Rough Draft 1:

The San Francisco Beat

People usually imagine the 50s as an era of innocence, when really it was filled of ignorance, depression. Then art was created in the mist of the depression of the post war world, and was hidden in the land of the Bohemia. It was a land filled of drugs, sex, and the rebels of the 50s. A land most innocents ignored and denied. But it was also home to the poets of the Beat Generation. New York and San Francisco were and are still where this land of Bohemia flourishes. The thing is that most people seem to forget that the Beats were apart of San Francisco. Yes, the Beat generation may have started in New York, but it found its way to the heart of San Francisco.

The beginnings of the Beats begin to fall to place in the late 40s, once Allen Ginsberg stumbled upon Lucien Carr one winter day at Columbia University (Morgan 2). Allen was a nerd and a “brilliant but shy social fuckup” (Pekar 51). His family “was Jewish in name only, and both of Allen’s Parents were fully agnostic” (Morgan 3). His father was a socialist, and his mother a communist. She would even bring Allen to party cell meeting, but then he was too naive to understand a thing. Carr was a handsome rebel who barely cared. He moved to New York after he spent some time for attempting suicide in Chicago’s Cook County Hospital (Morgan 1). Instead of studying he spent his time with any interesting person he could find, and this is why he met Allen and later introduced him to William S. Burroughs and David Kammer. Bill was the son of the man who invented the modern adding machine so he was from a fortunate family. When he met Ginsberg, Burroughs had already done most of the things Allen had dreamed of, and this was why Bill became a sort of mentor and idol for Allen. Kammerer only was in New York because he had followed Carr there. He was infatuated with him and stalked him in hopes that the straight Carr would fall for him as well. Sadly this lead to a drunken argument which that continued until Carr stabbed Kammerer dead and dropped into the Hudson river (Pekcar 12). But the meeting of these four marked the beginning of a wonderful friendship that would change literature as we know it.

Now that was the beginning of the Beat Generation, but it did not boom into something big until after the October 7, 1955 reading of Howl. Where was this reading? Yes, in San Francisco where Howl was also written. “Mcclaire said the day after the reading that Ginsberg had turned from a nebbish to an ‘epin vocal bird.’ His reading of Howl had to have created more interest in poetry and the Beats than anything in memory” (Peckcar 37).

Then it was almost 12....Yeah, this is not even half of it. I barely even hit San Francisco yet, but that was where I was going. At least you read that I was going there. Generally that was the whole introduction that was written in one crazy sitting. Next will come the rest of the story of the Beats in San Francisco and how there poetry was in a high even before 1955. Then I will talk about the reasons many of the poets came to SF for. I will hit on some of major Beat locations in San Francisco that was listed for me in the wonderful book "The Beat Generation in San Francisco" which is another book written by Bill Morgan. So I will have to fix the citing a bit because that first half was mostly information given from Bill Morgan's other book " The Typewriter is Holy: The Complete Uncensored History of the Beat Generation." Then I will have to add in some quotes from interviews from Beat poets about SF that I will find in "San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets" edited by David Meltzer. I also just noticed that the working title of this paper is the title of that book. Can I do that? But right now this is the pathetic amount of essay I have to turn in. I am probably going to spend the rest of the night writing most of the other half, but I like adding a lot perspectives so it's difficult for me to find all the the information and quotes I want in one night. Though lately while reading the books I have been marking possible quotes to use. Okay, I will stop my rant on how this paper will soon be now.