A very decent sampler of the Beat Generation, but it doesn't convey the scope and vision of those involved. If you are a beginning Beat reader, try a full-length book of one of the selected authors, but some of the rarer writings are interesting for older readers.

When I think of the beats Ginsburg, Whalen, Snyder, DiPrima, Ferlinghetti, Burroughs and Kerouac are the names that come to mind. This book pulls these and many other literary figures of the era together. For example, the title poem "Heaven" includes the lines "Phil Whalen will be / a blue cloud / anytime he wants".

The poems in this volume include poems including a series of his blues poems - San Francisco Blues; MacDougal Street Blues; Orizaba Blues; Orlando Blues - and a letter on his theory of jazz poetry. It includes two short autobiographies and a series of letters between Kerouac and a publisher.

The latter gives real insight into his writing: "I would like everybody in the world to tell his full life confession and tell it HIS OWN WAY" from a letter; or his essentials for modern prose which includes "telling the true story of the world in interior monologue" and " remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition".

The poems themselves show an interesting mixture of Catholic childhood, exposure to Buddhism, and an "in your face" telling it like it is. They are very much a product of their time which don't survive time well except as icons of their time - and some interesting seeds for era-specific equivalents for our time.

I highly recommend the book as a reminder of the beats and what they stood for (and against).

Now that the University of Nebraska Press has undertaken to publish the complete James correspondence, these one-volume samplers can be relieved of the artificial responsibility to do the impossible - that is, tell the whole story in 600 pages or less.

Horne's effort suffers in comparison to Edel's by its self-imposed mandate to favor previously unpublished letters. (Personally, I found these almost invariably of lesser interest. It looks like Edel skimmed the cream.) But his cannily selected interstitial material makes it a far more rewarding reading experience. I would say this now stands as the best introduction to the subject.

And for what it's worth: the Penguin Classics paperback edition is a very nice piece of manufacture - comfortably sized in dimension and font.

One of the first things that you come to learn about Jack Kerouac, aside from geographics, is how much he loved to write. The man truly was relentless and driven. He carried a typewriter in his suitcase and being out of work was just an excuse or a good moment to write. I read this book and it saddened me to no end because Jack inspired and even pushed many to become writers, but didn't have the luxury of long life to see his own fruits. William S. Burroughs accredits Jack for his whole literary career.

Clark describes Kerouac in terms that you may not have ever thought of him in. He was a deeply religious person due to his mother, he was kind and gentle and, almost fatherly to his friends. He did love to drink and get high, like his contemporaries, but you really feel that he was as mis-guided by his flock as much as he tried to steer them. They truly were his extended family. This is the only Clark piece that I've read, and it was well worth the time and money spent.

I gave this book four stars because Clark seems to describe Kerouac as two people at all times. And maybe the question of that itself should've been examined further. I will recommend this book to others for sure. This book seems to encapsulate the Kerouac very well (for all his faults).

There are many books telling all about where Kerouac's road has taken him, but this is the first i've read that actually tells all about where it started. This book is a much needed asset for any Kerouac reader. I will refrain from giving a synopsis as it would reduce the element of surprise that this book preys on.

Tytell's book Naked Angels is divided into three sections, one each for Jack Kerouac, A. Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. Each section can be read independently of the others, for those just interested in one writer.

I was most interested in the chapter on Burroughs, and here is an appraisal:

A short introductory chapter on Burroughs gives biographical background. The Burroughs section of Naked Angels is entitled "The Black Beauty of William Burroughs," and is a 29-page exploration of Burroughs' writing, with useful comparisons to other writers, such as Poe, Baudelaire, and Nabokov. Tytell analyzes the work Burroughs published from 1953-1973, omitting or including only the slightest references to minor works. Early works which went unpublished for years, such as Queer and Interzone, are not discussed. The book has an index and bibliography. Tytell's book is not wholly given over to Burroughs, but as an introduction to the writer, it serves as well as any other.

If you have read the section on Naked Angels dealing with Burroughs, and you are eager for a more complete investigation of his life, turn to Ted Morgan's book LITERARY OUTLAW, which I believe to be the most thorough and fascinating biography of Burroughs.

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As a spirited but naive young woman, the author endured a brief and frustrating marriage to Jack Kerouac. This is a memoir of that time in her life, written when she was a middle aged woman struggling with terminal cancer. Joan Haverty wanted more out of life than women were expected to have: ideas, adventures, answers to the Big Questions. Her marriage to Kerouac was a misguided attempt to find those things through a relationship with a man who appeared to have them all. Appearances, she quickly learned, were not to be trusted.

She left Kerouac (and his mother) sadder, wiser, and pregnant with a daughter whom he refused to acknowledge.

I am not a fan of Kerouac, and don't really understand why he - or his writing - has been so admired. However, I read this book to find out more about the real man behind the legend. I did learn a little about Kerouac, but I was more moved by the story of Hagerty's struggle to retain her independence of mind.

I wish she had lived to write more books.

This book is about the time the author just sits in his lonely shack and listens to the sounds around.I guess if you just sit and listen intendly right now to all the sounds coming into your universe you will get the message jack was trying to put across. The best way to read this book is to read a section at a time out loud to someone. The result is quite magical. The words somehow all become clear and the visions and situations become real. This is not an easy book to comprehend in the normal manner of a read but hey delve in deep and it becomes a cosmic comet in the universe of your mind.

"You're a Genius all the Time" writes Jack Kerouac. While _Safe in Heaven Dead_ does not have quite the flair of more better known titles such as _The Dharma Bums_ and the legendary _On the Road_, it is a substantial contribution to the Kerouac canon. In this collection of writing the reader sees Kerouac working out his style and including his famous stream of consciousness "speed thought" writing. A mental gem, _Safe in Heaven Dead_ offers a snaphot of a great mind momentarily crystallized like a cool, blued mind jewel. While not Kerouac's best work, it does afford a unique view of an incredibly complex and talented writer, and while not quite genius, it is intelligent and thought provoking.

It's been years since I've read something by Kerouac, but I was excited when I first learned of this new book, a previously unpublished novella written in 1944; I did not expect it to be a work of high literature, but it was what I had hoped for: a represenation of Kerouac's literary early development. Over all, the writing is somewhat awkward, the plot and premise vague and esotiric, yet at the same time it exudes some of the freshness and intensity that would make his later works--On the Road, in particular--so popular. Naturally it is a must read for any Kerouac junkie, but those not so familiar with his writing will find it interesting as well.

But more for the possibility of what else may turn up. I would really love to see "The Sea is My Brother" appear out of nowhere, but sadly that is unlikely to happen. But its just really great to see NEW publications by Jack so long after he left this world. That something so marginal as work like this should be worthy of publication, just because it is Jack, and he was special, and still loved, is a testiment to him as a man. It certainly has to beat all the later whinney self absorbed stuff he wrote during his disintegrating part of his life i.e. Big Sur and Vanity of Duluoz, as we still have the young hopeful voice. Besides, whoever said that this was meant to be a novel in the traditional sense, it is more an effort to captutre essense of life, which doesnt have plots or always make sense. Thats the secret to Kerouac, trying to say something about life. If you dont enjoy it, get it, fine. Just because the stuff in On the Road was about sex n drugs n bebop, doesnt mean that this is any less a truthful mirror than that monumental book.

I would consider myself a Kerouac junkie, but I dont think that matters to anyone. I personally dont find the need to break down Kerouac in such a way that it all turns into semantics and academia. To me, Kerouac wrote beautifully, and in such a way that to break it down as such, devalues any of the intent or meaning given to the book. I also dont agree that his later works were 'whiney'. That is part of the beauty of Jack Kerouacs works. They are the timeline of his life and adventures. I'm pleased that he was honest and wrote what he felt, not what he may have thought a reader would want to read. I could care less if this was written when he was 22 or 42. Most of his works are not comparable, they just shine on their own, in their own way. This, like his other books, is just another exciting opportunity to glimpse into his life.

I dont know, I think I just find humor in the fact that there are people over analyzing this book and talking and talking, especially when Kerouac was smoking pot and doing crazy fun mind opening, and even spiritual things. His soul searching, and the way he wrote about his traveling mean a lot more to me than the people who critisize it. Those are the folks who really dont have a clue.