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Il Beat Hotel. Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs e gli altri: l'avventura parigina dei beat
Nell’autunno del 1957 tre giovani poeti americani - Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso e Peter Orlovsky – arrivano a Parigi dopo un lungo vagabondaggio tra Africa ed Europa. Vorrebbero restare solo qualche settimana. Per i successivi tre anni Ginsberg e Corso, insieme a Orlovsky e a William Burroughs saranno invece al centro di un’eccentrica colonia di beat che metterà radici in un cadente albergo della Rive gauche, al 9 di rue Gît-le-Coeur: il Beat Hotel.
Anche nella tollerante atmosfera della Parigi di fine anni Cinquanta, l’infima pensione gestita da Madame Rachou rappresenta una sorta di porto franco per artisti in fuga dalla più repressiva società americana. Nelle stanze buie e sovraffollate del Beat Hotel si crea il miracolo di una nuova bohème, una stagione irripetibile di sperimentazioni creative, di droghe e di libero amore che gli stessi protagonisti hanno raccontato a Barry Miles in ore e ore di conversazioni pazientemente registrate dall’autore. È qui che l’ombroso e paranoico William Burroughs compone Pasto nudo; qui Allen Ginsberg intona la prima stesura di Kaddish, l’elogio funebre per la madre Naomi; qui Gregory Corso dipana la serie infinita delle sue avventure in terra di Francia e compone il suo primo e unico romanzo, American Express. Attorno a loro e alla loro amicizia, a volte difficile e accidentata, si intrecciano le storie di altri protagonisti, come Jack Kerouac, e di comprimari meno noti, come Brion Gysin e Ian Sommerville, geniali artisti multimediali con i quali William Burroughs dà avvio alla creazione dei primi cut-up.
Anche nella tollerante atmosfera della Parigi di fine anni Cinquanta, l’infima pensione gestita da Madame Rachou rappresenta una sorta di porto franco per artisti in fuga dalla più repressiva società americana. Nelle stanze buie e sovraffollate del Beat Hotel si crea il miracolo di una nuova bohème, una stagione irripetibile di sperimentazioni creative, di droghe e di libero amore che gli stessi protagonisti hanno raccontato a Barry Miles in ore e ore di conversazioni pazientemente registrate dall’autore. È qui che l’ombroso e paranoico William Burroughs compone Pasto nudo; qui Allen Ginsberg intona la prima stesura di Kaddish, l’elogio funebre per la madre Naomi; qui Gregory Corso dipana la serie infinita delle sue avventure in terra di Francia e compone il suo primo e unico romanzo, American Express. Attorno a loro e alla loro amicizia, a volte difficile e accidentata, si intrecciano le storie di altri protagonisti, come Jack Kerouac, e di comprimari meno noti, come Brion Gysin e Ian Sommerville, geniali artisti multimediali con i quali William Burroughs dà avvio alla creazione dei primi cut-up.
328 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2000
21 people are currently reading
1171 people want to read
About the author
Barry Miles
76 books152 followersBarry Miles is an English author best known for his deep involvement in the 1960s counterculture and for chronicling the era through his prolific writing. He played a key role in shaping and documenting the London underground scene, becoming a central figure among the poets, musicians, and artists who defined the decade’s rebellious spirit. A close associate of figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Paul McCartney, Miles not only witnessed the cultural revolution firsthand but also actively participated in it through ventures like the Indica Gallery and the alternative newspaper International Times.
In the early 1960s, Miles began working at Better Books in London, a progressive bookshop that became a hub for the avant-garde. While there, he was instrumental in organizing the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965, an event that marked the emergence of the British underground movement and featured prominent poets like Allen Ginsberg. The same year, Miles co-founded the Indica Bookshop and Gallery, which became a gathering place for creatives and countercultural icons. It was here that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono, at one of her art exhibitions.
Miles also played a role in launching International Times, one of the UK’s first underground newspapers, which Paul McCartney discreetly funded. Miles introduced McCartney to the people behind the project and facilitated many of his early connections with the underground scene. In 1967, he co-organized The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a legendary multimedia event at Alexandra Palace featuring Pink Floyd, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon, among others.
Later in the decade, Miles took on the management of Zapple Records, an experimental subsidiary of Apple Records. During this time, he produced poetry albums, including one by Richard Brautigan. However, his personal relationship with Brautigan became strained after Miles became romantically involved with Brautigan’s partner, Valerie Estes. The fallout led to communication only through legal representatives. Although Zapple closed before releasing the Brautigan album, it was eventually issued by another label in 1970.
Miles also produced a recording of Allen Ginsberg’s musical interpretation of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, which was released in 1970. He briefly lived with Ginsberg in New York before returning to England following the breakdown of his first marriage. He later married travel writer Rosemary Bailey and continued to live and work in London.
In addition to his memoirs In the Sixties and In the Seventies, Miles has written definitive biographies of cultural icons such as Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now), Frank Zappa, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg. He is also the author of Hippie, a visual and narrative exploration of the 1960s counterculture. His writings often reflect a mix of personal experience and historical documentation, offering insight into the worlds of rock, literature, and art.
Miles is known not only for his historical accounts but also for his critical views, including pointed commentary on musicians like Rush and Frank Zappa, examining the political and commercial aspects of their work. With a career that spans over five decades, Barry Miles remains one of the most insightful chroniclers of the countercultural and musical revolutions of the 20th century.
In the early 1960s, Miles began working at Better Books in London, a progressive bookshop that became a hub for the avant-garde. While there, he was instrumental in organizing the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965, an event that marked the emergence of the British underground movement and featured prominent poets like Allen Ginsberg. The same year, Miles co-founded the Indica Bookshop and Gallery, which became a gathering place for creatives and countercultural icons. It was here that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono, at one of her art exhibitions.
Miles also played a role in launching International Times, one of the UK’s first underground newspapers, which Paul McCartney discreetly funded. Miles introduced McCartney to the people behind the project and facilitated many of his early connections with the underground scene. In 1967, he co-organized The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a legendary multimedia event at Alexandra Palace featuring Pink Floyd, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon, among others.
Later in the decade, Miles took on the management of Zapple Records, an experimental subsidiary of Apple Records. During this time, he produced poetry albums, including one by Richard Brautigan. However, his personal relationship with Brautigan became strained after Miles became romantically involved with Brautigan’s partner, Valerie Estes. The fallout led to communication only through legal representatives. Although Zapple closed before releasing the Brautigan album, it was eventually issued by another label in 1970.
Miles also produced a recording of Allen Ginsberg’s musical interpretation of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, which was released in 1970. He briefly lived with Ginsberg in New York before returning to England following the breakdown of his first marriage. He later married travel writer Rosemary Bailey and continued to live and work in London.
In addition to his memoirs In the Sixties and In the Seventies, Miles has written definitive biographies of cultural icons such as Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now), Frank Zappa, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg. He is also the author of Hippie, a visual and narrative exploration of the 1960s counterculture. His writings often reflect a mix of personal experience and historical documentation, offering insight into the worlds of rock, literature, and art.
Miles is known not only for his historical accounts but also for his critical views, including pointed commentary on musicians like Rush and Frank Zappa, examining the political and commercial aspects of their work. With a career that spans over five decades, Barry Miles remains one of the most insightful chroniclers of the countercultural and musical revolutions of the 20th century.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
November 5, 2012
The one thing that stuck me as weird about this book is that Burroughs, Ginsberg, Corso, and others didn't really mixed in with the French artists/writers of that same period. I mean Camus, Vian, Sartre, Cocteau, were all there - yet the Beats kept to themselves. It sort of turns me off on them. A typical American behavior to move anywhere in the world and it's still America. Which is ironic with respect to the Beats..
But saying that I think Miles got the voices and times down in this biography of an era, or of of a hotel that housed such brilliant men at their prime -even though they didn't socialize too much out of their circle -unless there was some money to be made or hustled.
But saying that I think Miles got the voices and times down in this biography of an era, or of of a hotel that housed such brilliant men at their prime -even though they didn't socialize too much out of their circle -unless there was some money to be made or hustled.
January 9, 2024
American Bohemians In Paris
Barry Miles' book, "The Beat Hotel" explores the American beat movement during a time in which most of its major representatives, (with the exception of Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder) were in Paris at a cheap, nameless hotel located at Rue Git-Le-Coeur, and managed by one Madame Rachon. The hotel was cheap and unsanitary. As long as the guests paid their bills, Madame Rachon allowed them a broad range of freedom in their eccentric lifestyles. The beat hotel was home to the beats as well as to various artists, models, and other bohemians before it closed in 1963.
The book includes convincing biographical portrayals of Allen Ginsberg, his lover Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin (whose name was unfamiliar to me), and others who stayed at the beat hotel. Miles gives detailed documentation on the activities of each during their stay in the beat hotel while reflecting upon why each of these individuals is worth knowing about.
I found the discussion of the day-to-day life in the hotel the most rewarding part of the book together with a discussion of the relationships of the beats, and other guests, to Olympia Press. The Olympia Press published works by many of the Beats together with many works of pornography at that time available only with difficulty in the United States.
The book invites reflection on the nature of the beat movement and of the broader movement of bohemianism as it developed earlier in the 19th Century. What were the beats looking for? They were full of unconventional, shocking behavior, particularly in the abuse of drugs and sex as these are documented graphically in the book. They were also serious, had a dedication to literature, a willingness to explore and to come to terms with themselves, a desire for change. The beats were perhaps the most cohesive literary movement 20th Century America has produced and in some cases produced works of merit. Miles's discussion of the work and achievement of these writers encourages one to want to know more.
Miles ties the beats in to later developments in pop culture in the 1960s: rock and roll, psychedelics, open sexuality. This to me is claiming too little and too much. It trivializes this movement, I think, to watch the commercialization that took place during the 1960. The beats were isolated, troubled, and searching individuals who, in their productive days, neither had nor wanted the glare of the media. What they did was for themselves and what we make of them is a matter for reflection and not for subsequent 1960s hype.
I read Miles biography of Kerouac and was moved by it to read this book. I wasn't disappointed. He is a thoughtful writer on a significant American literary movement.
Robin Friedman
Barry Miles' book, "The Beat Hotel" explores the American beat movement during a time in which most of its major representatives, (with the exception of Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder) were in Paris at a cheap, nameless hotel located at Rue Git-Le-Coeur, and managed by one Madame Rachon. The hotel was cheap and unsanitary. As long as the guests paid their bills, Madame Rachon allowed them a broad range of freedom in their eccentric lifestyles. The beat hotel was home to the beats as well as to various artists, models, and other bohemians before it closed in 1963.
The book includes convincing biographical portrayals of Allen Ginsberg, his lover Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin (whose name was unfamiliar to me), and others who stayed at the beat hotel. Miles gives detailed documentation on the activities of each during their stay in the beat hotel while reflecting upon why each of these individuals is worth knowing about.
I found the discussion of the day-to-day life in the hotel the most rewarding part of the book together with a discussion of the relationships of the beats, and other guests, to Olympia Press. The Olympia Press published works by many of the Beats together with many works of pornography at that time available only with difficulty in the United States.
The book invites reflection on the nature of the beat movement and of the broader movement of bohemianism as it developed earlier in the 19th Century. What were the beats looking for? They were full of unconventional, shocking behavior, particularly in the abuse of drugs and sex as these are documented graphically in the book. They were also serious, had a dedication to literature, a willingness to explore and to come to terms with themselves, a desire for change. The beats were perhaps the most cohesive literary movement 20th Century America has produced and in some cases produced works of merit. Miles's discussion of the work and achievement of these writers encourages one to want to know more.
Miles ties the beats in to later developments in pop culture in the 1960s: rock and roll, psychedelics, open sexuality. This to me is claiming too little and too much. It trivializes this movement, I think, to watch the commercialization that took place during the 1960. The beats were isolated, troubled, and searching individuals who, in their productive days, neither had nor wanted the glare of the media. What they did was for themselves and what we make of them is a matter for reflection and not for subsequent 1960s hype.
I read Miles biography of Kerouac and was moved by it to read this book. I wasn't disappointed. He is a thoughtful writer on a significant American literary movement.
Robin Friedman
October 13, 2025
Overall, a pretty good book if you are interested in the beat generation at all–this is an interesting time and place that hasn’t been written about a ton. That said, the author’s knowledge is unfortunately pretty narrow: in places, the book kind of breaks down into long strings of anecdotes and name soup of every semi-famous artist the main group met, but at one point he claims rock and roll didn’t exist in 1960. He also says in passing that the San Francisco Renaissance must be named after the Harlem Renaissance since there “was no prior artistic movement in San Francisco,” which is a strange mistake to make in a book about bohemians. Small errors that kind of made me doubt his research, but still the core information was overall enjoyable and interesting.
January 25, 2014
I have been wanting to buy Barry Miles's "The Beat Hotel" for several years, but every copy I've found in bookstores has had a split or a binding problem serious enough that I wouldn't add the copy to my collection. But I still wanted to read the book, and came across it recently in the public library.
"The Beat Hotel" was a filthy, seedy, run-down hotel on Paris's Left Bank that was operated by an old woman who enjoyed the company of writers, artists, and other creative types, and who wasn't bothered by drug use or sexual experimentation. In the last few years that the hotel was open, it was home to almost all of the major Beat writers (Jack Kerouac being the most notable exception), who had taken to traveling the world just as the Beat movement was being discovered stateside by the American media and the public in general.
The Beat Hotel era had two main periods: 1957-1958, when the leading Beat figure in residence was Allen Ginsburg, with Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, and William Burroughs as supporting players, and 1958-1963, when Burroughs, Corso, Brion Gysin, and various Burroughs collaborators dominated the scene. It was a time of enormous creativity and discovery, with Ginsberg and Corso writing some of their most important poems, "Naked Lunch" finally getting published, and Burroughs and Gysin examining alternative states of consciousness and understanding, working with the cut-up technique, the "dreamachine," and audio-visual experiments.
The book confirmed something I've been suspecting for a few months now--that Allen Ginsberg, rather than Jack Kerouac--was the central figure of the Beat movement. While Kerouac is bathed in a legendary aura of unapproachable coolness and hipness, and indeed freed up the language with his spontaneous prose and poetry, he was also a mama's boy, who spent the last decade of his short life drinking himself to death and stewing in paleo-conservative bigotry.
If Kerouac was the Christ of the Beat Movement, then Ginsberg was its St. Paul, and he worked diligently to encourage his friends in their creative endeavors, and to get their work published. He traveled all over the world for fifty years, preaching the Beat gospel of liberation, and if some of his pronouncements occasionally bordered on the ridiculous, there was no doubting his sincerity or enthusiasm.
But to get back to the book, it is a breezy, enjoyable read, although I noticed a good deal of typos and editorial goofs towards the end. It also would've benefitted greatly from an index. Still, if you're a fan of the Beats, or are a creative person yourself, you'll be carried away by Miles's descriptions of Paris in that period as a Bohemian Eden, and will be sick with jealousy that you weren't around the Beat Hotel in those days to bask in the glow of so much brilliance concentrated into one small spot.
"The Beat Hotel" was a filthy, seedy, run-down hotel on Paris's Left Bank that was operated by an old woman who enjoyed the company of writers, artists, and other creative types, and who wasn't bothered by drug use or sexual experimentation. In the last few years that the hotel was open, it was home to almost all of the major Beat writers (Jack Kerouac being the most notable exception), who had taken to traveling the world just as the Beat movement was being discovered stateside by the American media and the public in general.
The Beat Hotel era had two main periods: 1957-1958, when the leading Beat figure in residence was Allen Ginsburg, with Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, and William Burroughs as supporting players, and 1958-1963, when Burroughs, Corso, Brion Gysin, and various Burroughs collaborators dominated the scene. It was a time of enormous creativity and discovery, with Ginsberg and Corso writing some of their most important poems, "Naked Lunch" finally getting published, and Burroughs and Gysin examining alternative states of consciousness and understanding, working with the cut-up technique, the "dreamachine," and audio-visual experiments.
The book confirmed something I've been suspecting for a few months now--that Allen Ginsberg, rather than Jack Kerouac--was the central figure of the Beat movement. While Kerouac is bathed in a legendary aura of unapproachable coolness and hipness, and indeed freed up the language with his spontaneous prose and poetry, he was also a mama's boy, who spent the last decade of his short life drinking himself to death and stewing in paleo-conservative bigotry.
If Kerouac was the Christ of the Beat Movement, then Ginsberg was its St. Paul, and he worked diligently to encourage his friends in their creative endeavors, and to get their work published. He traveled all over the world for fifty years, preaching the Beat gospel of liberation, and if some of his pronouncements occasionally bordered on the ridiculous, there was no doubting his sincerity or enthusiasm.
But to get back to the book, it is a breezy, enjoyable read, although I noticed a good deal of typos and editorial goofs towards the end. It also would've benefitted greatly from an index. Still, if you're a fan of the Beats, or are a creative person yourself, you'll be carried away by Miles's descriptions of Paris in that period as a Bohemian Eden, and will be sick with jealousy that you weren't around the Beat Hotel in those days to bask in the glow of so much brilliance concentrated into one small spot.
September 19, 2020
I don't know much about the Beat writers so this was interesting to see one of their most creative periods. I wish there was a little more analysis of their actual work but there was a lot about the process of cut up in writing and in picture making. That was interesting.
October 19, 2016
As I had previously read around this subject quite extensively, including the Burroughs and Ginsberg biographies by the same author, it is difficult for me to judge it as a stand alone work. I think it would probably be a good introduction for someone new to this subject. I have reservations regarding non-homosexuals writing about our lives from their perspective. It's quite simple... they have a different frame of reference regarding relationships and casual sex.
October 12, 2018
Informative bio on Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Corso in Paris at 9 rue Git-le-Coeur, 1957-1963, productive years, work. experimentation, and fun and fights with all types including Euro literati and society. Cameos by fascinating companions and other writers and artists who passed through. (Seems the author is not particularly fond of Jack.)
June 26, 2018
I found this book to be quite interesting. It gave me a much better understanding of what a creative force William Burroughs was. It also introduced me to a lot of artists I had never heard of before. It had some nice in-depth explanations of the techniques used and developed by the Beats: Cut-Ups, scrying, Dream Machines.
January 22, 2020
Great read. Reads very much like a research text that expands on the Beats time in Paris and just how quintessential the beat hotel was. At times this can jump around a bit, but overall it provides some killer inspiration on the interaction between all the beats outside of their normal NYC or San Fran contexts. This is a definite lead in to reading Naked Lunch or Howl both of which were written during these periods.
August 8, 2023
I most enjoyed reading this when it spoke about Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs in Paris, as I was traveling in/out of Paris at the time and I do enjoy some Beats history/art from time to time. This was a great, informative book about their ventures there.
November 10, 2018
3.5
I learned a lot about the authors that I admire. I am fascinated with The Beat Writers. I really enjoyed this book!
I learned a lot about the authors that I admire. I am fascinated with The Beat Writers. I really enjoyed this book!
December 1, 2018
read this book a couple years ago, and it was brilliant and i've been thinking about rereading it for a long while. in english this time, of course. i just have to get a copy.
March 28, 2019
The best hotel: gensberg,Burroughs and corso I paris,1957-91963
January 28, 2020
Interesting "documentary". I think I would have hated to be anywhere near these guys at the time!!
October 11, 2020
Excellent! Barry Miles always writes high quality material and what a topic, what subject matter? Truly original stuff and highly recommended.
November 29, 2021
Esta gente estaba loca.
Leeré los libros de Burroughs y Gysin más pronto que tarde.
Leeré los libros de Burroughs y Gysin más pronto que tarde.
April 10, 2020
love reading biographies of trashy and talented people and this one is really a good one, have to check other books by barry miles. i also loved the idea to cover a specific period in their lives when they lived in paris in beat hotel and tell about the people involved from this point of view.
it was weird to realize that beatnicks being in paris never met and worked with great frenchies of that time: camus, sartre, surrealists.
it was weird to realize that beatnicks being in paris never met and worked with great frenchies of that time: camus, sartre, surrealists.
December 28, 2015
By the end of this book I had become weary of this group of reprobates although fascinated with the ingenious ways they made ends meet during their time in Paris and elsewhere. How William Burroughs survived until his '80s in an almost permanent drug haze is incredible and I was left in no doubt about his genius. As for most of the others, it is not surprising that they are less well known. Poor Gregory Corso, a pitiful figure, is cast as a tragic clown in the episode where he buys a white Alpaca dinner jacket in Venice with a royalties cheque he received. Alan Ginsberg comes across as the only one worthy of the title of intellectual. Like another reviewer, I was surprised the the Beats did not really engage with the French intellectuals of the time. The most interesting chapter deals with the technique of cut-up for generating new literary work. Barry Miles has researched his topic thoroughly and drawn on his extensive contact with Ginsberg, Burroughs and Corso as well as their associates. However, I found his switching between first names (eg referring to Burroughs as Bill) and surnames very annoying and at times confusing. Although Miles did not frequent the Beat Hotel or even know the Beats during the period covered by this book, he draws us into their squalor as if he did. Although an index would have been helpful, the extensive bibliography provides a wealth of resources should the reader want to explore this topic further.
June 17, 2010
I am the same age that Ginsberg was during the time that this book is set. He was living in Paris' Left Bank, coming off a huge success with Howl, surrounded by writers and artists, having sex with everyone, doing all kinds of drugs and getting up to all kinds of hijinks. Well and what have I done???
Full of bits of trivia, particularly on Allen Ginsberg and William S Burroughs, that probably wouldn't be NEW new to anyone that's read other biographies but most of it was NEW new to me. Burroughs liked to harass/torture cats, for instance. He was into scrying and Scientology. Ginsberg liked to cook for his friends. Ginsberg's mother had schizophrenia and he avoided women that looked like her (um, kind of like me from the description given) but those are the exact kind that were always attracted to him. He has always been my fave Beat. In fact, my opinions of Burroughs and Kerouac were not helped at all by this book. Kerouac was a whiny, stingy, jerk, apparently. Burroughs was an alien.
I gave this book two stars mainly because the section towards the end of the book on Brion Gysin's and Bill Burroughs Cut-up technique is way way way too long.
Full of bits of trivia, particularly on Allen Ginsberg and William S Burroughs, that probably wouldn't be NEW new to anyone that's read other biographies but most of it was NEW new to me. Burroughs liked to harass/torture cats, for instance. He was into scrying and Scientology. Ginsberg liked to cook for his friends. Ginsberg's mother had schizophrenia and he avoided women that looked like her (um, kind of like me from the description given) but those are the exact kind that were always attracted to him. He has always been my fave Beat. In fact, my opinions of Burroughs and Kerouac were not helped at all by this book. Kerouac was a whiny, stingy, jerk, apparently. Burroughs was an alien.
I gave this book two stars mainly because the section towards the end of the book on Brion Gysin's and Bill Burroughs Cut-up technique is way way way too long.
August 28, 2014
**1/2
An anemic account of American Beat writers living the bohemian life in a hellhole hotel in Paris. Many of the anecdotes described fall flat and lack meaning or interest. The first half of the book follows the silly sybaritic antics of Ginsberg and Corso, fulfilling the ugly american stereotype by being obnoxious and crude in front of Parisian elite and insuling established French artists. This section reveals them to be just goofy unsupervised children who just happen to be heroin addicts and great poets.
The second section sees the departure of Ginsberg (love the poet, but unimpressed by the man) and the entrance of Burroughs and Gysin. The book suddenly becomes interesting, because Burroughs and Gysin are searching for new artistic voices and new avenues of consciousness expansion/exploration. Burroughs thinks he can become invisible and becomes involved in Scientology. And Gysin develops the Cut-Up literary method and the Dreammachine. Along the way they meet like-minded weirdos and perform numerous 'happenings.'
An anemic account of American Beat writers living the bohemian life in a hellhole hotel in Paris. Many of the anecdotes described fall flat and lack meaning or interest. The first half of the book follows the silly sybaritic antics of Ginsberg and Corso, fulfilling the ugly american stereotype by being obnoxious and crude in front of Parisian elite and insuling established French artists. This section reveals them to be just goofy unsupervised children who just happen to be heroin addicts and great poets.
The second section sees the departure of Ginsberg (love the poet, but unimpressed by the man) and the entrance of Burroughs and Gysin. The book suddenly becomes interesting, because Burroughs and Gysin are searching for new artistic voices and new avenues of consciousness expansion/exploration. Burroughs thinks he can become invisible and becomes involved in Scientology. And Gysin develops the Cut-Up literary method and the Dreammachine. Along the way they meet like-minded weirdos and perform numerous 'happenings.'
July 4, 2009
A piece I wrote about Jack Kerouac was recently published in Blue Moon Literary & Art Review, an up and coming Davis, California journal you should check out. After a reading event, a Kerouac fan gave me a copy of THE BEAT HOTEL by Barry Miles. Read this book if you have interest in the Beats, especially their intense relationships with their contemporaries. Some of the material is a retelling of accounts, much will add to your knowledge about these multifaceted writers. Barry Miles has studied the Beat generation for 30+ years. This is not his first book about them. I hope that it won’t be his last.
June 30, 2015
This is really the story of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and the development of the cut up technique. Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso certainly exist on the fringes but that's really all. Obstensibly this is the story of the Beat Hotel and the period when as many Beat Writers as artists from all schools and disciplines syayed there. A good book that documents an important time of growth for Burroughs.
March 4, 2013
This book really brought the beat authors to life for me. It explained in kind of a nonfiction novel-like format their relationships with each other, their quirks and personalities, and the behind-the-scenes influences for their famous (and lesser-known) works of writing. You leave with a very good idea of each individual occupant of hotel at 9 Rue Git-Le-Coeur, and perhaps inspired by their dedication to their art and poetry.
June 3, 2008
Worth reading if the topic is of interest. It is fairly straightforward and is the correct length for the subject manner.
I did seem some passages that I believe appeared nearly verbatim in Miles's biography of Burroughs. I don't know if that is laziness, an accident, or a sly homage to Burroughs, who would have appreciated such a thing.
I did seem some passages that I believe appeared nearly verbatim in Miles's biography of Burroughs. I don't know if that is laziness, an accident, or a sly homage to Burroughs, who would have appreciated such a thing.
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January 5, 2016I don't know much about the "French years" of the Beat Generation. I have read, On the Road, and Howl, although it was some time ago. I now want to read Burroughs and Corso, whom I had never before heard of.
July 7, 2013
An indispensable read for anyone researching or simply reading about the Beat Generation. Thoroughly researched, both gossipy and scholarly, and a fun read. One have been a five-star review if it had been more thoroughly edited (i.e I don't need a full explanation of what yage is four times over). Highly recommended.
July 22, 2013
Well written book, gives you details that are hilarious like allen and gregory's routine of kissing the feet or knees of renowned artists and writers they meet. Bill becomes more inhuman, Allen develops the lovebrain with Peter, Gregory lives his version of a romantic poet with vagabond posturing and rich women hustling, Brion makes the dreamachine and gives Bill the idea for the cut-up
April 18, 2016
Incredibly interesting insight in life of the greatest authors of Beat Generation - Allen Ginsberg, Bill Burroughs, Gregory Corso and Jack Kerouac. It includes sketches from love life, spiritual quests, experimentation with psychedelic drugs and of course stories about how their masterpieces were written.
P.S. I still wonder why Burroughs cut off his little finger...
P.S. I still wonder why Burroughs cut off his little finger...
July 4, 2015
A decent book for established fans of the Beats. If you are new to Ginsberg Burroughs etc I would recommend starting with the biographies by Bill Morgan and Barry Miles. The last few chapters after Ginsberg's departure were painful. It's a shame G B and Corso were so self absorbed and didn't engage in the French literary scene of the mid to late 50s!
December 8, 2023
Elizabeth and I actually stayed in the Beat Hotel on one of our Paris trips. West of Norte Dame, on the left bank, just off the Quai des Grands Augustins. Narrow steep staircases. Thick, exposed wooden beams. It was terrific. Our favorite restaurant back then was the Cafe des Arts about half a block away on le Rue St. Andre des Arts. It’s gone now.
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