Art Rock
Art Rock Index

Modernism
Modernism Index

Beat Poetry
Beat Index

The Beat writers were a group of people who isolated themselves from
mainstream society during the 50s and 60s. At first, their life-style revolved around
taking drugs and commiting crimes to be able to support themselves. Fortunately,
when the Beats got more organized and started to publish their poetry and novels
they no longer needed to resort to crime for a livelihood. Allen Ginsberg seems to
be one of the most influential Beat poets and is still active as a writer today. Jack
Kerouac, Neal Cassady and William S.Bourroughs are also part of the original
Beat writers. Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo greatly admires Beat poetry and recently
published some of Kerouac's work and also his own Road Movies.