The Portable Beat Reader

by Ann Charters (Editor)

The Portable Beat Reader is an excellent and thorough study of the Beat Generation, compiled and edited by Ann Charters, biographer of Jack Kerouac and one of our most notable experts on Beat literature and ideas. This lively work of scholarship goes deeply into the history of the Beat movement, investigating events such as the discovery (by writer William Burroughs) of the word beat to describe this literary generation. The reader includes essays on all the major prose and poetry writers, such as Allen Ginsberg, and offers rare insight into the literary-historical context of the movement.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Classics, Anthologies, Literature, Short Stories, Essays

645 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Anton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessity. Not a book you need to plow through in its entirety, but reassuring to have on the shelf, to dip into now and again to check one's cynicism, recalibrate the moral compass. However naive the Beats' idealism sometimes seems, and however unfortunately susceptible to caricature they've become in the popular imagination, they remain an essential component of American literature and culture. Whether their ethos is really livable, possible, or even desirable is beside the point: they continue to present a challenge to the imagination and the status quo and offer a refreshingly popular model of poetics.

Again, no need to sit down and read the whole thing. Some of the writers are better than others. Page through and use this book to find the ones you like and get a sense of the movement as a whole.

(And I'm tired of the criticism Kerouac et al are best served adolescent readers - this view too shall pass, and On the Road be read without apology for the masterwork of naked, flawed, lived, absurdist lyricism it is.)

[Meike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Charters gives a rather comprehensive (totally comprehensive would be impossible as this is such a vast, partly ongoing movemenet) overview of American Beat writing, and she also includes largely overlooked female figures like Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones. Many authors are covered, contextualized with short introductions and excerpts give Beat newbies a decent idea of what they were / are all about. Good stuff!

[brass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I brought it with me to New York in 1994 to The Beat Writers' Conference @ NYU. I was still leaking breast milk. I touched knees with Allen Ginsberg while he rambled on and signed his name next to 'America'.

Fuck the Government. I am a romantic like that.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 16, and by 17, I was off on an adventure that lasted until I was 35. I still, to this day, long for freedom and for the open road. Of a childish life of multiple romances and endless celebration from town to town, countryside to countryside. Thank you Ginsberg. Thank you Kerouac. Thank you Thank you, William S. Burroughs. Xoxo

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

These notes are for Allen Ginsberg, my personal connection to the Beats.

Like, crazy, man. Beat is what you find when you pore into Jehovah's asshole or the Buddha's vag. That bright, shining moment when the coyote meets the policeman on the beat, and beats him at chess...when you are looking to score some tea and are too stoned to find the wrapping papers...sit down at the typewriter and invoke Rimbau'd ghost by chanting Om Oh Om (Allen did this while he was being mugged in New York City); it's that crazy feeling that you are a Negro wannabe but wouldn't want to be a Negro in Kafka's Amerika, and secretly confide to yourself that Norman Mailer was right when he wrote: "the hipster is a white Negro"....No Beat without mass death at the hands of the Holy H-Bomb, like that 21-year old genius sang us in "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" (Happy 81st birthday, Bob). The Beat is a chair, not a chair for looking at or putting in a museum. You sit on that chair. Drop out, tune out, and for Krishna's sake stay away from the 9 to 5 chattel. Old Bull Lee did alright shooting smack, getting Naked for Lunch (a title Kerouac threw at him), and buggering boys (JUNKY, QUEER). Nothing false can be beaten, or Beat, and "your poetry is bullshit because all politics is bullshit", sayeth Zimmerman. Beats can dance to the far right (Jack K. writing for NATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW) or the far left (Allen---"America, I was a Communist in my youth and I am not sorry"). The Beats left us, we hipsters, an attitude---love, peace, and pass the doobie--- and three classics (ON THE ROAD, NAKED LUNCH, and "Howl"). Ms. Charters, I salute you true Red, White, and Blue in the name of the Beat Preservation Society and the Kiwanis Club of Akron.

[Simon Robs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Charters' assemblage of Beat/Gen. personalities and the best of their poetry/bop prosody is fine fettle casting an era of divergence from post-war/Cold War ennui and set the stage for 60's/70's upheaval war protest that split the country leading eventually to our present day polarization and identity politics quagmire. We learn that Beat lit was a lot more than just "Howl" and "On The Road" and "Naked Lunch" even if those remain the pillars of the so-called movement. Beyond the obvious "beats" aspect of rap & hip hop culture there seems to me verisimilar root parallels to Beat culture (there are some rather marked dissimilarities too - Beats are universally pacifists while Rap often glorifies violence) - that street level make it personal freedom to create and "represent" the everyman/woman experience of authenticity - Punk too. It's predominately oral/in-yer-face realities laced w/beats blown or laid down electronic to accompany lyrical rhyme/assonance of street slang cool. Things cycle, what's good gets repurposed/shoved around, then/when re-found. It's all hood!

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marking this as read because half is more than enough.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,” I’ve been reciting this Allen Ginsberg “Howl” opener aloud and in my head over and over throughout reading this book. That habit is going to stick.

This is the Beat Generation Bible. Spanning east coast to west and everything in between, it’s a time capsule containing the works of nearly 40 authors, both well known (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Cassady and Burroughs) and lesser (LeRoi Jones and Diane diPrima, whom I discovered on the day of her passing).

During a time when the mainstream media seems to have only one or two messages to share with the masses, this was a refreshing and irreverent palette cleanser and a reminder that one can and should form their own nuanced, complicated and unique opinions.

As Philip Whalen recognized, it is “possible for a poem to be its own shape and size”.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, wide swath of Beat goodness. C'mon y'all, they only changed the world.

[Devin Proctor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boo fucking hoo.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge Kerouac fan, I've always been fascinated with the Beat Generation. I picked this up at an used bookstore on a whim, hoping to learn more about the writers who seemed to shape a generation in the way the Lost Generation did. What I really learned from The Portable Beat Reader is that I hate excerpts.

Ann Charter's Portable Beat Reader is extremely inclusive. She guides you through all the sections of the Beats Generation: Kerouac's group in New York, the San Francisco Poets, and the other groups that were inspired by the work these groups produced. Some of these writers (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Synder) I had heard of before, but there were several new names to me. I enjoyed the Portable Beat Reader more as a reference book than as a reader. I underlined titles of books that interested me and starred poems I enjoyed. I will definitely come back to this collection when I want to find something from the Beats to fit my mood.

Reading all the way through this book (like I did) is completely unnecessary. Skim around and read what you like. Read the writers that are new to you, and mark things to read later or in whole. Recommended for anyone deeply interested in the Beat generation.

[Maura]

This was the third time I read this anthology and I've finally grown enough as a human to be over it.

Some take aways: If they a white man who wrote as a Beat, probably super entitled. Highly recommend to skip. If they are any of the following, consider not skipping:
~Carolyn Cassidy
~Gregory Corso
~Diane DiPrima
~Lawrence Ferlinghetti
~Joyce Johnson
~Jan Kerouac
~Ken Kesey (esp. for fans of repulsive realism, although it feels more anti-femme when a man writes it)

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

includes a little biography of every beat poet and then a collection of their greatest work: it’s all a little sick in the head but nothing like I’ve ever seen before. Genius but hopeless you know!

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a Beats class last year. Technically I started this book in class, reading assigned chapters. When I sat down to read this slowly, savoring each chapter as an introduction to authors we didn't have time to cover in class, this book unfolded out in front of me as a feast.

I still want nothing to do with William Burroughs, but the small excerpt from his son's (Billy Burroughs) writing was phenomenal. I like Kerouac even less somehow, but I've added On the Road to my TBR. Hopefully sometime next year!

I love all things Ginsberg. Neal Cassady's wife - Carolyn Cassady - is lyrical in prose! And I also plan to read Joyce Johnson's memoir Minor Characters. Ken Kesey's short excerpt I hated, hated, hated till the end, and then I realized what he'd done to me. I want to read more Ed Sanders. More Ferlinghetti! More Corso!

I am literally subtracting a star for the book coming to a close with that Normal Mailer monstrosity.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the all-time powerful reads of my youth. I still own the same tattered copy I bought as a teenager during the early '90s. This era of literature shaped many things in my young world. This book was particularly resourceful for me because it allowed me to discover the not-so prominent writers from the Beat era. It also helped instill the power of individuality, and how to go through life with an open mind and an open heart. Some of the writers have aged better for me than others, but I will always cherish the day I discovered writers like Gary Snyder, and poems like Ginsberg's "Howl."

[Taye Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best collections I've read. Did I connect with every single piece of writing? No, and I don't think that was much of the point. Charters took the meat of Beat writers and the best meat of what those writers created and complied it seemingly effortlessly. I've discovered a bunch new writers to read more of and now, when I need writing inspiration, I simply have to open this book to any random page and be amazed.

[Dayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

We followed this and even stayed at the Chelsea Hotel, New York.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prior to reading this anthology, I had very little direct familiarity with the Beat writers apart from William S. Burroughs. After reading this anthology, I have three reactions: 1) I am glad I read it, because 2) I now have no desire to read much more Beat writing, and 3) Burroughs is in many ways much different from the rest.

I am glad I read this because it fills a gap the history of US literature for me. I knew the Beat writers by reputation, and by the influence they had on subsequent writers. Plus, I had read some works by writers associated with the Beats but not really among them, such as Amiri Baraka, Gilbert Sorrentino, and Frank O'Hara. I definitely needed to get a fuller picture of mid-2oth century American writing. All the energy to bust out of literary and social conventions that characterizes American writers 1945-1975 is pumped on steroids and set to overload in the Beat writers. Their drive to try things out is admirable.

However, I found out fairly quickly that, with the exception of Burroughs and some scattered works by others, I really did not much like Beat writing. For all its barely disciplined energy, the writing suffers because it is barely disciplined. For every flashy bit of wordsmithery, lines and lines, sentence after sentence go dragging along trying to find the next discovery, like a hiker on a nature trail going "Oh, look at that" and then moving on for half an hour before another "Oh, look at that." Despite the reputation, Beat writing appears to me less about the quality of the writing and more about the personalities of the writers. The writers create a cult of personality for themselves and for their favored few. They also create a kind of in-group cult, a bunch that outsiders just want to be a part of because they seem so cool and radical and hip (to use Mailer's term). Even more than with Hemingway or Thomas Wolfe or Walt Whitman, for the Beats the projection of a personal style was the goal. No collection of similar-minded writers in American literature that I can think of is so obsessed with themselves in their writing, to the exclusion of almost any other subject. This self-absorption might be fine except that I found the personalities they are absorbed with repulsive, and this goes for Burroughs as well as the others. Ann Charters, the editor of this volume, simply adores all this self-absorption and that the writers led such self-destructive lives in such a way as to draw others around them into the cycle of destruction. They have no concern for anyone other than themselves, no concern for any idea greater than raising drug use and criminality to the level of "art," no concern about whom they ruin along the way. So, I have no real desire to try out more of this.

Burroughs is different from the rest. This includes both the writing and the personality. I am not one of those who think that Burroughs is among the great novelists of 20th-century America. Nevertheless, Burroughs is readable from my perspective in a way that the others are not. This seems to me because Burroughs is of a different temperament, as one of Kerouac's wives or girlfriends pointed out. He's the 19th-century Romantic artist who fell into the trap of admiring the wrong things, who acts as if he believes that to admire the best one must experience the worst. And then, having experienced the worst, he could not find a way back out of it. He writes like this as well. Where other Beat writers try to discover a system for their writing as they go, Burroughs starts from a system, some kind of plan for how to put it all together. If accidents come along, he fits them into the plan. His methods come straight from early modernist writing, from James Joyce, John Dos Passos, D.H. Lawrence, and the like. While his books may be autobiographical in some ways, not all of them are, and most, even Naked Lunch, are about something else as well. Although he pretends not to, Burroughs has a point to make with each work. Thus, I would argue that Burroughs is not truly a Beat writer, but instead is a writer who hung out with the Beat writers.

So, in the end, I think that this anthology is very good for getting the sense and feel of Beat writing. It does fill in that gap in the American writing library shelf. For those interested in literary history, it is a handy resource.

[Paul O'Leary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very decent sampler of that movement known as Beat. This collection might not be the best source for answers to the questions, such as “What is Beat?”, and “Who were the Beats?”, as most of the offerings are excerpts from novels and poems. Reflective slices from essays to the above questions are few, but there is a smattering. The Alan Watts contribution presents a divergent strand which parenthesizes how diverse this Portable assemblage really is. The traditional names are present: Kerouac, Ginsberg etc. But others are included, such as Mailer and his intriguing “White Negro”, which surprise as well as delight, if only for the apparent whimsy of a scattered inclusion.

Did this collection help me understand the “Beat Movement” better? I believe so. What do I understand about it? I was surprised at the rather low quality of writing, frankly. Maybe the choice of excerpts stands partly to blame, but I suspect not. In my not-so-humble opinion Burroughs was one of the few collected in this volume who could actually write with discipline, distinction, and intelligent depth. The sample taken from his Junky is quite intriguing. Its material feels fresh, even today. Kerouac places second—but a distant second. The elemental misogyny of the Beats also oozes through these pages. Many of them are devoted to eulogizing that eternal infant, Neal Cassady, who spent much of his time bagging babes and just having a good time. The eulogy becomes superficial and strained after a bit, regardless of the serried many who ascend the podium to continue the praise. I also was taken by how much of the Beat Movement was a poetry movement. I was also taken by how much of it I frankly couldn’t “dig”. Ginsberg’s Howl and Sunflower Sutra were notable exceptions. Literary pedigree seemed more an adornment for the Beats than actual inspiration. Sure, literary references scatter themselves throughout the pages, but so does music references, jazz, and of course ol’ Charlie Parker. Choice of word mattered much less than how you tapped it out. Watt is probably right that Beat is basically another nouveau, constructed religion; albeit one which searches for grace among the lower, modern classes. He outs that connection with Christianity. Beat’s commitment against conformism of the 50s reminds a reader how important maintaining personal room to maneuver for expression in society should be if one is to remain human, as well as recognizing the freedom & existence of fellow humans. Even the Square had an important place in a Beat world. Put aside the drugs and the mindless debauchery, the Beats pointed toward the necessity for another human right: the right to dig someone else, and the right to be, in turn, dug by someone. Almost everything else beyond this elemental principle has been purloined, scripted, and co-opted ad nauseam by later teen cinema.

[Paul Manytravels · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an anthology, The Portable Beat Reader excellently showcases the 'best' work of 'The Beat Writers' of the 1950’s and later. Its contents include poems, short stories, and selections from lengthier works. The title of the book probably accurately describes its content.
I read the book as a part of required reading for a class in which I enrolled. Beat Writers have never resonated with me and I generally dislike their work. I took the class hoping that if I understood the work and the creators of it a little better, I might come to understand and like their works. Both the class, the professor, and this book thoroughly explained Beat Writing and its particular niche in literature. The teacher presented the writers, which he thinks highly of, as "ahead of their time."
Frankly, for me, their nichę is still the trash-can.
Now that I understand them, I dislike them even more than I had.
I do have more accurate insights into these writers and this is what I now understand about them.
1. They were a group of self-righteous and arrogant people blessed with natural talent but too lazy to do the work that would develop their talent into actual literary skill.
2. Instead of working on becoming serious writers, they chose to admire their own drivel and then fruitlessly justify it to people who actually understand what good writing is. They did succeed in self-delusion, however, and succeeded in finding publishers with poor judgment.
3. They regularly and vociferously bemoaned how misunderstood they were. This perception of their work shows that, in addition to being arrogant, they were delusional.
4. Some writers today even attempt this same kind of poor craftsmanship. Avoid them! Even poor writers are better than writers who believe themselves good in spite of the evidence.

What these writers needed rather than hapless publishers and foolish book-buyers was a qualified sophomore high school composition teacher, a different occupation that they'd actually be good at, a lesson in the difference between talent and vanity, and a good stout spanking.

[OSLO Zeimantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

3+readin' this on just seeing it.

A huge "mass" of things, that I remember as soon as I look at the book again.
DIDN'T skim it like I thought I would, being just another glance persay always with boxes of books, this one tends to grab me on non some Patsy Cline's hit single out now, "CRAZY' types terms (aug 21st, check it out). terms. this isn't a haunting ghost to me, more a welcome mat for my brain. New Outcomes... are always welcome. A textbook for whatever ails you.
I sat with it all night considering all things. Electric. Sorta terrifying that this isn't the standard outcome of the artistic process, and there then afters. Hopeful more will come, but this collection of considered, "oddities" (HA) that laid the ground work everything that happened after in a literary world since ORWELL or MARX of freud ,... makes left field my position in litterateurr, and knowledge, and maybe a sport that has a left-field.
The puzzles. get easier each time you put them back together, learning each time.
Life is a repeater. Syntax is so basic here, yet so , let yourself in.... white rabbit, ETC.
keep cutting things up, to make at least sense of it, and then you aren't a projection of a robots assembly due to what others think, and other say.
This is what I derive. From this text. Its not a TOMB, but its inspired a lot of poems.
read more books.

[Scott Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book I have had on the shelf for many, many years, but finally got around to starting to read. I had read On the Road earlier this year, so I thought I might find this one worth the read. This book is primarily designed for literature classes, or it sets up that way. You get a smattering of what these men and women wrote, but clearly not the whole thing. Still, even with what was presented, some of it was good, particularly the early poetry of Ginsberg. Yet, I found myself not really interested in much of this work. I get the themes of the early "founders" of young men who were trying to find some semblance of meaning and life in the post-war America. While America appeared triumphant, there was still discontentment, and the "Beat Generation" gave that voice. The literature covers themes such as drug use, homosexuality, abortion, crime, drinking...so clearly not something that would be studied a lot in a conservative setting (granted, this is not that much different than literature from any other era). Still, it wasn't quite my thing, or certainly so much in a condensed form. If you are taking a literature class surveying Beat Literature, this is for you...otherwise, better off sticking to the main texts.

[Russell Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading, rather than reading. Plus, portable readers are meant to be dipped into and looked through with an eye toward a particular poem, section, fragment, or writer.

Naturally, the top three Beat writers are in the first section of this book, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs -- love 'em, hate 'em or burn bongos in effigies at midnight, they made their mark on American culture, and continue to do so -- from new generation to new generation. The poet and confidant of the three, Corso is also included in the first section: "The Best Minds of a Generation" East Coast Beats. But, as Gregory Corso said in several documentaries on The Beats, "Three people does not a generation make."

More to come...

[Kelly Lemieux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visionary confessional stream-of-conscious autobiographical prose from every writer associated with the Beat Movement that arises in American literature in the 1940s and with final statements from the 1970s and maybe the 1980s. I read this in jail, which is just how such collection in Beat style should be read. I love William Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg and all the other associated talents more than ever. This book is a one stop shop for The Beats, who are surely the prelude, the build up pattern, to the Rock And Roll generation.

[Ruby Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading a long (long) list of books about the Beat Generation I can assure you that this one was the best I could find. Ann Charters is a great editor that has worked and specialized in the Beats for many years.
Rather than focusing on an author, this anthology is dedicated to people who wants to know about the Beats in general. It includes a brief introduction bout the movement, many different authors with their most important texts and their biographies.
I haven't found any other book more complex or complete about this topic so yeah, I recommend it.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew - made it through this behemoth. I can definitely say I have a better understanding of the Beat literary movement and those within it. One aspect of Beat lit is that it is intensely personal - which means the universal themes we all seek in poetry can be hard to uncover. Annotations are necessary - or even a personal conversation would be cool. Would love to better understand what some of the works were really about.

[A gin and orange, a lemon squash, and a scotch and water, please! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been dipping in and out of this for a long while now, and it's a fascinating and enjoyable insight into an era that helped form and inform current American (and wider) literature.
I'll give it a few weeks and I'll be back, re-reading those pieces I've already re-read a number of times.
In the meantime, I've added a good few authors to my list of "check-em-outs."

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice sampling of “beat” literature! Sort of like a greatest hits compilation! Parts 1-3 were full of writings that I love, and that were wonderful to revisit! I especially enjoyed reading the "Joan Anderson" piece! Part 4 fell pretty flat for me, as did part 6 and the appendix. But Part 5 was my joy! The writings in it gave me the feeling of the people on the periphery of the Beats - the children, lovers, spouses, etc.! I really glorify and romanticize many of the Beat authors and literature, and this section grounded me a bit, showing some of the real consequences of that lifestyle and movement. Strong stuff. And strong book!

[Vincent Solomeno · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who enjoy the Beat writers, Ann Charters compiled an accessible collection of their work. What I enjoy - the book remains on my bookshelf - is reading the poetry and prose of the lesser known Beats.

[Terry]

A good compendium of the popular "Beats" and some not so well known. Includes brief biographies of each, sample readings from their most popular works and discussions of how their lives and writings influenced other writers of their time and the affects of those works on literature today.