Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tl00191)

Dr. A.M.Bain wrote:

> In message <34EE0EFF.3DA9B3C5@sprynet.com>, Bart Lidofsky
> <bartl@sprynet.com> writes
> >    The Beatnik movement started at Columbia University, in New York City,
> >with
> >Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsburg, et al.
>
> Interesting, if off topic slightly :-).  Could you give a time frame?  I was
> a kind of beatnik in London in 1956-8!

    My roommate in my college freshman year (and frequent partner when I was a
professional folksinger) was a major fan of Jack Kerouac, and was authorized by
Kerouac's family to write a biography, so I was kind of immersed by osmosis. In
addition, when Allen Ginsberg did a poetry reading for WKCR, he and I edited it
to make it comply with FCC rules. I had the brilliant idea to backmask all the
dirty words, which worked well until we came to the phrase "cock and c**t." Do
you know what "cock" is, backmasked? "Cock." Sigh.

    In any case, there were a group of friends in New York, centering around a
brilliant young man named Neal Cassady. It included William Burroughs and Allen
Ginsberg, as well. They met in the 1940's, but moved to San Francisco in the
1950's. It was around 1950 that the term "The Beat Generation" was used among
the followers of this group, and it was in 1952 that the term entered the
public.

    Bart Lidofsky