The Americans is perhaps the most influential photography book published in the last 40 years. Swiss-born Robert Frank's images must have seemed completely revolutionary and startling when published in 1958. Frank used his camera to cut through the facade of a country that was beginning to build up its crust of macadam and marketing. Frank shot with available light using film that would be considered very slow by today's standards, yet his images, while many have visible grain, are gorgeous and have a full range of tones. To describe the images themselves is fruitless. Buy the book

What can one say about a classic? Is it possible to review Beethoven's Ninth? Faulker's "As I Lay Dying"? No. This is arguably the book that most influenced almost all the subsequent generations of photographers. Frank looked at the world with a fresh viewpoint and his photographs were a slap in the face. It's impossible to put ourselves in the world of photography that preceded this book because Frank has changed our prespectives so drastically.

In 1955, Swiss photographer Robert Frank traveled around the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The images he created were published first in France in 1958, and then the following year in America. Highly controversial in its day, "The Americans" gave us a much needed outsiders view of who we are as a people.

Frank is an incredibly skilled image maker, able communicate on many different levels with a single image. Jack Kerouac is the perfect person to write the intro to this book. Both artists worked in a similar way, using travel, speed and chance to communicate fleeting, yet deep, feelings about our complex culture.

Perfectly enjoyable by anyone with an interest in American culture, but essential for those practicing documentary photography.

Writer-photographer Suiter provides a literary portrait of Beat era poets Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac in Poets On The Peaks, which centers around their early experiences as fire lookouts in the 1950s. As such, Poets On The Peaks provides a hard book to easily categorize: it covers beautiful Cascade Mountain scenes and peaks, fire lookouts, and literature and biography alike. The writings of these three juxtapose nicely with the photos and images, making this a recommended gift choice for the holiday season.

In his first book, John Suiter has produced a work that contributes significantly to the literature on early development of the Beat literary movement and to understanding the disparate characters of Snyder, Whalen, and Kerouac. Using the common experience of all three men serving as fire lookouts in the Northern Cascades in the early to mid 1950's, the author evokes portraits of how each writer was influenced by wilderness and the isolation of a fire lookout, and how each used the experience in his work. Drawing from recent interviews with Snyder and Whalen and others who knew them during the early 1950's, from previously unpublished letters and journals, and from extensive close readings of all three writers, the author crafts a portrait of the evolution of a literary movement, of a wilderness ethic, and perhaps unintentionally, the devolution of Kerouac contrasted against the focus and dedication of Snyder and Whalen. The book is illustrated with photographs of the fire lookouts and their locales.

"Poets on the Peaks" by John Suiter is a beautiful and insightful book. The text and pictures hold your hand through wonderful reminiscing with and about some of the greatest poets of our time. The landscapes that inspired the poetry that Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and Jack Kerouac are famous for is staged perfectly throughout the book. It gives you a sense of time and place that makes you feel as if you were in those look out towers and you experienced that electric and quiet time. Learn, escape, and love with this book. It is well worth it!

This book will interest students of politics who wish to learn the observations of a liberal Democrat elected official who participated and observed the past three decades of the emergence of the politics of the "New South".
Harriet Keyserling retired from the South Carolina state legislature in 1992 and has produced this brilliant insightful insider account of that legislative body. A legislator who was devoted to such issues as increasing support for education and resisting nuclear waste in her state, she offers several lessons from her experiences.
Among points to ponder presented in the book are a.) alliances can be formed around agenda items that transcend political partianship, b.) be open and honest with the press and they will trust you and treat you better in the long run, c.) recognize that not all men nor all women think alike, even though men and women may approach some issues differently, and d.) all issues are women's issues and women legislators should not feel compelled to limit themselves to matters others believe primarily concern women.
The legislative infighting described in this book will interest students of South Carolina politics. Her descriptions of many South Carolina Governors as essentially cheerleaders for the Chamber of Commerce provides insights into interest groups and government. Legislative observers will appreciate learning how as much to one third to one half of South Carolina legislative sessions used to be spent engaging in fillibusters.
Rep. Keyserling is proud of her efforts to create a dedicated sales tax for education and for creating South Carolina
s Sunny Day Fun. Towards the end of her career, South Carolina politics transcended into an arena of great confrontation and tension. Disliking these changes, she left politics. Harriet Keyserling, though, has left us with her knowledge and insights in this book. Readers will appreciate her writings.

Absolutely brillant! I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Against the tide." Mrs. Keysterling held office during an interesting period in SC politics. The book provided great insight into many of the issues affecting South Carolina and the nation. I highly recommend it.

This is a marvelous and instructive memoir on Ms. Keyserling's many years in active politics in South Carolina. She battled long odds in a deeply conservative state and was able to accomplish much in her 16 years in the State Legislature. She was an early and important ally of former SC governor and current Secretary of Education Richard Riley, and was one of the leaders who helped pass the progressive educational reforms that improved that state's educational standing and performance. She overcome much to fight the 'good fight' for progressive environmental laws, energy conservation, regulation of nuclear and solid waste, and promotion of the arts. The forward is by Richard Riley and she has glowing recommendations from novelist Pat Conroy, former U.S. Senator Nacy Kassebaum Baker and columnist David Broder. She is a long time member of the League of Women Voters, and that group was very instrumental in most of her political battles. I enjoyed the book and found it useful and enlightening. JMP

The author sheds light on a side of the beat culture
which has been ignored by the mass media for far too
long. Many a word has been written about the Beat's
frontal attack upon the sleepy surburban world of
America circa late 1950s, but few have bottered to
examine their spiritual awareness as related to Mother
Earth. They were fresh voices who found spiritual
rebirth through nature and were in the forefront of
those questioning the prevalent doctrine of consummerism.
I would heartily recommend this well written book.

Wow- what a book. This book sheds new light on a topic I feel has already been covered. Phillips' personal interviews are fantastic. I would love to have Phillips for a professor, wait- I do. Phillips is the man, and so is his book. If you are reading this Dr. Phillips can I have a 4.0? You know who I am!

Finally, a scholar has dug through the pop culture mud of the Beats to bedrock below: They weren't just citified tea-heads as Life magazine in the Fifties (and too many academics since) would have us believe. These writers were deeply tuned into the natural world and drew upon it for inspiration and some of their best writing--even the seemingly most urban of the lot--Kerouac. Case and point: Kerouac's "greening" in "Dharma Bums." Phillips' discussion of this novel is especially astute; and it sent me digging for my old copy. Similarly, Phillips' treatment of the Beats and Buddhism (Snyder in particular) is also refreshingly clear and original--not an easy thing to do. Phillips' research, including interviews with McClure, Welch and Snyder, is thorough and convincing. Moreover, his prose is sharp and unencumbered with trendy jargon. I predict Beat scholars will reconsider certain assumptions upon reading this book--and Beat fans will find this to be a unique and excellent addition to the ever-growing Beat canon.

"The Scripture of the Golden Eternity," by Jack Kerouac, is one of those books that you should read, then put aside and out of sight, and pick up and read again several months later (that's what I did). The "Scripture" consists of a series of numbered, meditation-like prose poems that explore the concept of the Golden Eternity. The City Lights edition contains both a 1970 introduction by Eric Mottram and a 1994 introduction by Anne Waldeman. According to the publication data page, the Scripture itself was first published in 1960 (although the introductions note that it was composed earlier, in 1956).

The Golden Eternity is an enigmatic concept that seems to transcend rational thought; it reminded me somewhat of the Tao. Kerouac uses many paradoxical statements to explore the Golden Eternity; his writing is sometimes funny. He also plays with words, using such terms as "the universal Thisness" and "the everlasting So." He even incorporates geometric symbols into one section of the Scripture.

Throughout are a multicultural constellation of references that give the Scripture a universalistic flavor. Buddha, Jesus, Shakespeare, Krishna, Kali, Einstein, and the Native American deity Coyote are just a few of the many references. He also finds insights in a butterfly, cats, and "your little finger."

Kerouac writes, "When you've understood this scripture, throw it / away. If you cant understand this scripture, / throw it away. I insist on your freedom." But whether you throw the book away, treasure it, or pass it on, chack out Kerouac's wonderfully written "Scripture."

When I first read this little book I thought that it was primarily Buddhist in essence. When I read it again a while later, I said,no, the spirit of this book is definately Taoist. When I read it next I said, this is a true Gnostic creation- who but a gnostic would have the audacity to compose an original scripture? Of course I was right all along, for this book cuts to the mystic heart of all true paths. This is the teaching that we are all one, for we are all emanations of the one Source, call it the Golden Eternity, the Tao, Spirit, or Self. It could be the "dazzling darkness" of Dionysis. It is the core truth of the one appearing as many that it may come to know itself. This was the unnamed IT that the beats were waiting for, it is the perennial lesson for all true mystics.
Oh yes, the book is a small one. perfect books are often like that- take a look at the Tao te Ching....
A man that can write a book like this doesn't have to hang around this old world too long- he's already paid his dues and learned his lessons. Like Lao Tze it is time to depart, for your work is done, and the decline of the country is painful and tiring to witness....

beautifully written, these spiritual meditations are some of kerouac's best and most humble, opening up the quiet side of kerouac often overlooked, simply amazing

of course anyone who lives in new york city can tell you where the white horse and cedar tavern are, but do they all know that where sam goody now stands on sixth avenue and ninth street is the very same place that the cafeteria kerouac wrote about extensively in visions of cody once stood?

this book is filled with a lot of well-known and plenty of not so well known places where various members of the beat generation ate, performed, lived, got drunk in, or otherwise played out their lives. the tours are broken down by area and there are clear directions to help you find where you're going (even if the place no longer exists). each tour also begins with a street map of the area covered and clearly numbered destinations, which was very helpful, although i did wish that the book had also come with an overview map of all manhattan and destinations so that i could more easily combine tours or skip around to places of interest if i didn't want to follow a complete tour.

each stopping place in the tour book includes a paragraph or two on why the place is important to beat history and who/what occured there. although the title of the book claims that new york was "jack kerouac's city," the tours really include many of the other important beat figures as well as a few others that were influenced by the beat movement, such as bob dylan.

this is a great way for beat aficionados visiting new york to get a taste of the city, and a fun way for locals to spend an afternoon or two discovering new spots and seeing familiar places in a new light.

It would be next to impossible to find these places on your own. Even more impossible to learn as much about each of the sites as is presented in this guide. Each tour follows a logical route and there are plenty of stops that you probably never would have thought of--eg. Serpico's apartment, the former site of Thomas Wolfe's East 8th St. apartment. Using this guide is a great way to see the Village, East and West. And the insight will keep you reading even as you're moving to the next stop. Take your time. Spread the tours over a couple of afternoons. And linger for a while in Washington Square.

A great companion to this book is "The Beat Generation in New York." I wouldn't recommend carrying this heavy book around with you, but after you've finished the tours, open the book to look at the pictures taken at many of the places you've just visited.

This is a great overview of Beat Poetics. Check out Ted Joans, who remains the most lucid of the Beat poets and who still writing and reading strong. He has just published a new collection of poetry called Our Thang, also available on Amazon. He and Bob Kaufmann are possible the two most extraordinary writers of this extraordinary generation.

after reading this selection many times, i have become enthraled the lives of kerouac, cassady, and ginsburg. for a new fan of these great poets, this book is a must. it will give you a great work of information that can allow you to discover the works of many innovative poets

As a long-time reader of Beat literature, and as a man, I must say that Joyce Johnson's take on those heady, wine soaked days of poetry and madness is absolutely as good and as necessary as anything Kerouac or Ginsberg or any of the more famous (male) crew ever wrote. For my money it's right up there with On the Road.

I guess I've read this book three or four times now and it never gets old.

I also recommend Ms. Johnson's novel, In the Night Cafe, another skillful invocation of the Beat period.

I picked up this book because a friend recommended it. The Beats had never much interested me except as a movement. I didn't much like the the literature or the adulation that surrounded them. But this is primarily a book about Joyce Johnson and her experience with the Beats. She has a real talent for evoking a specific time and place and giving readers a sense of what it was like to be part of this mileu. She makes going for a cup of coffee in Greenwich Village seem incredibly exciting. This is not the story of a Beat groupie yearning to hang out or sleep with famous men but rather Ms. Johnson's coming of age. The Beats are an important part of that story but not the whole story.

Joyce Johnson's memoir of emerging from an overprotected childhood and landing at the center of the Beat movement in the 1950's is a delight whether you choose to read it for its portrait of Jack Kerouac, for the world that was, or for the inner journey it reveals. It is a fine literary performance. Johnson plays with tense and perspective as if they form a telescopic lens sliding the past out of a fuzzy black and white still photograph into a vivid, colorful present. There is a suspenseful tension to the book from which flows a novelistic structure, never, though, at the expense of truth. Johnson gets down like no one else how it is to carry around that overprotected childhood, to always feel that you could be missing something, that the center has yet to be achieved. Her inner struggle matches the themes of the Beats who are seeking the pure experience of being through their music, their talk, their drugs and alcohol, their lovemaking, their travels and their poetry. She nails the paradox of a quarry that can never sit still, whether it is a person, like Kerouac, or her friend and guide into the Beat world, Elise Cowen, both of whom eventually disappear into their demons. She captures the loss of balance when counterculture is encroached upon by the mainstream. She manages to convey all this without telling, just through showing the events of her life. Johnson is wry but never bitter, she takes full responsibility for her own choices and actions. This is a book that invites the reader to share the wonder that this was all, indeed, real.

I disagree with the 5-star consensus of the previous reviewers - Kerouac's writing is not 'faultless prose', as he characterizes it himself in this novel. But 'Desolation Angels' is another fascinating glimpse into the heart of this daring and nomadic - literally and spiritually - author. One star gets shaved from my review for the unfocused, enigmatic opening section of the book, 'Desolation in Solitude'. A rethinking of 'Alone on a Mountaintop' from 'Lonesome Traveler', this section only thickens the fog in both the reader and in the author, it seems. It's not that it rambles - all Kerouac's writing does, and to point it out as a flaw is like insisting that Bob Dylan's voice sucks. Of course it does, that's the point. But Kerouac characterized the Desolation Peak experience before and did it better in 'Lonesome Traveler'.

However, once Kerouac makes his descent and rejoins the world in the second half of Book One and through all of Book Two, the way that his mountaintop experience informs his perspective in places like New York, Mexico, and Europe is engrossing and surpisingly intelligent. Drawing from a wide variety of influences from St. Paul to Buddha to Hemingway, Kerouac revisits familiar places and people with a broadened and more cynical point of view. Desolation Angels is more candid, forthright, even explicit, than its predecessors about drug use and sex. But it also reveals a more exhaustive spiritual hunger in Kerouac, and leads the reader to conclude that the author, in his quest to meet God, realized he had indeed found Him.

By turns a thoughtful, pensive, funny and risk-taking novel, Desolation Angels is canonical Kerouac.

generation in Desolation Angels. Kerouacs frank accounts and vivid style draw you into the heart of a man both idealistic and cinical, naive and experienced, proud and downtrodden, as well as buddist and Catholic, living the life of a "Dharma Bum" as he travels to Mexico. From the fire lookout high on Desolaion Peak, to the junk steets of Mexico, Kerouac shares with his readers every experience and emotion, carring the reader deep into the lifestyle of the Beats as few authors ever accomplished. Its no wonder Kerouac became the symbol of the Beat generation for millions of kats in the 50's, for even today his writing is hep, and inciteful. He could very easily be an icon for generations to come.

Desolation Angels was the second Kerouac book I purchased, and it became my favorite book. In the first half of the book, the "Desolation" chapters explain Jack's feelings and mind more than in any other book and during an important period of his life. Some people say the book is schitzophrenic, having been started in Mexico City in 1956 and completed around 1962. However, I believe the result is not two books but half of the book being thoughts and feelings and the other half being a thoughtful man reflecting. In any case, the book is wonderful, and reading the entire novel does take some work but well worth the effort!

This is among the best of Kerouac's works, revealing the competing world views of the beat rebels. Tristessa is a Mexico City junkie whom Kerouac loves; a junkie he sees in the Buddhist light "life is suffering." The book opens in her home - a hovel in disarray populated by chickens, dog, junkies, an altar to Our Lady, and a dove. It ends with the recognition that only fellow junkies can truly understand another junky - that a vagabond, drunk artist may depict and love but never truly understand.

The book's strength is in the passages that reflect most directly the author's mental life - coherent or incoherent - and the role of Buddhism and Catholicism in that mental life. The book also has a secondary strength of providing insight into the beatniks' rebellion - the shape in took in those who, like Kerouac, seem never to have found a peaceful relationship to the world (in conparison to Gary Synder or Phillip Whalen, for example).

Not a book destined to be "top ten of the century", but an interesting read.

Amidst the chaos and debris of dismal Mexico City Kerouac tells us the stroy of his most intense love for the lovely but flawed Junky, Tristessa. This is Kerouac at his most poignant and this is the best glimpse he ever gave his readers into his soul. But don't read this book if you're a manic depressive, it might drive you over the edge. One has to wonder if Tristessa could have made Jack happy. Some people are addicted to self-destruction.

Kerouac has fallen in and out of cult hero worship, for many reasons. He was the forefather of the spectacularly popular Beat Generation, his books are full of raw energy and rebellion, and he died of a brain hemorrhage watching "The Galloping Gourmet". These are all wonderful reasons to read "On the Road" or "Subterraneans". Do not read "Tristessa" for these reasons. Read "Tristessa" for its pure Kerouac voice, for its wonderful hollow music which echoes the wildest romantic poets, the heroin-desperate streets of Mexico City, and the soul of Kerouac himself. This is Kerouac's most haunting, melodic, and starkly religious work, the story of true love and the lie of love, the story of hope and of the crush of drugs, poverty and despair. To read this book is to be Kerouac, to be crazy-drunk with no place to sleep and no money to eat, but to be crying with happiness because the woman you love is unconscious in the gutter beside you. You can hear the words inside your head long after you close the book... "shouldna done it Lord, Awakenerhood, shouldna played the suffering-and-dying game with the children in your own mind, shoulda whistled for the music and danced..." "I love her but the song is---broken---"