Library extension unveiled
Ten more titles road-tested
Rock and the Beat Generation announces a significant extension to our in-house library as our book review section hits 50 titles, representing a notice every month since this web publication was launched four years ago.
We are pleased to draw attention to a prestigious lineup of new reviewers from eminent Beat scholar Ann Charters to Ginsberg protégée Nina Živančević, club culture specialist Simon A. Morrison to post-Beat poet Marc Zegans.
But our regular critics also continue to add to this literary trail, Chief Book Reviewer Jonah Raskin and website Founding Editor Simon Warner among them.
The books joining our expanding shelves in the last six months include two recent Kerouac titles, a sweeping counterculture history and a new biography of poet Ted Joans, a vivid fictional portrait 1970s North Beach and a survey of a classic radical magazine.
A full list of reviews to date is shared below. Critiques are by Simon Warner except where noted. Dates recorded are when the write-ups first appeared in our digital pages. Do check them out in our ever-expanding archive of articles…
Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles, September 21st, 2021
Beat Blues: San Francisco, 1955 by Jonah Raskin, September 27th, 2021
Alternative Voices: 1980s Punk San Francisco by Jeanne Hansen and Jonah Raskin, October 7th, 2021
Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of a Troubadour by Rickie Lee Jones, February 18th, 2022
Dylan, Lennon, Marx and God by Jon Stewart, March 3rd, 2022
The ‘Freak Scene Dream’ trilogy by Michael Goldberg, April 21st, 2022
Song Noir: Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles by Alex Harvey, July 15th, 2022
Why Patti Smith Matters by Caryn Rose, August 8th, 2022
Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas: The Two Dylans by K.G. Miles and Jeff Towns, August 27th, 2022
Lyon Street by Marc Zegans, October 2nd, 2022
You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, November 9th, 2022
Bob Dylan in the Big Apple: Troubadour Tales of New York by K.G. Miles, November 26th, 2022
Jack Kerouac: Desolation Peak Collected Writings by Charles Shuttleworth, January 8th, 2023
From the Underground: Multimedia Art, Performances, Beat Poetry, Pop Stories 1972-2022 by Gottfried Distl, February 12th, 2023
False Prophet: Field Notes from the Punk Underground by Steven Taylor, March 27th, 2023
Bob Dylan in Minnesota: Troubadour Tales from Duluth, Hibbing and Dinkytown by K.G. Miles, July 4th, 2023
The Downtown Pop Underground by Kembrew McLeod, October 20th, 2023
The Many Worlds of David Amram: Renaissance Man of American Music, ed. by Dean Birkenkamp, November 11th, 2023
Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith by John Szwed (Reviewed by STEVEN TAYLOR), November 29th, 2023
Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg, edited by Pat Thomas (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), December 15th, 2023
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock‘n’Roll by Casey Rae, January 14th, 2024
Corso: Ten Times a Poet, ed. by Leon Horton with Michelle Mcdannold (Reviewed by STEVEN TAYLOR), April 15th, 2024
The Life and Times of Ralph J. Gleason by Don Armstrong (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), May 6th, 2024
The Beats: Authorships, Legacies by A. Robert Lee, May 17th, 2024
Over the Stage of Kansas by Charles Plymell (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), June 18th, 2024
Sonic Life by Thurston Moore, June 29th, 2024
Rockin’ the Kremlin by David Junk with Fred Bronson (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), July 20th, 2024
Treasures for Heaven by Jim Cohn (Reviewed by MARC ZEGANS), August 3rd, 2024
Song to the Siren by Larry Beckett (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), August 17th, 2024
Bop Apocalypse by Martin Torgoff, August 31st, 2024
The Burroughs-Warhol Connection by Victor Bockris (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), October 1st, 2024
Talkin’ Greenwich Village by David Browne, October 14th, 2024
Live Dead by John Brackett (Reviewed by BRIAN HASSETT), October 25th, 2024
Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac, edited by Steven Belletto (Reviewed by JIM COHN), November 1st, 2024
Under a Rock by Chris Stein (Reviewed by STEVEN TAYLOR), November 17th, 2024
Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, December 11th, 2024
Rethinking Kerouac, edited by Erik Mortenson and Tomasz Sawczuk (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), January 2nd, 2025
One Shot by Oliver Harris, February 7th, 2025
Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers (Reviewed by NANCY M. GRACE), February 12th, 2025
The Angry Years by Colin Wilson, February 22nd, 2025
Wild Twin by Jeff Young, February 28th, 2025
Evergreen Review: Dispatches from the Literary Underground, Covers & Essays 1957-1973, compiled by Pat Thomas (Reviewed By JONAH RASKIN), March 8th, 2025
Self-Portrait: Collected Writings by Jack Kerouac, edited by Paul Maher Jr. and Charles Shuttleworth (Reviewed by SIMON A. MORRISON), March 26th, 2025
The Buddhist Years: Selected Writings by Jack Kerouac, edited by Charles Shuttleworth (Reviewed by NINA ŽIVANČEVIĆ), April 10th, 2025
The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead by Robert Hunter (Reviewed by MARC ZEGANS), April 19th, 2025
The Last Great Dream by Dennis McNally (Reviewed By JONAH RASKIN) May 1st, 2025
Hello, Paradise, Paradise, Goodbye by Clive Matson (Reviewed By JONAH RASKIN) May 13th, 2025
WannaBeat by David Polonoff, May 17th, 2025
The Day & Night Books of Mardou Fox by Nisi Shawl (Reviewed by ANN CHARTERS), May 30th, 2025
Black Surrealist: The Legend of Ted Joans by Steven Belletto (Reviewed by JONAH RASKIN), June 7th, 2025
What a pleasure it has been to read the reviews you've gathered and to write for you as well. Here's to what I'm confident will be most swiftly the century mark for reviews in RBG. Bravo!