The Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Ginsberg, Allen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141399015 ISBN 13: 9780141399010

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2018

Synopsis

A unique history of the Beats, in the words of the movement's most central member, Allen Ginsberg, based on a seminal series of his lectures

In 1977, twenty years after the publication of his landmark poem 'Howl', Allen Ginsberg decided it was time to teach a course on the literary history of the Beat Generation - partly to preserve his own memories of those years. The Best Minds of My Generation presents the best of these candid, intimate and illuminating lectures, revealing Kerouac, Burroughs and the rest of the Beats as Ginsberg knew them: friends, confidantes, literary mentors and fellow visionaries in a group who started a revolution.

'Marvellous ... spellbinding ... preserving intact the story of the literary movement Ginsberg led, promoted and never ceased to embody' The New York Times Book Review

'An awesome exhaustive feat ... fascinatingly readable' Sunday Times

'Astonishingly intimate ... Full of penetrating insight and fascinating literary gossip, the book is a major contribution to the core Beat canon ... situates the Beats in cultural history in a way that no other exploration of their work does' San Francisco Chronicle

About this title

Review:

Praise for The Best Minds of My Generation

"A marvelous feat of editing and reorganization . . . A compact and often spellbinding text, preserving intact the story of the literary movement Ginsberg led, promoted and never ceased to embody . . . Put together by an erudite genius of encyclopedic recall."--New York Times Book Review

"Scholarly, wide-ranging and full of penetrating insight and fascinating literary gossip, the book is a major contribution to the core Beat canon, and provides an astonishingly intimate view of a homegrown American literary movement that would have a generative influence worldwide . . . Best Minds situates the Beats in cultural history in a way that no other exploration of their work does."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Bill Morgan has culled The Best Minds of My Generation from two decades of lectures delivered by Ginsberg, the Beats' chief mouthpiece, lit hustler, chronicler and flamekeeper . . . The Best Minds of My Generation is a reminder that great writing is not always about good taste or approved schools of technique, but engagement, energy and revolt."--Irish Times

"Jack Kerouac may have coined the term Beat Generation, but it was Ginsberg's indefatigable energy that shaped and sustained one of the most significant movements in American literature . . . Morgan, a leading authority on Ginsberg and author of numerous books on the Beat Generation, has done a superb job organizing and editing the material, while preserving the poet's voice and lecture style . . . Essential reading."--Library Journal

"A gold mine for anyone interested in beat literature . . . Ginsberg reads and thinks like a poet; interested in language and style, he abandons narrative to leap from image to image, yoking grandiloquent statements with pungent summations and deadpan remarks. Fans of the period will embrace Ginsberg's raconteur style and insider knowledge about his friends and their achievements."--Publishers Weekly

"Authoritatively edited by Morgan from course material and tapes . . . While many classes were as free-wheeling, digressive, and opinionated as anyone might expect from Ginsberg, most offered close readings, literary background, candid recollections, and cogent analyses, highlighting both craft and literary influence . . . A rich sourcebook for literary historians and fans of the passionate, iconoclastic Beats."--Kirkus Reviews

"A compilation sure to please followers of the Beat Generation's Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and others."--OutClique

About the Author:

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was an American poet, best known for his iconic Howl, one of the most widely read and translated poems of the century, for celebrating his friends of the Beat Generation and for attacking what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States at the time. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was awarded the medal of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and won the National Book Award for The Fall of America.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0141399015
• ISBN 13: 9780141399010
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496
• Editor: Morgan Bill