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2010 in Review: Ginsberg & The Beats

2010 in Review: Ginsberg & The Beats

Author: Edit Team

December 28, 2010

Beats were Bisexual?

This year Allen Ginsbergs parter, Peter Orlovsky died. And with the release of the film, Howl, staring James Franco as Allen Ginsberg, came a slew of new books and reissues centered around The Beats. Edmund White even wrote a wonderful piece for the NYRoB noting, “almost all of the Beats were bisexual and one another’s lovers.” Kerouac and Ginsberg may never go out of style, but 2010 marked more than a nod to these bohemian poets.

JACK KEROUAC AND ALLEN GINSBERG:
The Letters
By Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
Viking Adult, Hardcover, 9780670021949, 528p
July 2010

The first collection of letters between the two leading figures of the Beat movement reveals two artists linked together not only by their shared artistic sensibility but also by a deep and abiding friendship.

Beat Memories

BEAT MEMORIES:
The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
Edited by Sarah Greenough
Prestel Publishing, Hardcover, 9783791350523, 144p
May 2010

A revealing photographic look at the Beat Generation as chronicled by the movement’s great poet Allen Ginsberg.

HOWL:
A Graphic Novel
By Allen Ginsberg, Illustrated by Eric Drooker
Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780062015174, 224p
September 2010

First published in 1956, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl is reissued alongside Eric Drooker’s stills from the feature film. Reviewed by Cathy Camper

THE TYPEWRITER IS HOLY:
The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation
By Bill Morgan
Free Press, Hardcover, 9781416592426, 320p
May 2010

The subtitle says it all.

WHITE HAND SOCIETY:
The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg
By Peter Conners
City Lights Publishers, Paperback, 9780872865358, 312p
Nov 2010

A who’s who of artists, pop culture, and political figures people this story of the life, times, and friendship of two of the most famous, charismatic, and controversial members of America’s counterculture.

ALLEN GINSBERG:
Beat Poet
By Barry Miles
Virgin Books, Paperback, 9780753522523, 640p
Aug 2010

A reissue of the “seminal biography of a counter-cultural icon.”

COLLECTED POEMS 1947-1997
By Allen Ginsberg
Avon, B003V1WSXC
Oct 2010

Ginsberg’s classic collection finally gets the e-treatment and is issued for Kindle.

QUEER:
25th-Anniversary Edition
By William S. Burroughs and Oliver Harris
Penguin (Non-Classics), Paperback, 9780143117834, 208p
Aug 2010

The definitive 25th-anniversay edition of Burroughs’s legendary autobiographical self-portrait and political novel.

THE BEATS:
A Graphic History
By Harvey Pekar, Paul Buhle, and Ed Piskor
Hill and Wang, Paperback, 9780809016495, 208p
April 2010

A collage of and tribute to The Beat generation told by Harvey Pekar, Ed Piskor, and a range of artists and writers, including the feminist comic creator Trina Robbins and the Mad magazine artist Peter Kuper.

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