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Beatniks: A Guide to an American Subculture

(Hardback)


Publishing Details

Full Title:

Beatniks: A Guide to an American Subculture

Contributors:

By (Author) Alan Bisbort

ISBN:

9780313365744

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Imprint:

Greenwood Press

Publication Date:

25th November 2009

Country:

United States

Classifications

Readership:

Tertiary Education

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Main Subject:
Dewey:

810.80054

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Hardback

Number of Pages:

212

Dimensions:

Width 156mm, Height 235mm

Weight:

454g

Description

This is a revealing look at the events and personalities that defined the Beat Generation, drawing on over three decades of research. Beatniks: A Guide to an American Subculture gets readers past the caricature of the "beatnik" as a goateed, beret-wearing, bongo-playing poseur, drawing on extensive research to show just how profound an impact the beats had on American culture, politics, and literature. Beatniks conveys the complexity, influences, events, and places that shaped the Beat Generation from the late 1940s to the cusp of the 1960s. The book also features a series of essays on specific aspects of the subculture, as well as interviews with Beat Generation luminaries like Allen Ginsberg, Ann Charters, Roy Harper and Michael McClure. Throughout, readers will meet an extraordinary gallery of people both famousJack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Neal Cassadyand lesser known but no less fascinating, including Kenneth Patchen, Lord Buckley, Mort Sahl, Jack Micheline, Lew Welch, Joan Vollmer Adams, and Lenore Kandel. Also included is a detailed glossary with the origins and meanings of the beat lingo.

Reviews

A historian of American culture and art, Bisbort profiles the first counter-culture generation to be branded by modern marketing. He describes the origins of the beat generation during World War II, how the beats turned into beatniks, the emergence of a beatnik voice, and the spread of the phenomenon from Manhattan to the US and the world. Support material includes a timeline, biographical sketches, a glossary, lists of movies and magazines, and lists of precursors and progeny. * Reference & Research Book News *

Author Bio

Alan Bisbort has worked as a writer and researcher for the Library of Congress since 1992, coauthoring The Nation's Library, the official guide for the Library's bicentennial, and contributing to The Civil War: A Library of Congress Desk Reference and The Library of Congress World War II Companion.

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