females from the beat generation.

lightsofnewyork · #1 01-12-2007, 04:09 AM

does anyone like their stuff? and not just joan's either, but people like carolyn cassady and diane diprima?

AngieYawns · #2 01-15-2007, 11:38 PM

whats a good book to start with? I'm interested...

Jean-Paul · #3 01-17-2007, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AngieJohns

whats a good book to start with? I'm interested...

i second this

DirtySkye · #4 01-21-2007, 06:29 PM

memoirs of a beatnik-diane di prima

miss lisa · #5 01-23-2007, 08:02 AM

I loved Joyce Johnson - Minor Characters

BleedingHeart · #6 01-23-2007, 08:06 AM

there's a reason why its hard to find alot of material.......read on.

Women of the Beat Generation
There is typically very little mention of women in a history of the early Beat Generation, and a strong argument can be made that this omission is largely a reflection of the sexism of the time rather than a reflection of the actual state of affairs.

Joan Vollmer (later, Joan Vollmer Adams Burroughs) was clearly there at the beginning of the Beat Generation, and all accounts describe her as a very intelligent and interesting woman. But she did not herself write and publish, and unlike Neal Cassady, no one chose to write a book about her; she has gone down in history as the wife of William S. Burroughs, killed by him in a shooting incident. (This is sometimes termed "accidental" but the actual events allow for multiple interpretations[citation needed], ranging from murder to "assisted suicide".)

Joan is mentioned in 'On the Road', in the chapters regarding the Kerouac and Cassady's visits to see 'Old Bull Lee' (Bill Burroughs) in New Orleans, and is pseudonymed as 'Jane'. She is described paradoxically as a distant woman who was 'never more than 10 feet away from Old Bull' at any given time, giving the impression that she is complex and difficult to get to know.

Gregory Corso insisted that there were many female beats, in particular, he claimed that a young woman he met in mid-1955 (Hope Savage, also called "Sura") introduced Kerouac and Ginsberg to subjects such as Li Po and was in fact their original teacher regarding eastern religion (this claim must be an exaggeration, however: a letter from Kerouac to Ginsberg in 1954 recommended a number of works about Buddhism).

Corso insisted that it was hard for women to get away with a Bohemian existence in that era: they were regarded as crazy, and removed from the scene by force (e.g. by being subjected to electroshock). This is confirmed by Diane di Prima (in a 1978 interview collected in The Beat Vision):

I can't say a lot of really great women writers were ignored in my time, but I can say a lot of potentially great women writers wound up dead or crazy. I think of the women on the Beat scene with me in the early '50s, where are they now? I know Barbara Moraff is a potter and does some writing in Vermont, and that's about all I know. I know some of them ODed and some of them got nuts, and one woman that I was running around the Village with in '53 was killed by her parents putting her in a shock treatment place in Pennsylvania ...
However, a number of female beats have persevered, notably Joyce Johnson (author of Minor Characters); Carolyn Cassady (author of Off the Road); Hettie Jones (author of How I Became Hettie Jones); Joanne Kyger (author of As Ever; Going On; Just Space); Harriet Sohmers Zwerling; and the aforementioned Diane di Prima (author of This Kind of Bird Flies Backward, Memoirs of a Beatnik). Later, other women writers emerged who were strongly influenced by the beats, such as Janine Pommy Vega (published by City Lights) in the 1960s, and Patti Smith in the early 1970s

welshboyrich · #7 01-23-2007, 08:21 AM

i love beat literature

Wildwoman · #8 01-23-2007, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BleedingHeart

Hettie Jones (author of How I Became Hettie Jones

I was taking a poetry class with Hettie Jones the year that book came out.

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