Pilgrims to elsewhere : reflections on writings by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Bob Kaufman and others / Gregory Stephenson ; afterword by Bent Sørensen.
Peaches and penumbras: notes on Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California" -- Beginning at the bitter end: the poetry of Bob Kaufman -- Earwitness testimony: sound and sense, word and void in Jack Kerouac's Old Angel Midnight -- For river and ever: notes on the river motif in On the Road -- Pilgrimage to the promised land: Sal Paradise in Cheyenne -- "Crazy dumbsaint of the mind": Jack Kerouac and Harpo Marx -- An inward elsewhere: Kerouac at bat: fantasy sports and the king of the beats -- Explanatory notes to Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums -- A few notes on a fugitive poem by Gregory Corso -- The bard as bombardier: Gregory Corso's Bomb -- The Hasheesh Eater: being passages from the Life of a Pythagorean -- The underworld of the East by James S. Lee -- A note on James S. Lee -- Parables for the paranoid: the world of Word Jazz -- Afterword by Bent Sørensen.
Summary:
The essays and shorter pieces in this collection treat writers of the Beat Generation, together with certain of their allies and ancestors. Authors whose works are considered include Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Bob Kaufman, as well as Fitz Hugh Ludlow, James S. Lee and Ken Nordine. A theme seen implicitly to be linking these authors is their common yearning for utopian harmony and mystical transcendence, a desire that drives their vocation as pilgrims to elsewhere.--Back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.