Whitman's Wild Children

by Neeli Cherkovski

Beat poet, Neeli Cherkovski, exuberantly probes and locates Whitmanesque poetics in the works of Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Broughton, Harold Norse, Phillip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman, William Everson, and Gregory Corso.

Genres: Biography

261 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1988

About the author

Neeli Cherkovski (born Nelson Innis Cherry) grew up in Los Angeles, California and moved to San Francisco in 1974, where he was a member of the vibrant North Beach literary community. He has lived with Jesse Cabrera since 1983. Cherkovski has published many books and his work has been translated into many languages. His papers are archived at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. He is a recipient of an American Book Award, a Josephine Miles National Literary Award, and is a San Francisco Public Library Literary Laureate. A Greek translation of Cherkovski's selected poems will be published in 2024 and his book of portrait poems will be published by City Lights Books in 2025. He is currently working on a memoir of his life, as well as a collection of literary essays.

Reviews

[E. D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

More a memoir than potted biography, Cherkovski manages to make visible a thread that loosely connects the post-Beat parallel- Beat generation without offering them as necessary sacrifices to the Altar of Kerouac.

[Emma Strawbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

ugh. too many men but interesting stories

[H]

bukowski lamantia ginsberg ferlinghetti