The Beat Generation and the Sixties: a guide to web resources

The phrase "Beat generation" arose out of a specific conversation between Jack Kerouac and John Clellon Holmes in 1948. They were discussing the nature of generations, recollecting the glamour of the Lost Generation, and Kerouac said, "Ah, this is nothing but a beat generation." They talked about whether it was a "found generation" (as Kerouac sometimes called it), an "angelic generation", or some other epithet. But Kerouac waved away the question and said beat generation - not meaning to name the generation, but to unname it. Jack Clellon Holmes's celebrated article in late 1952 in the New York Times Magazine carried the headline title "This Is the Beat Generation." That caught the public eye. Then Kerouac anonymously published a fragment of On the Road called "Jazz of the Beat Generation," and that reinforced the curiously poetic phrase. The Beat Book Edited by Anne Waldman. Boston, Shambhala, 1996.

This page aims to support From the Beats to Bongs: the Sixties, ENGL 2024 and ENGL 3024, a course offered (every other year) by the English Discipline at the University of Adelaide, and convened by Mandy Treagus.

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The Beat Generation and the Sixties
Major sources The Sixties United States Britain Sixties' video clips Sixties' literature Fiction Jack Kerouac Margaret Atwood Ursula Le Guin Poetry Allen Ginsberg	Sixties' films Television in the Sixties Music in the Sixties Sixties' music video clips Individual musicians and groups Pop art Sixties' fashion Sixties' fashion video clips Reference works

Beat

The Open Directory Project's very useful links to pages on individual authors and to a good number of relevant sites.
One of the editors is George Laughead Jr., creator of the excellent Beats In Kansas website.

The Beat Generation Archives

Reviews of beat generation books, records and videos; links to sites; articles about or by the Beats. The author of this site, Colin Pringle, is obviously an enthusiastic City Lights devotee.

Literary Kicks

An esoteric site with useful introductions to the main writers, heavily hyperlinked to further descriptions of people and places. If you want to join in the discussion and question areas you need to take out a (free) membership.

Blue Neon Alley

A directory of the Beat generation and its literature. A huge site with separate pages on individual writers. Includes a comprehensive listing of other Beat generation sites, but unfortunately a lot of the links are out of date.

The American Museum of Beat Art

It's all here: posters, ephemera book covers, films and videos on all the beat writers and poets you have ever heard of, including a short biography and portrait of each individual.

Beats In Kansas

A collection of links to articles and internet sites. 'Often thought of as a coastal movement (New York and San Francisco), the Beat Generation grew from all parts of our country -- including Kansas. In fact, so many well-known Beat era artists and writers came from Wichita, the poet Allen Ginsberg made a famous visit in February 1966 to "see where McClure and Conner came from"...'. Hosted by the indefatigable George Laughead Jr., who is also an editor for the Open Directory Project's very useful Beat pages.

Hippie Society: The Youth Rebellion

Images, archival footage, and brief descriptions of events of the mid- to late 1960s, with an emphasis on the hippie movement in Canada. Also covers San Francisco's Haight Ashbury, the beatniks, and ex-hippies in the 1980s. Also includes material for teachers. From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

The Psychedelic '60s

With the sub-title Literary Tradition and Social Change this site traces the history of the 1960s through book and record covers, posters, and other material, from the 19th Century precursors through to Woodstock and beyond. The thorough annotations place each item in perspective and provide a fascinating illustrated journey through the decade. Compiled by the Special Collections Department at the University of Virginia Library.

American Cultural History 1960 - 1969

"The purpose of this web and library guide is to help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1960s."
The Kingwood College Library provides introductions to the period under broad headings: Art & Architecture; Theater, Film, & Radio & Television; Books & Literature; Fashion and Fads; Education; Music; Events & Technology, with hypertext links to the main people and ideas of the time.

The Virtual Library: History: USA: 1960-1969

A large number of links to sites covering the cultural history of the sixties in the USA, and to the significant events of each year of the decade.

Nostalgia Central: the sixties

An introductory article followed by pages on British pop culture, music, television and film. The site also has a month-by-month timeline of significant events for every year of the 60s.

Sixties City

Pages on Fashion, Youth culture and art, British pop, Films, Television and much more.
Hundreds of pages of information and images.

BRIGHTONBEAT

Dedicated to the city's [Brighton, UK] musicians, bands and music scene of the swinging sixties. You'll find History, Photographs and Memorabilia for four bands: The Sapphires, Giant, T-Bones and Shelley. Fun!

Here are some YouTube links that will give you a general idea of what sixties era was all about:

The Sixties

A series of images with musical background, starting with 'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)', a song, written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, and sung by Scott McKenzie; released in 1967 ('The Summer of Love') the song became a cultural icon. Time: 05:37.

A decade to remember: the Sixties [1] Time: 09:32
A decade to remember: the Sixties [2]. Time: 10:03

The Sixties will be remembered for mini skirts and mini cars, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, boutiques and discotheques, and England winning the World Cup.

Sixties slideshow

Starts out with pictures of Hippies and Woodstock, then goes to the Vietnam War and finishes with American civil rights images and Martin Luther King. Time: 07:08.

General information

DHARMA beat Links Page

A directory of links to Beat Generation writers, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady.

A Cultural Chronology of Early Beat Generation Literature

For each year from 1944 onwards this page lists the current events, theatre, films, music, fiction and poetry that were engaging the American people, and what beat writers such as Ginsberg, Kerouac, Corso and ferlinghetti were up to.
A very useful background site.

Larry Keenan's Beat & counter-culture site

We know their literature; we know something about their personal biographies. Yet equally (if not more) important is knowing what everything looked like. Keenan has provided us with a visually potent view of the Beat Generation and beyond. A wonderful collection of photographs: don't miss the images on Keenan's Dead Beats page.

Here are some links to resources on the authors mentioned in the course outline. You will find additional information by using the Library Catalogue and the Library's excellent electronic databases. If you're not sure how to make full use of these resources, you should work through my Literature search techniques pages.

Jack Kerouac

Bohemian Ink: Jack Kerouac

Biographies, writing samples, research sources, and other information.

Beat Page: Jack Kerouac

Biography, excerpts from Kerouac's writings, and photographs.

Kerouac's On the Road

An excellent page of resources on Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, published in 1957 and "completed -- from start to finish -- in only three weeks. And he used just one long, scrolled piece of paper, improvising endlessly, just like a jazz musician." Features audio and video of Kerouac reading, image of the scroll, excerpt from the book, and links to related material. From National Public Radio (NPR).

Kerouac's On the Road scroll tour

Using a manual typewriter in a New York City loft, Jack Kerouac produced the original manuscript of On the Road during a three-week period in the spring of 1951. Fifty years and one month later, Colts' owner Jim Irsay purchased the widely-acknowledged icon of the Beat Generation at a Christies auction in New York, less than a mile from where it was created.
In late 2002 Jim Irsay offered to exhibit the Scroll across the United States. The official tour of the Kerouac Scroll began in Orlando in January of 2004 and is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2009.
Here's a link to the unrolling of the Kerouac Scroll at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum on 15 June 2007 [sadly, with no white gloves worn by the Museum staff when the Scroll is first handled].

Jack Kerouac Reads from On the Road

A very moving video of Kerouac reading the last page of On the Road, with images of Jack and Neal Cassady.

Jack Kerouac explains On the Road

Kerouac talks about how he wrote On the Road and then reads from his novel, on the Steve Allen show in 1959. Allen's piano playing throughout could be intrusive, if it were not that the reading totally engages one's attention. Time: 5:44.

DHARMA beat

DHARMA beat is a newszine (newsletter) that is published twice a year about Kerouac's life and writing, and information of interest about Kerouac events and happenings around the world.

The New York Times Featured Author: Jack Kerouac

Reviews of Jack Kerouac's books and articles about Jack Kerouac from the Archives of The New York Times.

Sounds of Jack Kerouac

Kerouac reading (and singing) his prose.
These .au files are taken from three sound recordings Jack Kerouac made in the fifties: Readings on the Beat Generation; Blues and Haikus; Poetry for the Beat Generation.

Jack Kerouac Official Site

Don't bother with this - the site has been hijacked!

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on Jack Kerouac.

Margaret Atwood

The Margaret Atwood Reference Site

Winner of the Booker Prize for 2000, Margaret Atwood, presents her views on writing and a bibliography of her writings. You can search the whole site for specific information.

Margaret Atwood Society

an international association of scholars, teachers and students who share an interest in Atwood's work. The main goal of the Society is to promote scholarly exchange of the writer's work by providing opportunities for scholars to exchange information.

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on Margaret Atwood.

Ursula Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin

Her official website with biographical and bibliographical material, essays on writing, poems, links to online stories, excerpts from her works, and information about her recent works.
Especially useful is the Partial list of secondary sources.

Le Guin's World

A searchable fan site dedicated to author Ursula K Le Guin, with biographies, reviews, guides and links to other Le Guin sites.

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on Ursula Le Guin.

Beat poets

An Open Directory site with links to pages on all the major beat poets.

Denver's Beat poetry driving tour

An illustrated tour of Beat poetry landmarks around Denver, ending with Kerouac's Lakewood 'Homestead' which he bought with his $1000 advance from his first published novel, The Town and the City.

Allen Ginsberg

Links to sites about Ginsberg and also his works.

Allen Ginsberg - Shadow Changes into Bone

"The clearinghouse for all information on Allen Ginsberg: poems, photos, links, articles, interviews, humor, tributes, and other Ginsbergia."

Howl

By the way, you really must read one of my favourite poems, Ginsberg's Howl, which, when I first read it, made an enormous (and lasting) impression on my 16 year old mind.
And now, thanks to YouTube, you can hear it read by the poet himself. [Time:6:17]

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on Allen Ginsberg..

To get you started, here are some links to the film titles mentioned in the course outline. If you would like to find more information about these, or other films, visit my Australian and international film resources website. There you'll find all the resources you need for film research.

Breathless

A short synopsis of Jean-Luc Godard's first film, À bout de souffle (English title Breathless), with credits, cast list and links to more information on the director and the principal star, Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Breathless

Details - cast list, technical information and reviews - of À bout de souffle, the French title of Godard's Breathless, on the excellent Internet Movie Database website.

Breathless

Some critical commentary on Godard's film and techniques by Chris Parsons, a student at Carleton College, Minnesota, U.S.A.

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on Godard.

Easy Rider

Useful information on the film as well as user comments. From the valuable Internet Movie Database.

Easy Rider

Plot description with links to actors, director, and reviews from The New York Times website.

Easy Rider

Reviews, movie info, trailer, poster, photos, news, articles, and forum from the Rotten Tomatoes website.

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Dr. Strangelove

Part of the Kubrick Multimedia Film Guide site which provides information regarding the work of film director/producer Stanley Kubrick. The site serves mainly images and sounds from Kubrick's films.

Dr. Strangelove

A plot summary, some analysis, lots of stills, and sound clips. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find more treasures: a video clip from the movie, the script and a learning guide.

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on Stanley Kubrick

We studied Antonioni's 1966 film Blow-Up in previous years of this course. I've kept the resources links in case anyone is interested.

Blow-Up

Antonioni's 1966 film utilised swinging London and one of its key symbols, the fashion photographer. The Rotten Tomatoes site gives you all the details plus links to critical articles on the film.

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on Antonioni

Television in the 1960s

A brief, general overview of the topic and discussion of different aspects such as children's television and comedy, which have links to individual television programmes.

Sixties television

A chronology of mainly British TV history.

The Avengers forever!

A virtual encyclopædia of the cult British TV classic. Each and every episode, from David Keel to The New Avengers, has its own page brimming with information.
This site is part of theavengers.tv site where you will find more links.

Don't forget to check the Library Catalogue under Subject Heading for critical works on The Avengers TV series

Summer of Love: Sixties Music

The Council for the Summer of Love was founded in 1967 "to serve as a central clearing house for theatrical, musical, and artistic events, dances, concerts and happenings in the Haight-Ashbury district." The site has posters and photos and links to pages dealing with individual musicians of the sixties.

Head Sounds: Psychedelic Rock

A pretty comprehensive overview followed by detailed hyperlinked pages on the individuals and the bands, the scene, psychedelia, and so on. Produced by Britannica.com.
If you don't have Flash installed on your computer there is a text only version.

sixtiesrock.com bibliographies

"Sixtiesrock.com Bibliographies provide a comprehensive listing of articles and books related to sixties rock artists. For each artist listed, sixtiesrock.com will identify up to 100 articles and 100 books published on the artist or containing information on the artist."
Coverage is very patchy, (no Dylan, no Baez, no Beatles[!]) but there are useful bibliographies on Cream, Blind Faith and Fleetwood Mac.

Beyond the Beat Generation

Subtitled: 1964-1968 Music Library - The Undiscovered Area of 60s Underground, this Dutch site 'archives and publishes the entire, long forgotten 'wild' musical gems out of the great years of the sixties (1965-1969) using today's technology'. In other words, it's streaming audio broadcast, 24 hours, non-stop. You can download Win-amp from this site, or utilise any other player that can handle MP3s (I use iTunes on my Mac) and then tune in to the continuous broadcast.
They provide a link to another, similar streaming site: Technicolor Web of Sound.

Long way to the top: Stories of Australian rock 'n' roll

A warts-and-all look at the good, the bad and the downright ugly over 50 years of Australian rock, this website to accompany the ABC TV's 6-part history of rock music in Australia features episode summaries, rock timelines, and artist biographies.

The Virgin encyclopedia of sixties music

An excellent work, compiled and edited by Colin Larkin. The 3rd edition, published in London by Virgin in 2002, may be consulted in the Barr Smith Library Reference collection at Call number 781.6403 L324vs.3.

Here are some links to YouTube videos of the music and images of the Sixties:

The 60s: Peace Love & Music

A slideshow of images from the 60s with tracks by musicians including Morrison, Joplin, Beatles, Dylan, Mitchell, Grateful Dead, Timothy Leary, Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane. Time: 04:05.

The Sixties Generation

A scrolling list on a PDA of great hit songs of the Sixties Generation to the sound of a song called 'The Sixties Generation'. Time: 06:19.

History of British Rock - Part 1

Documentary tracing the roots of British Rock & Roll to the 1950s. From Bill Haley's Comets to Skiffle. Time: 03:02.

History of British Rock - Part 2

The documentary continues with the early Sixties music scene in Liverpool and the Mersey scene, including scenes of the Beatles, the Cavern and Brian Epstein. Time: 05:26.

History of British Rock - Part 3

A look at the big groups from the North: The Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Brian Poole & the Tremeloes, The Hollies, and others. Time: 04:26.

History of British Rock - Part 4

The documentary looks at the London Rhythm and Blues scene. Includes clips of The Rolling Stones and Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. Time: 04:24.

History of British Rock - Part 5

The beginning of the British invasion of the USA. The Beatles landed in New York City on 7 February 1964 and changed Rock & Roll forever! Time: 08:53.

History of British Rock - Part 6

The British groups hit the USA! Ed Sullivan introduces Gerry and the Pacemakers with Ferry 'Cross the Mersey, Freddie and the Dreamers, Manfred Mann. Time: 04:06.

History of British Rock - Part 7

Besides the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Animals are among the biggest of the British rock groups to invade the USA. Time: 05:41.

History of British Rock - Part 8

The Beatles and Herman's Hermits are featured. The segment on Swinging London is very cool. Time: 05:55.

History of British Rock - Part 9

Great performances by two of the most innovative groups of the time, Pete Townshend and The Who, and the Yardbirds. Time: 03:49.

History of British Rock - Part 9.5

It's 1966 and the Beatles give up touring after the Candlestick Park concert. Also features Cream and Hey, hey, we're the Monkees. Time: 05:33.

History of British Rock - Part 10 (Final)

The documentary culminates with the legendary Monterey Music Festival of June 1967, and the ultimate end to end all ends, My Generation by The Who. Time: 03:32.

Expecting Rain - Bob Dylan

"I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity." One of the pioneer sites on the Web dealing with Bob Dylan, Dylan's influences, lyrics and records.
If you want to keep right up to date with the very latest - tour dates and new recordings, etc., check out the official page bobdylan.com.

I am The Beatles

There is a plethora of Beatles sites on the web, as you would expect. This one should prove comprehensive enough for most people.
If you need information on a specific aspect of the Beatles, go to The Bagism site. Especially useful is the Chronology, a searchable database containing thousands of significant events in the lives of John Lennon and the other Beatles (both as a group and solo artists).

Joan Baez

The official website for Joan Baez. Biography, photos, tour dates, discography: it's all here.

Heavy Cream

Features The story of Cream as well as profiles of Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton, a discography, sound samples and a photo gallery.

ledzeppelin.com: the Official Led Zeppelin website

Visually rich pages containing all you need to know about Led Zep. There's even a collection of 'never before seen film clips and rare video' to enjoy.

The Grateful Dead

The official home page: heaps of photos, the band, free music downloads, and more...

The Andy Warhol Museum

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, in many ways epitomises the art of the sixties generation.
'The Andy Warhol Museum is a vital forum in which diverse audiences of artists, scholars and the general public are galvanized through creative interaction with the art and life of Andy Warhol. The Warhol is ever-changing and constantly re-defining itself in relation to contemporary life, using its unique collections and dynamic, interactive programming as tools. The Warhol is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. Opened in 1994, the Museum features extensive permanent collections of art and archives on one of the most influential American artists of the twentieth century. It is also a primary resource for anyone seeking insights into contemporary art and popular culture.

The American Museum of Beat Art

It's all here: posters, ephemera book covers, films and videos on all the beat writers and poets you have ever heard of, including a short biography and portrait of each individual.

Sixties artwork slideshow

Sixties posters mostly of concerts and festivals. Featuring Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Who, The Animals, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and more. On YouTube. Time: 02:44.

Sixties Fashion

Clothes styles, hair, dresses - lots of illustrations.

Women Fashions:1960

Lots of illustrations from sources such as Vogue and links to relevant pages. There's even a link to Australian fashion of the 1960s and 70s.

Sixties Fashion

A good, longish description of the major elements of '60s fashion - the designers, memories of the '60s hairdressing scene, plus heaps of fashion images.
Enjoy this site!

1950s and 1960s Fashion

A separate page for every year from 1950 to 1969, brought to you by the Paperpast Yearbook. Many pages include illustrations as well as a description of the fashion highights of each year.

Here are some YouTube links that will show you what sixties fashion was all about:

Swinging Sixties Fashion Exhibition

Clips illustrating the Sixties Fashion Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, June 2006 to February 2007.
The 1960s were a time of sweeping changes in society, politics and culture. Britain began to prosper again, and the young enjoyed a new freedom. As Time magazine famously explained to its American readers, 'London has burst into bloom. It swings; it is the scene'. Fashion, together with pop music, became Britain's most spectacular export. Like music, it flouted the rules of propriety and gender. It plundered the past, invented the future and travelled the world to find new ways of dressing. Fashion designers ignited the explosion in the youth market and became celebrities in their own right. Their clothes were manufactured in huge quantities for the mass market but also emulated by top couturiers. Their boutiques defined a new approach to shopping. Time: 02:03.

Sixties fashion: Carnaby Street

Contemporary black and white film clips in and around London's Carnaby Street. Time: 02:32.

60s Fashion

Trendy fashion shops in London's King's Road as shown in the Look at Life cinema series. Time: 08:57.

These books in the Barr Smith Library's Reference collection are useful sources for exploring the sixties. All of them have extensive bibliographies.

Click on the title if you want to see the Library Catalogue entry.

Zott, Lynn M. (ed.)The Beat Generation: a Gale critical companion
Detroit, Gale, 2003. 3 vols., ill.
Call number: BSL Reference collection 810.9 Z89b
This is definitely the best reference resource on the Beats. Volume 1 contains a chronology of key events, an overview, and separate articles on topics such as the Beat scene, performing arts and visual arts and the Beat Generation. Volumes 2 and 3 deal with individual authors.
All articles have a full critical apparatus: representative works, primary sources and extensive lists of further reading, and each volume has comprehensive author, title and subject indexes.
Enjoy!!

Charters, Ann (ed.) The beats: literary Bohemians in postwar America
Detroit, Gale, 1983. 2 vols., ill.
(Dictionary of literary biography, 16)
Call number: BSL Reference collection 920 D548 16 Parts 1 and 2
Another wonderful resource! There is an excellent six-page Foreword followed by chapters on the individual Beat Generation writers. Most chapters are accompanied by an illustration and end with bibliographic information such as a comprehensive listing of the writer's publications, a bibliography and a reference list of critical works. Part 2 has seven Appendices which include a Chronology and Books for further reading. are chapters on all of the main individual chapters on all the main writers, copiously illustrated throughout.

Theado, Matt (ed.) The beats: a documentary volume
Detroit, Gale Group, 2001. xxvi, 508 p., ill.
(Dictionary of literary biography, 237)
Call number: BSL Reference collection 920 D548 237
Another wonderful source! A Chronology followed by a Primary Bibliography, articles on the Beats in New York City and in the West, then individual chapters on all the main writers, copiously illustrated throughout. In a word: indispensable.

Hickey, Morgen The bohemian register: an annotated bibliography of the Beat literary movement
Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow Press, 1990. v, 252 p., ill.
Call number: BSL Reference collection 810.9 H628b

Wentworth, Harold Dictionary of American slang compiled and edited by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner. 2nd supplemented edition. [Note: don't look in the 3rd edition of Dictionary of American slang which is in our Reference collection: nearly all of the information on the beat generation has been omitted for some unfathomable reason. Look instead at the second edition in the Main collection]
New York, Crowell, 1975. xviii, 766p.
Call number: BSL Main collection 427 W478.2
See the entries under beat and hip, -py, -ster for definitions and extensive quotes from major articles on the Beat generation.

Need more?

There are other books in the Library on this topic. Have a look at the titles listed under the Subject Heading Beat generation and its subheadings in the Library Catalogue.

If you need help with Beat Generation   resources, click the button

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