Beat Scene
Encyclopedia
Beat Scene is a UK-based magazine dedicated to the work, the history and the cultural influences of the Beat Generation
. As well the best known and more obscure Beat novelists and poets this has included artists, musicians filmmakers and publishers. The content largely consists of articles, memoirs, interviews and reviews.
Beat Scene was founded in 1988 by editor and publisher Kevin Ring in Coventry
, England. His personal fascination for the Beat Generation, in particular Jack Kerouac
, was sparked in 1971, but he was frustrated that information about Beat writers and their books was hard to come by in the UK at that time.
Ring and Beat Scene are acknowledged sources in James Campbell's book, This Is the Beat Generation: New York–San Francisco-Paris. (2001).
As well as the principal Beat writers: Kerouac, William S. Burroughs
, Allen Ginsberg
and Gary Snyder
, the magazine has featured Lord Buckley
, James Jones
, Chet Baker
, Richard Brautigan
, Lew Welch
, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
, Lenny Bruce
, Ken Kesey
, Jack Hirschman
, Raymond Carver
, Robert Frank
, Gregory Corso
, Diane Di Prima
, Jack Micheline
and Carolyn Cassady
(who was the first of the magazine’s interview subjects). The poet and Kerouac biographer Tom Clark
has contributed to the magazine but was also interviewed by Ring.
Charles Bukowski
was frequently mentioned in the early issues and when issue 9 was in preparation Ring received an unsolicited letter from the Los Angeles based poet and novelist along with a parcel of previously unpublished poems. These were offered for publication at the magazine’s usual rate, which at the time amounted to a few complimentary copies. Over the years Bukowski continued to contribute poems to the magazine and issue 12 included a flexi-disc of him reading. Bukowski was interviewed by Ring for Beat Scene and its sister magazine, Transit. After Bukowski died in 1994 Ring compiled a memorial issue. There was another special issue in 2004, to mark the tenth anniversary of Bukowski's death.
, Anne Waldman
, David Meltzer
, Jay Jeff Jones, David Amram
, Jack Foley, Jed Birmingham and Ron Whitehead.
In December 2006, a special, unnumbered issue was devoted to a new edition of Iain Sinclair's Kodak Mantra Diaries, which included new material and recently discovered period photos.
Alongside the magazine, Ring operates The Beat Scene Press http://www.beatscene.net/latest.asp, which specialises in publishing classic Beat interviews or new, longer articles on Beat culture. This includes a series of limited edition chapbooks, usually signed and numbered. Amongst those in the series there has been texts by or about Dan Fante, Snyder, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Bukowski, Clark, Kerouac, John Clellon Holmes
and Brautigan.
Beat Scene has an occasional companion magazine Transit with contributions from McClure, Meltzer, di Prima, Barry Gifford
and Clark.
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
. As well the best known and more obscure Beat novelists and poets this has included artists, musicians filmmakers and publishers. The content largely consists of articles, memoirs, interviews and reviews.
Beat Scene was founded in 1988 by editor and publisher Kevin Ring in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, England. His personal fascination for the Beat Generation, in particular Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, was sparked in 1971, but he was frustrated that information about Beat writers and their books was hard to come by in the UK at that time.
Ring and Beat Scene are acknowledged sources in James Campbell's book, This Is the Beat Generation: New York–San Francisco-Paris. (2001).
Early issues
The first Beat Scene and subsequent four issues were thin A5 booklets. Initially, there were only 200 copies produced and hand assembled on Ring's kitchen table.As well as the principal Beat writers: Kerouac, William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
, the magazine has featured Lord Buckley
Lord Buckley
Lord Richard Buckley was an American stage performer, recording artist, monologist, and hip poet/comic...
, James Jones
James Jones
-Arts and entertainment:*James Jones , novelist*James Earl Jones , actor-Sports:*James Jones , professional baseball player...
, Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
, Richard Brautigan
Richard Brautigan
Richard Gary Brautigan was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. His work often employs black comedy, parody, and satire. He is best known for his 1967 novel Trout Fishing in America.- Early life :...
, Lew Welch
Lew Welch
Lewis Barrett Welch, Jr. was an American poet associated with the Beat generation of poets, artists, and iconoclasts.Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s...
, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
, Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
, Jack Hirschman
Jack Hirschman
Jack Hirschman is an American poet and social activist who has written more than 50 volumes of poetry and essays.-Biography:...
, Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
, Robert Frank
Robert Frank
Robert Frank , born in Zürich, Switzerland, is an important figure in American photography and film. His most notable work, the 1958 photobook titled The Americans, was influential, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and skeptical outsider's view of American...
, Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, Diane Di Prima
Diane di Prima
Diane Di Prima is an American poet.-Early life:Di Prima was born in Brooklyn. She attended Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College before dropping out to be a poet in Manhattan...
, Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline , born Harold Martin Silver, was an American painter and poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. His name is synonymous with street artists, underground writers, and "outlaw" poets...
and Carolyn Cassady
Carolyn Cassady
Carolyn Elizabeth Robinson Cassady is an American writer associated with the Beat Generation through her marriage to Neal Cassady and her friendships with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other prominent Beat figures...
(who was the first of the magazine’s interview subjects). The poet and Kerouac biographer Tom Clark
Tom Clark
Tom Clark is a Canadian television journalist. He has been a substitute anchor for CTV National News, and host of Power Play, a political program on CTV News Channel...
has contributed to the magazine but was also interviewed by Ring.
Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
was frequently mentioned in the early issues and when issue 9 was in preparation Ring received an unsolicited letter from the Los Angeles based poet and novelist along with a parcel of previously unpublished poems. These were offered for publication at the magazine’s usual rate, which at the time amounted to a few complimentary copies. Over the years Bukowski continued to contribute poems to the magazine and issue 12 included a flexi-disc of him reading. Bukowski was interviewed by Ring for Beat Scene and its sister magazine, Transit. After Bukowski died in 1994 Ring compiled a memorial issue. There was another special issue in 2004, to mark the tenth anniversary of Bukowski's death.
Contributors
Beat Scenes many regular contributors have included, Jim Burns, Charles PlymellCharles Plymell
Charles Plymell is a poet, novelist, and small press publisher. Plymell has been published widely, collaborated with, and published many poets, writers, and artists, including principals of the Beat Generation....
, Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman is an American poet.Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist....
, David Meltzer
David Meltzer
David Meltzer is an American poet and musician of the Beat Generation and San Francisco Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti has described him as "one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets and musicians." Meltzer came to prominence with inclusion of his work in the anthology, The...
, Jay Jeff Jones, David Amram
David Amram
David Amram is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz , ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston...
, Jack Foley, Jed Birmingham and Ron Whitehead.
In December 2006, a special, unnumbered issue was devoted to a new edition of Iain Sinclair's Kodak Mantra Diaries, which included new material and recently discovered period photos.
Alongside the magazine, Ring operates The Beat Scene Press http://www.beatscene.net/latest.asp, which specialises in publishing classic Beat interviews or new, longer articles on Beat culture. This includes a series of limited edition chapbooks, usually signed and numbered. Amongst those in the series there has been texts by or about Dan Fante, Snyder, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Bukowski, Clark, Kerouac, John Clellon Holmes
John Clellon Holmes
John Clellon Holmes , born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was an author, poet and professor, best known for his 1952 novel Go. Considered the first "Beat" novel, Go depicted events in his life with his friends Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. He was often referred to as the "quiet Beat"...
and Brautigan.
Beat Scene has an occasional companion magazine Transit with contributions from McClure, Meltzer, di Prima, Barry Gifford
Barry Gifford
Barry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness....
and Clark.
See also
- Moody Street IrregularsMoody Street IrregularsMoody Street Irregulars was an American publication dedicated to the history and the cultural influences of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation. Edited and published by Joy Walsh, it featured articles, memoirs, reviews and poetry. Published from Clarence Center, New York, it had a run of 28...
, edited and published by Joy Walsh during the 1970s and 1980s. - List of literary magazines