer Mss. Gregory Corso visited that season. Probably September 1953 (caption and photo: Allen Ginsberg)

Jack Kerouac turns 100 today. HB Jack!

“Few 20th-century authors have shaped the American imagination as much—or inspired so many readers, writers, and musicians—as Kerouac. While Kerouac was never comfortable with being considered the “King of the Beats” (indeed, the success of On the Road pretty much ruined his life), that novel, with its classic themes of freedom, longing, and the search for authenticity, helped crystallize a rebellion against the complacency and prosperity of postwar America. It encouraged people then, and in generations afterwards, to swim against the tide, to do things that weren’t supposed to be done, to seek new experiences.” — Paul Slovak, Executive Editor, Viking Books (via lithub)

[ginzyblog]

Jan Kerouac, Allen’s kitchen, May 1, 1988. (photo: Allen Ginsberg, courtesy Stanford University Libraries/Allen Ginsberg Estate) 

Born in 1952, Jan was the daughter of Joan Haverty & Jack Kerouac (to put in perspective: She was conceived  three months after Jack’s legendary three week session typing the teletype roll manuscript to On The Road). Jan was Jack’s only child,  but the two only ever met twice, the first time when she was 10. She passed away 1996 in Albuquerque,  New Mexico, after struggling with Kidney failure and  5 years of dialysis.  She published three semi-autobiographical novels, Baby Driver: A Story About Myself in 1981, Trainsong in 1988 and posthumously published Parrot Fever in 2000.

#jankerouac #jackkerouac #joanhaverty #ontheroad #beatgeneration #poetry #poets #americanwriters #womenofthebeatgeneration (at East Village)

[ginzyblog]

Allen with William S Burroughs, & Philip Whalen, Naropa Institute’s first season, late spring, 1974, Boulder Colorado.  (Photo by Rachel Homer, courtesy Ginsberg collection / Stanford University Libraries)

#williamsburroughs #allenginsberg #philipwhalen #naropainstitute @naropau @naropaswp #poetrycommunity #writers #americanwriters #rachelhomer (at Boulder, Colorado)/p>

[ginzyblog]

William Burroughs amusing himself with 1953’s recent translation of Saint-John Perse’s VENTS, living room floor 206 East 7th Street New York City, Fall ’53 (photo & caption: Allen Ginsberg)

#williamsburroughs #SaintJohnPerse #frenchpoetry #allenginsberg #beatgeneration #allenginsberg #americanwriters #poetry #poetrycommunity #newyorkcity #1950s #eastvillage #lowereastside #queer #junkie #nakedlunch (at East Village)

[ginzyblog]

Toni Morrison, flanked by Quincy Troupe & and Stanley Diamond’s shoulder, at a benefit for Chinua Achebe, who’d just relocated to the US after a debilitating car accident in Lagos.   Other participants included Bill Moyers, Jayne Cortez, Amiri Baraka, Allen himself, along with Quincy Troupe, and Stanley Diamond.  Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 28, 1990 (photo snapped by Allen, courtesy Stanford University Libraries / Allen Ginsberg Estate)

Toni Morrison was born on this day in 1931 in Lorraine, Ohio, a steel-belt town along the shores of lake Erie. She would have been 90. Happy Birthday Toni! You are greatly missed!   

[ginzyblog]

Joanne Kyger and Gary Snyder married in their little house near Daitoku-ji where they practiced Zen, Kyoto Summer 1963. I stayed with them 6 weeks on way from Benares to Vancouver for Poetry Conference with Olson & Creeley, been gone round the world since 1961. Gary'd been in Japan since 1956. (photo & caption: Allen Ginsberg, courtesy Stanford University Libraries / Allen Ginsberg Estate)

[ginzyblog]

“We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope.”  —  James Baldwin, A Rap on Race, conversation with Margaret Meade on Forgiveness and the Difference Between Guilt and Responsibility (full conversation at brainpickings.org) • James Baldwin, Albion Bookstore, Amherst, MA March 1986. (photo: Allen Ginsberg courtesy Stanford University Libraries/ Allen Ginsberg Estate) #jamesbaldwin #allenginsberg #amherst #literature #queer #gay #poetry #writersofinstagram #giovannisroom #poetrycommunity #photography #americanwriters #writerscommunity #americanliterature (at Amherst, Massachusetts) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBDsi-thfsC/?igshid=17wbpf5mfwz8i