Friday the 13th – don’t worry!
Allen’s reading in 1975 at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey, we featured back here. The university itself triumphantly recounts it and the video restoration project – “Preserving Ginsberg – A Georgian University Summer Project” – see here
We’ve been featuring the work of David S Wills of late and Beatdom. Beatdom now has, in addition to its magazine and on-line forum, a Substack, a newsletter, featuring updates, information and more exemplary research – A recent anniversary post – “Beat & Damned – The Death of Natalie Jackson” – “An essay on the death (and, to some extent, the life) of Natalie Jackson, who died November 30, 1955″
Wills’ piece is a substantial essay (13,000 words), so be prepared (but be prepared for a deep sleuthing, deep research, an honest, if ultimately thwarted, attempt at resurrection)
He writes:
“When I realised how badly her life and death had been reported in books about the Beats,
I decided to do her some justice by writing a more detailed essay on her. I wanted this to be the next instalment in a series of long, exploratory essays that unearth previously overlooked or misunderstood parts of Beat history. I hoped to provide a portrait of her life before and during her relationship with Neal Cassady. But alas, I..failed. She proved too elusive…I did, however, find enough to write a more detailed account than has previously been written and to correct many mistakes.”
and goes on:
“So this essay is essentially a failed effort but I hope that it has done her some small amount of justice. Perhaps someone with more resources can take it and build upon it, unearthing more …There has to be something… Even after researching all of this, I have many questions – What went on in her mind? What did she write about? Who was she before she came to the West Coast? I don’t know, but what follows is my modest effort at bringing some justice to someone who was a victim of Neal Cassady’s sociopathic tendencies and then a further victim of shoddy scholarship.”
“”No, she did not fall six storeys to her death” – “No, Jack Kerouac was not the last person to see her alive” – “No, she was not high on amphetamines (or anything else) when she went to that rooftop contemplating suicide” Wills chips away at the lazy mythologizing. This is Beat scholarship that wisely criticizes previous Beat scholarship.. Don’t miss it.
Harry Smith and Gary Snyder – Selves O’Leaping – Brett Lunsford makes the connection (and the Pacific North-West connection) – here
Jack Elliott, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. We profiled him here on his 90th birthday (and featured Allen’s in-depth interview with him here, here and here). Beat scholar, Jonah Raskin profiles him here on Simon Warner’s Rock and The Beat Generation – “Jack Elliott – Still Ramblin’ at 93”
and today, would’ve been (had he lived) the 91st birthday of poet, Jack Hirschman
Check out the movie from 2007, Red Poet
This is the ““Howl Onesie“:
and the New Yorker‘s crossword this week included Allen as a clue! – “Allen Ginsberg, for one” – (eight letters) – “Beat Poet”