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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
Christopher Felver's Beat is a personal collection of photographs he took of famous beat poets, bits of their poetry in their own handwriting, and personal notes, clippings etc. from Felver's own experience with the beats and their history.
The book is beautifully crafted with the original endpapers of Jack Kerouac's On the Road reprinted as the first and last page of the book. The introductory pages range from a note on the beats by Lawrence Ferlinghetti to an account of the beats by David Amram, a correspondence with Carolyn Cassady, a letter to her from Vacaville by Neal Cassady and a note on Allen Ginsberg's address book. All of these texts were incredibly interesting and some of them very personal accounts that brought me closer to understanding the beats and beat philosophy.
The photographs are structured into five sections (San Francisco, Naropa, New York, Celebration, and Twilight). All the sections had really good photos but I enjoyed the poems from the first section on San Francisco the most. I was surprised to not only find the typical beat poets in here but also other famous artists (such as John Cage or Kurt Vonnegut) who I had not associated with the beat generation previously.
I think the problem with this book is the addressee. From the very beginning of this volume it is clear that the book was put together like a scrapbook of memories for all the people in it. It is both Christopher Felver's as well as the poet's own book and sometimes I felt like an intruder looking into the lives of many of these people I had never heard of. Nevertheless, this is a very good book in that it brings together the 'family' of the beats and introduces many of the poets with a small bit of their specific work in their handwritings (which I sometimes struggled to decipher).
I think this is a must-have for beat fans and a good first look into the family of the beat generation for people new to the beats.
The book is beautifully crafted with the original endpapers of Jack Kerouac's On the Road reprinted as the first and last page of the book. The introductory pages range from a note on the beats by Lawrence Ferlinghetti to an account of the beats by David Amram, a correspondence with Carolyn Cassady, a letter to her from Vacaville by Neal Cassady and a note on Allen Ginsberg's address book. All of these texts were incredibly interesting and some of them very personal accounts that brought me closer to understanding the beats and beat philosophy.
The photographs are structured into five sections (San Francisco, Naropa, New York, Celebration, and Twilight). All the sections had really good photos but I enjoyed the poems from the first section on San Francisco the most. I was surprised to not only find the typical beat poets in here but also other famous artists (such as John Cage or Kurt Vonnegut) who I had not associated with the beat generation previously.
I think the problem with this book is the addressee. From the very beginning of this volume it is clear that the book was put together like a scrapbook of memories for all the people in it. It is both Christopher Felver's as well as the poet's own book and sometimes I felt like an intruder looking into the lives of many of these people I had never heard of. Nevertheless, this is a very good book in that it brings together the 'family' of the beats and introduces many of the poets with a small bit of their specific work in their handwritings (which I sometimes struggled to decipher).
I think this is a must-have for beat fans and a good first look into the family of the beat generation for people new to the beats.
informative
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced