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Manuscript Item: William Burroughs, “Letter to Paul from the Rue Git Le Coeur,” c. 1950s. William S. Burroughs collection, circa 1950-2004

This letter is a correspondence between William Burroughs and his friend Paul in 1960, upon Burroughs returning from Tangier. Burroughs speaks to where he desires to travel next, and does so with a sense of ambiguity. This ambiguity is somewhat pessimistic, in that he speaks badly of locations such as Mexico. Burroughs also has a sense of excitement, where locations all over the world seem to be in play for Burroughs’ next travel.

The letter also outlines how far in advance Burroughs plans. He has no idea what he will do next, but all he knows is that he won’t stay stagnant for too long. Overall, the letter outlines Burroughs’ love of travel, his desire to experience the world and feel free from the mundane that ties down the “squares” whom he speaks of, and his inability to stay stagnant for extended periods of time.

Correspondence: Allen Ginsberg, Correspondence from Ginsberg, 1974-1975. Raymond Danowski Poetry Library collection, circa 1904-2013.

Allen Ginsberg’s career includes writing, political/social activism and mentorship. As it relates to mentorship, Ginsberg earned the reputation of being supportive of his generation of writers and those that followed him. This personal passion turned into to a profession when he helped found the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in 1974.

This correspondence, from Ginsberg to a student named Jonathan Rollins in 1974, is to persuade Rollins to join the Naropa Institute for a summer session. Ginsberg sees potential in Rollins and credits him with “real, high, time poetry.” He wants to support his development and includes an application to the program with information about scholarships and grants. Ginsberg actively took part in the development of writers so that they could then use their prose to challenge and progress society, develop interesting minds, and contribute to collaborative poesy.

The digital exhibition reconsiders counterculture as a medium that encompasses both academics and activists as pioneers of post war and beat culture. Through a collection from the Rose Library at Emory University, especially the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, this exhibit presents a new definition of the term “counterculture” itself and shows many Beat and countercultural icons as influential to the entire movement.

Pay off: nonconformist attitudes of the beat generation; the influence of people beyond the usual “beats”; addresses beat mythology

Tags: names (Kerouac, Cassady, Ulewicz), beat women, women, counterculture, black panther, black, music, Joans, correspondence, letters, protest, enlightenment, poetry, activism, marginalized, religion, subculture

The Beats popularized and subverted the idea of being “down and out” or on the fringes of society as a rebellion against the establishment. However, the grand ideas of license, liberty, and reclaiming adversity ultimately fell flat, co-opting marginalized groups and people who really were “down and out.” Though the Beats changed American culture forever, they failed to make a place for everyone to come to the table, specifically the ones whose experiences they appropriated.

Title: Daring and Dreaming

The items in this exhibit – whether they be posters, poems, books, letters, or essays – show the separation of the Beat generation from the mainstream while also showing its unity within itself. The Beat generation found unity in becoming the voice of a philosophy of freedom – freedom of politics, religion, literary style, and identity. It is our hope that viewers will come to a deeper understanding of the Beat generation and the many facets of the philosophy that informed these writers, musicians, artists, protesters, and thinkers.

possible tags: religion, mental health, civil rights 

In sifting through a collection of correspondences and works by members of the Beat generation, we have each gravitated towards various themes that were explored by the different members of this famed literary group. On display is a select group of documents, each of which can be viewed as a point of entry into the individual research completed by the members of our class. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience a student run, online exhibit, where each student did intensive research, and also, along the help with Professor Goldsman, had a hand in shaping the look and structure of the exhibit.

There are many themes explored in each exhibit, however the underlying theme that ties each presentation together is the Beats’ rejection of mainstream society. This is truly one of the first major counterculture movements to rock the core of American society, and what exists here is fresh, firsthand research on documents from Beat writers that have not been widely exploited by research past.

This digital exhibit covers many aspects of the Beat Generation spanning the literary, political, and religious facets of their movement. The digital cases provide historical, cultural context for understanding who the Beats were, and what their purpose was. Viewers of the exhibit gain an extensive understanding of the main representatives of the generation, such as Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and what made the Beats so unique. The examination of several of the individual Beats reveals their inspirations and beliefs. A hallmark of the Beat Generation that many cases in this exhibit emphasize is the rebellion that the Beats presented to mainstream society. The Beats were strongly anti-conformist, and that came through in their separation of themselves from “square” society and their denying of the status-quo. The exhibit also highlights lesser known Beats and people who were on the fridge of the movement, including their contributions to the advancement of the movement.

Key Ideas: resistance, movements, significant figures, inspiration

Pay Off: This digital exhibition will provide insight on significant figures and movements associated with the Beat Generation that are often overlooked in order to provide a deeper understanding of the counter culture movement.

Big Idea: The Effects of the Beat Generation in propelling the Counter Culture Movement

Bob Dylan, author, Clinton Heylin, editor, Saved!: The Gospel Speeches of Bob Dylan, (Madras; New York: Hanuman Books, 1990).

When Bob Dylan rose to fame in the early 1960s, many fans and critics pointed out similarities between Dylan and the Beat Writers. While likenesses are found in writing style, influence over modern society, and preference to disassociate from the mainstream, characterizing Dylan as a Beat writer remains a point of contention today. For many, the final piece of evidence separating Dylan from the Beat writers came in the late 1970s when Dylan announced his conversion to Evangelical Christianity. Since the Beat writers have strong ties to Zen Buddhism, Evangelical Christianity represents Dylan’s complete turn away from the Beat writers. Saved!: The Gospel Speeches of Bob Dylan offers transcriptions of Christian speeches that Dylan gave at his concerts from 1978 to 1980. Although Bob Dylan has now seemingly moved on from his Evangelical Christian phase, many fans and critics still view Dylan’s conversion as a defining moment of his career.

Ted Joans, The Hipsters, (New York, NY: Corinth Books; distributed by the Citadel Press, 1961

Published at the height of the Rent-a-Beatnik era, Ted Joans, a surrealist, artist, writer, and performer known for his performances where he mocked the Beat aesthetic, captures the “The funny, wild, hilarious and witty world of the hipsters from Greenwich Village to Paris, A mixture of Dali, Ernst and Kerouac stirred up in a surrealist stew by America’s only true “insider” and “outsider”—Ted Joans, a young Negro painter and coffee shop poet…”(cover).

With performance at the heart of the Beat Generation, it gave birth to social and artistic performances among both Blacks and whites that stereotyped Beats as “Hipsters” (first explored in Norman Mailer’s The White Negro, 1957). These Hipsters, “could hardly maintain the courage to be individual, to speak with one’s own voice…” (Mailer, 1957). As Beats appropriated the life and culture of minorities, their act awakens legacies of minstrelsy, godfathered through the Blues.