The Beats: Poetry, Writing & Life

Over the course of an adventured-filled life, now in its tenth decade, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has been many things: a poet, painter, pacifist, publisher, courageous defender of free speech, and owner of San Franciscos legendary City Lights bookstore.

Allen Ginsberg's poems, from 'Howl' to 'Kaddish' to 'The Fall of America,' have influenced generations of writers and made him a defining figure of the twentieth century. Ginsberg's Collected Poems, first published in 1984, and expanded in 1997, was originally thought to contain all of his poetic work.

Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback

For his first collection of new poems since his celebrated Danger on Peaks, published in 2004, Gary Snyder finds himself ranging over the planet.

Lord Buckley, His Royal Hipness, AKA the Charlie Parker of Talk, was an American performer, recording artist, and hip poet/comic who, in the 1940s and 50s, created a character that was, according to the New York Times, An unlikely persona . . .

 One of the Beat Generation’s most renowned poets and writers, Allen Ginsberg became internationally famous not only for his published works but for his actions as a human rights activist who championed the sexual revolution, human rights, gay liberation, Buddhism and eastern religion, and the confrontation of societal norms—all before i