Editing Beat Generation (section)

==Significant places==
===Columbia University===
The origins of the Beat Generation can be traced to [[Columbia University]] and the meeting of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Carr, Hal Chase and others. Kerouac attended Columbia on a football scholarship.<ref>Beard, Rick, and Leslie Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village: Culture and Counterculture''. New Brunswick, N.J. Published for the Museum of the City of New York by Rutgers University Press. 167.</ref> Though the beats are usually regarded as anti-academic,<ref>"In this essay "Beat" includes those American poets considered avant-garde or anti-academic from c. 1955 – 1965.", Lee Hudson, "Poetics in Performance: The Beat Generation" collected in ''Studies in interpretation, Volume 2'', ed Esther M. Doyle, Virginia Hastings Floyd, 1977, Rodopi, {{ISBN|90-6203-070-X}}, 9789062030705, p. 59.</ref><ref>"... resistance is bound to occur in bringing into the academy such anti-academic writers as the Beats.", Nancy McCampbell Grace, Ronna Johnson, ''Breaking the rule of cool: interviewing and reading women beat writers'', 2004, Univ. Press of Mississippi, {{ISBN|1-57806-654-9}}, {{ISBN|978-1-57806-654-4}}, p. x.</ref><ref>"The Black Mountain school originated at the sometime Black Mountain College of Asheville, North Carolina, in the 1950s and gave rise to an anti-academic academy that was the center of attraction for many of the disaffiliated writers of the period, including many who were known in other contexts as the Beats or the Beat generation and the San Francisco school." Steven R. Serafin, Alfred Bendixen, ''The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature'', 2005, Continuum International Publishing Group, {{ISBN|0-8264-1777-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8264-1777-0}}, p. 901.</ref> many of their ideas were formed in response to professors like [[Lionel Trilling]] and [[Mark Van Doren]]. Classmates Carr and Ginsberg discussed the need for a "New Vision" (a term borrowed from [[W. B. Yeats]]), to counteract what they perceived as their teachers' conservative, [[Formalism (literature)|formalistic]] literary ideals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Genter |first=Robert |year=2004 |title="I'm Not His Father": Lionel Trilling, Allen Ginsberg, and the Contours of Literary Modernism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25115190 |journal=College Literature |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=22–52|doi=10.1353/lit.2004.0019 |jstor=25115190 |s2cid=171033733 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Curious About Columbia? |url=http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_forum/question_of_the_week/archive_6.html |access-date=August 17, 2022 |website=c250.columbia.edu}}</ref>

===Times Square "underworld"===
Ginsberg was arrested in 1949. The police attempted to stop Jack Melody (a.k.a. "little Jack") while he was driving a car in Queens with Priscella Arminger (alias, Vickie Russell or "Detroit Redhead") and Allen Ginsberg in the back seat.  The car was filled with stolen items Little Jack planned to fence. Jack Melody crashed while trying to flee, rolled the car and the three of them escaped on foot.  Allen Ginsberg lost his glasses in the accident and left incriminating notebooks behind. He was given the option to plead insanity to avoid a jail term and was committed for 90 days to [[Bellevue Hospital]], where he met [[Carl Solomon]].<ref>Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'' (1988), pp. 163–165.</ref>

Solomon was arguably more eccentric than psychotic. A fan of [[Antonin Artaud]], he indulged in self-consciously "crazy" behavior, like throwing potato salad at a college lecturer on [[Dada]]ism. Solomon was given [[Electroconvulsive therapy|shock treatments]] at Bellevue; this became one of the main themes of Ginsberg's "Howl", which was dedicated to Solomon. Solomon later became the publishing contact who agreed to publish Burroughs' first novel, ''[[Junkie (novel)|Junkie]]'', in 1953.<ref>Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'' (1988), pp 205–6.</ref>

===Greenwich Village===
Beat writers and artists flocked to [[Greenwich Village]] in New York City in the late 1950s because of low rent and the "small town" element of the scene. Folksongs, readings and discussions often took place in [[Washington Square Park]].<ref>McDarrah, Fred W., and Gloria S. McDarrah. 1996. ''Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village''. New York: Schirmer Books.</ref> Allen Ginsberg was a big part of the scene in the Village, as was Burroughs, who lived at 69 Bedford Street.<ref name="Beard, Rick 1993">Beard and Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village''. "The Beat Generation in the Village." 165–198.</ref>

Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and other poets frequented many bars in the area, including the [[San Remo Cafe]] at 93 MacDougal Street on the northwest corner of Bleecker, [[Chumley's]], and [[Minetta Tavern]].<ref name="Beard, Rick 1993" /> [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Willem de Kooning]], [[Franz Kline]], and other abstract expressionists were also frequent visitors of and collaborators with the Beats.<ref>Beard and Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village''. "The Beat Generation in the Village." 170.</ref> Cultural critics have written about the transition of Beat culture in the Village into the Bohemian hippie culture of the 1960s.<ref>Beard and Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village''. "The Beat Generation in the Village." 178.</ref>

In 1960, a presidential election year, the Beats formed a political party, the "Beat Party," and held a mock nominating convention to announce a presidential candidate: the African-American street poet [[Big Brown (poet)|Big Brown]], won a majority of votes on the first ballot but fell short of the eventual nomination.<ref name="Austin Statesman">{{cite news |title=Beat Party Nominates Anti-Presidential Choice |date=July 21, 1960}}</ref>  The Associated Press reported, "Big Brown's lead startled the convention. Big, as the husky African American is called by his friends, wasn't the favorite son of any delegation, but he had one tactic that earned him votes. In a chatterbox convention, only once did he speak at length, and that was to read his poetry."<ref name="Amarillo Globe Times">{{cite news |title=Anti-Presidential Nominee Named on 5th Beat Ballot |date=July 21, 1960}}</ref>

===San Francisco and the Six Gallery reading===
{{See also|San Francisco Renaissance}}
Ginsberg had visited Neal and [[Carolyn Cassady]] in [[San Jose, California]] in 1954 and moved to San Francisco in August. He fell in love with [[Peter Orlovsky]] at the end of 1954 and began writing ''Howl''. [[Lawrence Ferlinghetti]], of the new [[City Lights Bookstore]], started to publish the [[City Lights Pocket Poets Series]] in 1955.
[[File:Lawrence Ferlinghetti.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Lawrence Ferlinghetti]]
[[Kenneth Rexroth]]'s apartment became a Friday night literary salon (Ginsberg's mentor [[William Carlos Williams]], an old friend of Rexroth, had given him an introductory letter). When asked by [[Wally Hedrick]]<ref>Jonah Raskin, American Scream: ''Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and the Making of the Beat Generation'': "Wally Hedrick, a painter and veteran of the Korean War, approached Ginsberg in the summer of 1955 and asked him to organize a poetry reading at the Six Gallery... At first, Ginsberg refused. But once he'd written a rough draft of ''[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]'', he changed his 'fucking mind,' as he put it."</ref> To organize the [[Six Gallery reading]], Ginsberg wanted Rexroth to serve as master of ceremonies, in a sense to bridge generations.

[[Philip Lamantia]], [[Michael McClure]], [[Philip Whalen]], Ginsberg and [[Gary Snyder]] read on October 7, 1955, before 100 people (including Kerouac, up from Mexico City). Lamantia read poems of his late friend John Hoffman. At his first public reading, Ginsberg performed the just finished first part of ''Howl''. It was a success and the evening led to many more readings by the now locally famous Six Gallery poets.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wills |first=David S. |date=2015-10-07 |title=Sixty Years After the Six Gallery Reading |url=https://www.beatdom.com/sixty-years-after-the-six-gallery-reading/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Beatdom |language=en-US}}</ref>

It was also a marker of the beginning of the Beat movement since the 1956 publication of ''Howl'' (''City Lights Pocket Poets'', no. 4), and its obscenity trial in 1957 brought it to nationwide attention.<ref>Ginsberg, Allen. ''Howl.'' 1986 critical edition edited by Barry Miles, ''Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography'' {{ISBN|0-06-092611-2}} (pbk.)</ref><ref>McClure, Michael. ''Scratching the Beat Surface: Essays on New Vision from Blake to Kerouac.'' Penguin, 1994. {{ISBN|0-14-023252-4}}.</ref>

The Six Gallery reading informs the second chapter of Kerouac's 1958 novel ''[[The Dharma Bums]],'' whose chief protagonist is "Japhy Ryder", a character who is based on Gary Snyder. Kerouac was impressed with Snyder and they were close for several years. In the spring of 1955, they lived together in Snyder's cabin in [[Mill Valley, California]]. Most Beats were urbanites and they found Snyder almost exotic, with his rural background and wilderness experience, as well as his education in [[cultural anthropology]] and Oriental languages. Lawrence Ferlinghetti called him "the [[Henry David Thoreau|Thoreau]] of the Beat Generation."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Mike |date=2013-11-07 |title=Adaptation And The Environmental Beat: Poet-Activist Gary Snyder Lands In Albuquerque {{!}} Weekly Alibi |url=https://alibi.com/art/adaptation-and-the-environmental-beat-poet-activist-gary-snyder-lands-in-albuquerque/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |language=en-US}}</ref>

As documented in the conclusion of ''The Dharma Bums'', Snyder moved to Japan in 1955, in large measure to intensively practice and study [[Zen|Zen Buddhism]]. He would spend most of the next 10 years there. [[Buddhism]] is one of the primary subjects of ''The Dharma Bums'', and the book undoubtedly helped to popularize Buddhism in the West and remains one of Kerouac's most widely read books.<ref>Bradley J. Stiles, ''Emerson's contemporaries and Kerouac's crowd: a problem of self-location'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8386-3960-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8386-3960-3}}, p. 87: "Although Kerouac did not introduce Eastern religion into American culture, his writings were instrumental in popularizing Buddhism among mainstream intellectuals."</ref>

===Pacific Northwest===
The Beats also spent time in the Northern Pacific Northwest including Washington and Oregon. Kerouac wrote about sojourns to Washington's North Cascades in ''The Dharma Bums'' and ''On the Road''.<ref name="blogspot">{{Cite web|url=http://pacificnwseasons.blogspot.com/2008/09/kayak-camping-on-ross-lake-paddling-in.html|title=Pacific Northwest Seasons: Ross Lake: Paddling in the Path of Beat Poets|date=September 22, 2008|publisher=pacificnwseasons.blogspot.com|access-date=2014-11-30}}</ref>

[[Reed College]] in Portland, Oregon was also a locale for some of the Beat poets. Gary Snyder studied anthropology there, Philip Whalen attended Reed, and [[Allen Ginsberg]] held multiple readings on the campus around 1955 and 1956.<ref name="reed">{{Cite web|url=http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/winter2008/features/the_beats/|title=Reed Magazine: When the Beats Came Back (1/6)|publisher=reed.edu|access-date=2014-11-30}}</ref> [[Gary Snyder]] and [[Philip Whalen]] were students in Reed's calligraphy class taught by [[Lloyd J. Reynolds]].<ref name="reed2">{{Cite web|url=http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOROOT=%2Freedhisttxt&CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=theme&CISOBOX1=Calligraphy&CISOSORT=centeb&#124;f&CISOSTART=1,21|title=Reed Digital Collections : Search Results|publisher=cdm.reed.edu|access-date=2014-11-30}}</ref>