The Typewriter Is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation

by Bill Morgan

Anyone who cares to understand the cultural ferment of America in the later twentieth century must know of the writings and lives of those scruffy bohemians known as the Beats.

In this highly entertaining work, Bill Morgan, the country’s leading authority on the movement and a man who personally knew most of the Beat writers, narrates their history, tracing their origins in the 1940s to their influence on the social upheaval of the 1960s.

The Beats, through their words and nonconformist lives, challenged staid postwar America. They believed in free expression, dabbled in free love, and condemned the increasing influence of military and corporate culture in our national life. But the Beats were not saints. They did too many drugs and consumed too much booze. The fervent belief in spontaneity that characterized their lives and writings destroyed some friendships.

As we watch their peripatetic lives and sexual misadventures, we are reminded above all that while their personal lives may not have been holy, their typewriters and their lasting words very much were.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Childrens, Writing, Poetry

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2010

About the author

Bill Morgan is a painter and archival consultant working in New York City. His previous publications include The Works of Allen Ginsberg 1941-1994: A Descriptive Bibliography and Lawrence Ferlinghetti: a Comprehensive Bibliography. He has worked as an archivist for Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, and Timothy Leary.

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

You want a serviceable introduction to the diverse and enigmatic writers that composed the Beat Generation? The Typewriter is Holy fits the bill. In a brief two hundred and fifty pages it tracks the Beats from the meeting of the group’s core members in 1944 through the rest of their lives. It reads quick and easy, relating their misadventures, literary highlights, and eventual impact on American culture and letters. It does not dive deeply into the literature that they produced, but rather concentrated on the ways in which these literary accomplishments effected both the group and American culture.

If you are already familiar with the Beats, The Typewriter Is Holy is most useful for sorting out the timeline. Most Beat aficionados already know well the origin story of the meeting of Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs. But where did Holmes come in? When, exactly, did Corso join the core? How did they meet up with Ferlinghetti? These and other connections beyond the core Beats are mapped out in the book, along with putting their many sojourns, both across the country and around the world into understandable context.

Morgan’s boldest accomplishment here is in the way he defines the Beat Generation. Noting that the Beat voices were widely divergent, lacking any connective style, he identifies them primarily as a friendship group — specifically the friends of Allen Ginsberg. He notes the active role Ginsberg took in supporting his friends, working to get them published, helping them edit their works, and concludes that Ginsberg was both the driving force behind the Beats and the glue that held them together. He writes:
“The history of the Beat Generation is really the story of this one man’s desire to gather a circle of friends around him, people he loved and who could love him…The only definition that truly holds up to serious scrutiny is this: The Beat Generation was essentially a group of friends who gathered around and interacted with Allen Ginsberg.”
This is as good a definition as I’ve seen of the Beat Generation, and is the major take away from Morgan’s book.

[Andy Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, Bill Morgan, tried to write a history of the beat generation that would appeal to those who were not familiar with the beat writers(Kerouac, Ginsberg, Snyder et.al) as well as those who have read many books by the writers as well as books about them. For the most part he was successful.

The times when the book was not satisfying was when it read as a travelogue or chronological outline of their lives. The most satisfying parts were he wrote in depth about the conflicts and relationships between the writers or the part of their lives that are chronicled in the writer's lives(especially for me, On the Road and Dharma Bums).

Morgan's thesis is that it was Allen Ginsburg who held the group together and it was interesting to read of how through the years Ginsberg financially bailed out various writers as well as providing support and friendship, especially to Kerouac. It also showed Ginsberg's patience when he was not treated well by his friends and fellow writers, especially Burroughs.

The book also explores the sexuality of the writers and how it was effected by the times. He traced Ginsberg's initial guilt about his being gay which was reenforced by the mores of the fifties and early sixties--and by the psychiatrists and psychologists who treated him and how both he and society evolved. It goes into great detail on the sexual relationships between the writers, and the writer's spouses and lovers

All in all, a great read

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough recapping of the history of the Beat Generation -- it reads swiftly and packs a lot of information into ~250 pages. Bill Morgan's encyclopedic knowledge shines here, and to be honest, I think he could do even more with this in an expanded version, as many events and writers are glossed over (Lew Welch, Albert Saijo, Joyce Johnson) or outright omitted (Elise Cowen). Still, as a primer for exploring the main core of writers, this book is more than sufficient.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The girl, bright and bold, is by far my favorite character. I want to read a chapter book about her now! I also appreciate that these kids are not on too short a leash, like so many over-protected children nowadays.

[Kellee Moye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review with teaching tools: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=9303

I often hear that it is best to show not tell in writing, and this is taken to another level with this wordless picture book. I’m always blown away by excellent wordless picture books because there are illustrators that can take you on such an amazing journey without telling you anything. Although Bill Thomson does use nine words in The Typewriter, it is his illustrations that transport you into the story. He is an incredibly talented illustrator. Just like with Chalk, I am in awe of how realistic his illustrations are!

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the plus side, Morgan's book was a pretty quick read, and there's plenty of information for someone who has a limited biographical sketch of the Beats. On the minus side, the writing is wooden (particularly noticeable in a book about dynamic writers), and Morgan never really makes a convincing argument for how the Beats changed America (or why they're particularly important, for that matter). Overall, it was a "meh" read for me.

[Cris González · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es la biblia de la generación beat.

[Arthur Cravan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to give this book five stars because I casually meant to read the first few pages & ended up reading the whole thing in just about one sitting. The writing, however, struck me as fairly poor - the pace is uneven (&, unless I was just tired from a long read, just plain scattered towards the end), & the amount of repetition is staggering. I kid you not when I say one paragraph will consist of six sentences, four of them saying the exact same thing (with the words re-ordered). Then you'll hear the same story/theory/description in two other chapters, in case it didn't sink in.

Obviously, I forgive all this. As far as getting a lot of info out of one package, this is a great book. I feel like I already knew all the stories (having read a few biographies, books of letters/journals, etc. already) relating to the main cast, but it was interesting learning a bit more about McClure, Snyder, Bremser, etc... I do think more attention could have been given to, say, young Billy Burroughs, whose death is not even mentioned, as far as I recall - an event you'd imagine would have some effect on Burroughs, & even Ginsberg (who, by inviting Jr. to Naropa, essentially saved his life). The children in general seem to be glossed over, which I just think robs the portrait of a certain dimension. Then there's names I didn't even really expect to see, but was hoping to get a nugget of info on - Antler, other published Pocket Poets, etc. - but no dice if you're looking for that. Patchen could probably have gotten a bit more airtime.

Well, I'm tired & rambling - the book is there, look.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book I bought at City Lights in March, Typewriter is a good history of the Beat Generation writers and the diverse courses their careers and personal lives took. Though the transitions among the different writers aren't always smooth from paragraph to paragraph, overall the narrative moves smoothly from its beginnings with Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Neal Cassady influencing each other to a variety of younger writers eventually following in their wake and joining in with the wild festivities. Morgan follows them all from the beginning to their various ends. Ginsberg is particularly well-portrayed as the nexus of the group, the one who kept in contact with all the others and worked hard to keep them all in touch. His portrait of William S. Burroughs is also commendable, detailed without becoming lurid. Now that I've read it, this book is a keeper as a resource I'll refer to to refresh my memory before reading a particular author.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in the beat generation and the many writers who were part of it(as I am a huge fan), then this book is a must read for you!! It encompasses many of the already known beats(Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs,etc..) and the other writers who until now have been overlooked(Some of these are Joanne Kyger, Alan Amsen, etc..)as well as the times and experiences that they lived through. I was extremely pleased at the writer's techniques and the way he kept me interested throughout the whole book. Don't waste any more time, go and check out this fantastic book!!!

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly entertaining recounting of the emergence and evolution of the Beat writers which does a good job of locating their parallel stories in time so, for example, you know where the others were and what they were up to when Ginsberg was reading Howl at the Six Gallery. Ginsberg emerges as the hero of the piece, generous in his friendship and a bonding force, instrumental in bringing many of his Beat friends to prominence in the world of literature.

[Muriel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Een encyclopedische kennis staat niet garant voor een goed boek. Of ook, een oersaai boek over de Beats: het kan dus.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous, fantastical wordless story full of imagination. The illustrations, especially of the children's faces, are stunning.

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creative and fun!

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.tkreviews.org/#/the-typewr...


Even as a child of the eighties, I feel indebted to the Beat Generation, a group of writers that had a major influence on the cultural and literary landscape of America, beginning in the 50s, through the upheaval of the 60s, and on to the end of the century. I have been fascinated, inspired (and sometimes repulsed) by their idiosyncratic antics, intellectual enthusiasm, and rejection of social norms since I first read Kerouac’s On the Road one summer in college. Since then, I’ve slept in the bed Ginsberg supposedly slept in at a bookstore in Paris, heard stories about Corso stealing books from the owner of that same bookstore, collected postcard photographs of Burroughs, Cassady, and Kerouac as well as the Pocket Poet Series at City Lights, and had the chance to meet and talk to Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Anne Waldman. As Bill Morgan says in his introduction to a new history of the Beats, The Typewriter is Holy (Free Press, $28.00), “There appears to be no middle ground: either a reader knows a good deal about the lives of [members of the Beat canon], or they are not familiar with them at all.”

Morgan, who was Ginsberg’s biographer and personally knew many of the Beats, goes on to explain that the book is meant for people who have little or no idea about the Beat writers or why their works are important. But as a methodical and chronological account of where each member of the group was and what they were doing over forty years, it seems that the book would be most interesting to people like me, who already have a basic interest and familiarly with the various characters. I read the book slowly, taking in the details and connections I didn’t realize: Ginsberg’s love for Neal Cassady, the extent of Kerouac’s drinking problems, or Burroughs's dislike for Timothy Leary’s drug experimentation. The book also inspired me to go back and discover the works of lesser known writers such as Joanne Kyger or Philip Whalen, and I continually flipped through The Beat Book, a collection of writings from the Beat Generation edited by Anne Waldman, in order to connect the personality driven narrative of The Typewriter is Holy with the actual writing.

The Typewriter is Holy paints a vivid picture of the individuals behind the books and poems, beginning with Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs’s meeting at Columbia in the 1940s and the ominous murder of David Kemmerer by Lucien Carr, their close friend and classmate. This inauspicious first chapter sets the stage for what would follow for the next 40 years—reckless behaviour, letterwriting, mutual inspiration and encouragment, and mostly homoerotic loyal friendships, all socially centered around Allen Ginsberg. We get a biographical sketch of all the major players: young Kerouac carrying around his manuscripts, determined to be recognized as a serious writer, later living with his mother until the end of his life, increasingly addicted to alcohol; Burroughs, constantly succumbing to and recovering from drug addictions, tragically killing his wife Joan when trying to shoot a glass off her head with a shotgun; Neal Cassady, Kerouac’s inspiration for On the Road, a sexual maniac, settling down with wife Carolyn, only to leave her many times and even encouraging her to have an affair with Kerouac; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the young independent publisher who agreed to publish Ginsberg’s Howl, and later many of the Beats at City Lights; and finally Allen Ginsberg himself, the social center and literary spark to all of the friendships.

Bill Morgan acknowledges the backlash against the popularity of the Beats, quoting critic Rodger Kimball as saying, “They were drug-abusing sexual predators and infantile narcissists whose shamelessness helped dupe a confused and gullible public into believing that their utterances were works of genius.” There are moments when even I, a professed fan of the Beats, understand where this sentiment might come from, and reading this book only compounded some of those feelings with details of the murders of David Kemmerer and Joan Burroughs, excessive heroin addictions, bailouts from jail by wealthy realitives, and going too far with LSD experimentation. I even see examples sometimes in Beat writing—I remember feeling that there was little literary merit to the benzadrine fuled conversations that were recorded in Visions of Cody when I tried to read it.

Morgan is also correct to mention the misogony of the Beats, which is conspicuous in works like On the Road. Women are described as sexual objects and mostly nuisences, discarded as quickly as they are pursued. The Typewriter is Holy reveals that Ginsberg, Burroughs, Cassady, Orlonsky, all had relationships with women, but sexually preferred men, which may explain why there was such a focus on male relationships in the group. Additionally, they didn’t recognize their female friends’ intellectual capacities—Diane DiPrima, Joanne Kyger , perhaps Joan Burroughs, and later Anne Waldman are exceptions, but they were only appreciated or acknowledged later or in retrospect. Burroughs was by far the worst—not only does Morgan say that he felt little remorse when he killed his wife—he even apparently said that “women are an alien virus that need to be segregated from men.”

But for all their faults, The Typewriter is Holy proves that through the details of their lives, the Beats’ dedication to issues like censorship, alternative forms of spirituality, pacificism, anti-materialism, and individual freedom have had lasting influence on American culture. Where Morgan is most helpful as narrarator is when he helps the reader put the Beat Generation in a literary, social, and historical context. The Beat Generation should not be considered a literary movement, he says, “it was their friendship that they shared and not any one common literary style, philosophy, or social theory.” The group that became known as “the Beats” (a name that Ginsberg embraced, but that Ferlinghetti and others distanced themselves from) is really the story of Allen Ginsberg’s desire to gather friends around him. It was his enthusiasm and loyalty—that sometimes bordered on obsession—was what influenced so many of them to write and to be published.

In the process of trying to situate the Beat Generation in context, Morgan also gives a nuanced definition of what Kerouac meant when he coined the term Beat, and what it came to mean. Kerouac initially said that the Beat Generation was composed of people who had been beaten down, worn out, and exhaused. As time passed he refined his definition to emphasize the beatific, blessed or spritual qualities of the generation. Later, at the request of the American College Dictionary, he sent in this definition: “beat generation, members of the generation that came of age after World War II-Korean War who joined in a relaxation of social and sexual tensions and espouse anti-regimentation, mystic disaffiliation and material-simplicity values, supposedly as a result of Cold War disillusionment.” The book also mentions that the Beats could be considered the original “hipsters,” a term coined after the Jazz age that usually referred to white middle-class youths that sought to emulate the lifestyle of the largly-black Jazz musicians they admired, or as Kerouac described 1940s hipsters, “rising and roaming America, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere [as] characters of a special spirituality.”


Perhaps the most obvious lesson from reading The Typewriter is Holy is that a neat and simple biography or definition of the Beat Generation is impossible: they were messy, chaotic, controversial and crazy. Their travels, struggles, and triumphs are fascinating to read about, but as Morgan concludes, we are still trying to understand exactly what literary and cultural legacy the Beat movement has inspired. Perhaps, the best definition of the Beats can be taken from Burrough’s attitude toward art, who once told his friends (quoting Morgan here, who paraphrases), “that art was merely a word and it meant whatever the person who used it wanted it to mean.”

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Bill Morgan explains in the Introduction that his intent is to construct a chronology of the "Beats" following the model of Susan Cheever's "American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne", and "Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work". The plan is to show that the Beats, like the Transcendentalists, had a major impact on changes in society and American thought.

The chronology of what they did, where they traveled and when their works were written/published shows Alan Ginsburg as central to the group. While Ginsburg's centrality may be a matter of opinion, the book shows him at the heart of intra-group communication; He is always writing, visiting and encouraging his circle of friends. Ginsburg is constantly promoting Beat poetry, prose and people and seems to be the only one (outside of Gary Snyder who is mostly hiking in the woods or in a monastery in Japan) sober enough to do so.

Morgan clearly loves and admires the Beats. He credits them with leading everything from the post-war societal changes to the development of the video montage. While Morgan does a good job of piecing together Beat chronology and demonstrating the centrality of Ginsburg, he doesn't meet his goal of showing how society was changed by the Beats. He shows that Ginsburg was a father of free form poetry and that Kerouac was a pioneer of the narrator/conversational novel and that Lawrence Ferlinghetti took a big risk that resulted in a landmark ruling on behalf of free speech, but the Beats' role in the larger societal changes is not well drawn. The last chapter discusses the Beats as a catalyst, but the same can be said for many other forces or issues of the times.

Ironically, another point the book does prove is a quote from Beats detractor Richard Kimball (p. xiii) "They were drug-abusing sexual predators and infantilized narcissists..." The behavior of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy towards their respective spouses and children is appalling and pales only to that of William Burroughs. Only Gary Snyder seems to be somewhat drug/alcohol be free. The Beats seem to be living in a state of perpetual childhood. They either can't or won't have paying jobs and if they don't participate in theft and seem to find it acceptable. While some of them made great art, by and large, they appear to be the ultimate free-loaders.

I recently saw "Howl", a 2010 film covering the poem, its obscenity trial and Ginsburg's early life. It would have been best to have read this before rather than after. The film treats Ginsburg's romantic relationships in a much different way than they are shown in this book.

This is a good contribution to the study of the Beats and their work. It's author has an interesting background as something like a free lance archivist for artists which, in itself, earns my respect.

[Lydia St Giles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Kerouac was shy. He was bitter at his lack of success compared with his fellow-writers. In 1955 he “was carrying around the completed manuscripts of five major books and he was still unable to find a publisher for any of them.” This portrait was a surprise to me. Surely “On the Road” was the novel that spoke for the “Beat Generation”? And still does.
This book describes the individual paths of a number of writers of those decades (50s and 60s) not all of whom I recognised. Some of them were indeed published earlier and had more critical success than Kerouac. This book treats them as a group (held together by Allan Ginsberg according to the author). They gather in New York or Mexico City, are separated by addiction or jealousy or infidelities, travel abroad to deepen their studies, escape the law or to have freer access to drugs. Some eventually achieve recognition and security by taking academic positions.
The label of “Beat” was coined by Kerouac but he resented the way the label “Beat” came to be linked with “hippies” and leftist ideas. He grew apart from Ginsberg and Burroughs, Corso and Cassady, as his marriages broke down and his alcoholism took hold. He moved restlessly from one place to another, always seeking the perfect setting. What stability he found was based on his relationship with his mother, who constantly moved with him and who survived him.
Morgan is clearly an expert on the Beats and situates them clearly in the social, literary and political context of the times. However, in order to bring their history to life we are given huge amounts of information - necessarily repetitive as the writers continue on their paths of promiscuity and poverty. X slept with Y, who was addicted to H and was living in Morocco when A and B turned up unannounced. This becomes wearisome although it does serve to illustrate why the group aroused antagonism in some circles and shocked the ordinary citizen in the USA, reading about the writers rather than reading their work.
“The Typewriter is Holy” is thoroughly researched with plentiful footnotes and bibliographical details. As a work of reference, literary scholars and social scientists will value it. Myself, I expect to find the specific biographies, memoirs and commentaries of the different writers of more appeal.

[Shaniqua Lizardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first ever non-fiction book that I read from cover to cover in my life. And boy, did it take a significant part of my life to read. I started reading it a few days before the semester started and I finished it during finals week. Still, the five months were worth it.

(Also, I don't know how to review a non-fiction book, so I'm just going to focus on the author's writing style.)

I don't really have anything to compare it to, considering this is also the first book about the Beats I've ever read, but what I loved about this book is that it was easy to return to. I could pick up where I left off two weeks ago and still remember what was happening. And I loved that everything was happening simultaneously so it felt like I was really living out the fifties. The names got a bit confusing for me throughout the sixties and the seventies because of the growth of the Beat Generation, but for the most part, I think the three main 'characters' (Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs) were given such great focus. I could really get a sense of their personality.

The whole book seemed genuine. I was apprehensive at first, because I was expecting the author to sugarcoat all the craziness or praise everything the Beats did, but it was so honest. All the events were treated with what I think was the proper gravity. It wasn't biased. It was also very personal. As a reader, I felt kind of chummy with the Beats because the writer kept switching between their first names and their last names in referring to them.

All in all, I really enjoyed this introduction to the lives of the Beat writers. Good intro to the world of non-fiction for me, as well. I'm definitely going to pick up more titles on the Beat Generation when I get the chance, and possibly biographies of people that I look up to.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michelle says:

I was interested in this book because I knew it would be something that my husband would eat up and love to talk about. And he did. He read it in less than a week during his lunch breaks and came home this evening saying he was done already! He then started to babble on and on, with much enthusiasm, about the history of the beat poets and writers. Well, if that much excitement can be generated from a book, then, by golly, he must review it! So I give you once again, my famous Guest Reviewer: Sean, the husband.

Sean says:

Essentially, this book helped me to really "get" Allen Ginsberg. He is often framed, along with Jack Kerouac, as one if the "it" poets of the so called "beat" generation. This is an almost chronological account of the complex relationships between these prolific writers. It illustrates the dynamic between William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and all of the assorted characters in their lives at the time.

An interesting tidbit: Jack Kerouac may have coined the term "Beat Generation", but he considered it dead by 1949. He referred beats to the beaten populace, the downtrodden. In the media, the term became synonymous with anti-establishment, which soon became "hippy" instead of "beatnik", dogging Kerouac (who was quite conservative) to his final days.

I was able to understand Ginsberg's poetry at a deeper level, having read this. I would recommend this strongly for anyone seeking clarification on the lives of these beat poets.

Any traces of Bill Morgan (the author) are almost non-existent in the well documented narrative, instead going to painstaking lengths to keep it as textbook as possible. It is like reading one of their journals of the time, pure historical journalism.

[Chris LaMay-West · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've read the tagline of this blog, you know I am aficionado of the Beats. As such, I have read a lot of material related to the Beat Generation and its writers- all of Allen Ginsberg's poems, many of Jack Kerouac's and William Burroughs' novels and other writings, The First Third by Neal Cassady, multiple biographies of all four, and poetry by Amiri Baraka, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, Diane DiPrima, Denise Levertov, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Anne Waldman, and John Wieners. I even have one of Bill Morgan's other books, a literary walking guide to Beat sites in San Francisco. Given all this, I'm naturally going to be attracted to a history of the Beat Generation. I'm equally naturally going to be skeptical of whether there's really much new for me in such a history, especially one that clocks in at less than 300 pages before footnotes, bibliography, etc. But, when I found this book for $2 at a music and arts festival at the North Carolina Music Factory during a work trip to my new favorite city, Charlotte, the intersection between subject matter and price was pretty irresistible. So how did it hold up? The rest of my review can be found at http://chris-west.blogspot.com/2012/0...

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is the uncensored and complete story. The book is full of interesting stories and little moments which give a very personal understanding of members of the "beat generation." One story that in particular caught my interest is the account of Lucien Carr biting off glass from his beer bottle; bleeding badly he challenges the others to the same, and Burroughs enters the room with a tray of razor blades and light bulbs as hor d'oeuvres.

The book's theme is that the beat movement should be seen as an extensive social group with Allen Ginsberg at the center bringing and keeping everybody together. Whether this is totally accurate (this is the first history of the movement I've read) isn't really important. The thesis gives a nice structure to the work and is credible enough. What defines the Beat Generation is a general attitude of life; adults coming of age in the World War Two and post-war years feeling a lack of authenticity and spirituality in American society, who welcomed and experimented with alternative and low life ways of living as personal inspiration. The beats were as intellectual as they were sensual, an aspect overlooked by contemporaries be they reactionaries or hippie baby boomers.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Morgan wrote a great bio of Ginsberg,and was tight with many of Beat's heavy hitters.....This book is unique in that it centers on the interactions of Beat's big daddies from their first meetings,getting to know one another,getting famous,and eventually diverging and scattering with Ginsberg the eternal cheerleader and "introducer" holding the center....Jack Kerouac is my literary hero,my main "daddy",and his portrait in this book is not flattering...basically a good,creative decade,brilliance,then a slow,alcoholic,reactionary decline into mama's house and severe alcoholism...which is pretty true!...but he was ALWAYS producing,even in those last years (Vanity Of Dulouz,anyone!?)....Neal Cassady is basically dismissed as a con-man,Gregory Corso as a sort of creative flash-in-the-pan (more space is given over to his heroin addiction and mooching to his poetry)....again,both descriptions are kinda accurate,but there was so much more to those guys....

What the book does well,connecting these incredible lives and times,and adding more fringe Beat writers to the mix and perspective,it does very well...."Complete",though......not so much

[Sharry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book to learn about the history of the Beat Generation as a whole. Bill Morgan makes a firm argument that Allen Ginsberg was the central figure and social glue who held the group together, making crucial introductions, coordinating activities and encouraging his friends to write and submit their work to publishers. He also helped them with editing and supported them financially when he could. I learned that the Beat Generation began a lot earlier than I thought, and according to Jack Kerouac, it ended a lot earlier as well. The Beatniks, as imagined by the press and on TV (think "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" and Maynard G. Krebs) were not true to the group's original aims and spirit. Many of the founding fathers of the Beat Generation went on to have a powerful influence during the hippie generation of the 1960s. Ideas and beliefs that began in the Beat era extended into the hippie era and beyond.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relatively brief but comprehensive overview of the major players of the so-called "Beats", a term that some of those often included did not really accept, at least as it was generally known. The author's stated perspective that Allen Ginsberg was the lynchpin of the social group is well supported. Morgan writes clearly and the major figures (Ginsberg, Kerouac, Cassady, Burroughs) are well represented as are a number of other lesser known figures. Morgan is not shy of sharing his opinions about the writers personality issues and deficits but given his own history working with many of them or their executors he seems in a good position to have an informed perspective. Overall, while not really bringing any new information to light that has not been covered in the various individual biographies, The Typewriter is Holy is a good introduction to the Beats, their personalities and their work.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is the title from "Footnote to Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. The sub-title is a bit of marketing flair. Bill Morgan, a one-man Beat Generation history machine tapped unparalleled sources and friendship for the complete and uncensored information, but from a cursory read I didn't find much that was new. Mr. Morgan set out to write a history of the Beat Generation for folks who had never heard of the Beat Generation, and as a primer this book will do. It's neither as entertaining as Paul Buhle's "The Beats: A Graphic History," (what is with all these subtitles?) nor as complete as his excellent biography of Allen Ginsberg, "I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg" (more subtitles) but if you're writing your first paper on the literary movement it will probably come in handy.

[Vernon Area Public Library KIDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a chilly winter's day, three friends take a bike ride and follow a butterfly to the beach to discover a merry-go-round that's closed for the season. But wait, what's that box on top of the ride-on bumble bee seat? It's a old-fashioned typewriter with a piece of paper attached. First, the kids type "beach" and magically the frozen water melts away into a summer beach! Follow the kids on a fantastical story without words to find out what happens next. Thompson's realistic illustrations capture a wide range of expressions as the friends discover what unbelievable things the typewriter can conjure. Wonderful story for grades K-3 that will enhance burgeoning narrative skills. Check out David Wiesner's "Flotsam" for another incredible wordless tale. Reviewed by: Alyson D., Youth Services, Vernon Area Public Library

[Ben Olsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, thorough biography of the entire beat movement and all those contained therein. The early chapters declared Allen Ginsberg as the centre of all things beat and I worried that it was going to be a laborious and biased trawl through his life with everyone else playing bit parts but I was wrong. In chronological order Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, Cassady, Corso, Ferlinghetti and many other lesser or little known poets and writers are followed from their beginnings to their ends and the book becomes a pacy tale, crossing continents, taking drugs and telling stories. It's at times political, at others academic but whether you already know the plot or not it's utterly absorbing. If nothing else it serves as a comprehensive reading list that will keep you busy for years to come.

[Chrishna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll begin by saying that I thought this book was terribly written. There was no writing style at all. The book was just a list of all of the various activities of the beats. However, I enjoyed the reading experience because I learned so much about the individuals. I had very little knowledge of the personal lives of any of these writers other than a vague notion of the beats as cool guys wandering around the country enjoying life and writing. Learning that they were involved in very naughty behavior ranging from auto theft to homicide (and everything in between) left me vacillating between loathing them and struggling to appreciate their contribution to writing.

[Ricki]

This book is very innovative in the way it shares story. Readers will zoom into and out of the scenes on each page and will be pulled right into the book. My son has read this book several times, and I love how he carefully and slowly examines all of the illustrations on the pages. When he gets a bit older, I plan to ask him to tell his own story that connects the illustrations. We can change the story just a bit each night. Thomson creates the story to be interpretive for readers, and I can't wait to hear what my son comes up with! This would be a great story for the classroom. The magic of this book will not be lost on readers.

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story: 3 stars
Illustrations: 4 stars

Three friends discover an old-fashioned typewriter perched on a merry-go-round seat that resembles a bee. When they type the word "Beach," they are magically transported to a beach, where they have an adventure. When they type "The End," they magically return to their snowy hometown.

It's not clear to me how three modern-day children know how to use a typewriter, or even know what one is. This almost-wordless picture book doesn't have the same magic as Fossil.