Interview #10: Steven Belletto
One of the leading contemporary commentators on the Beat Generation casts light on a new and interesting project
JAZZ POET and one of the foremost African-American Beat writers, Ted Joans has been causing quite a few ripples in these pages recently: his contribution to the latest Surrealism exhibition at London’s Tate Modern was the subject of an enthusiastic review in this very publication.
And that positive write-up prompted a number of established correspondents to share their personal takes on the man and his work. The conclusion seemed to be that Joans had been profiled in some measure over the years but there was surely room for more on this versatile and somewhat elusive figure, his peripatetic life twisting the roving codes of Beat with the fanciful tropes of the Surrealists.
Steven Belletto, Professor of English at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, has become an established historian of the Beat Generation, with his volume The Beats: A Literary History (2020) following on closely from his editorship of The Cambridge Companion to the Beats (2017). His next publishing venture seems very likely to interest readers of Rock and the Beat Generation, as our exclusive interview reveals…
We have heard, Steve, that you are working on a new Ted Joans biography. Is that the case?
Yes, it’s true: I’m writing a book about Ted. It will be a critical biography that covers his life, and offers critical discussions of his creative work, focusing mainly on his writing.
What sort of challenges has that involved?
It’s been a real challenge because he was an inveterate self-mythologiser with a Surrealist belief in ‘truth’. But I’ve been trying to speak with as many people as I can, and do as much archival research as possible. If anybody out there who knew Ted has stories, anecdotes or other material such as letters from him, I’d love to hear from you.
Who is going to publish? And when might the book see the light of day?
The book is under contract with Bloomsbury. The general plan was to turn the book in to the press in late summer 2023, but I don’t think it will be ready by then. Covid prevented me from going to the Joans Archives when I first wanted to – though I have now – and it’s just generally taken me much longer than I had anticipated to write this book.
How much have you written so far?
Well, it’s my first biography. Currently, I have about half the words ‘drafted’ of a projected 120,000 or so – but we’ll see how things shake out.
What prompted you to take on this project?
It was motivated by my work on The Beats: A Literary History. I became fascinated by Ted and, and, like Chris Thorpe-Tracey writes in his review, I was surprised that there hasn’t been more work on him.
Do you feel as if he has been taken too little notice of to date?
Well, I would just like to get more exposure to him and his work, which might eventually lead to reissuing some of his out-of-print work, or to bringing out the work that never did get published in the first place.
It seems as if your biography may well help with that process.
Hopefully so and, in a nutshell, it is happening. I’m trying to make it as good as possible, but I’m still not sure when the final publication date will be.
I did actually catch the Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibit when it was at the Met in New York – I was impressed by how much was devoted to Ted. And that was a great write-up on your site!
Thank you for your answers and good luck from R&BG with the publication when it happens…
Note: If you have got stories or memories to share with the author, you can contact him here: belletts@lafayette.edu
See also these articles at Rock and the Beat Generation – CJ Thorpe-Tracey, ‘Ted talk: Keeping up with Joans’, August 13th, 2022, and ‘Correspondence #8: Ted Joans’, August 15th, 2022