The Last Gathering of the Beats

Famed Ginsberg and Dylan photo session

IN THE iconography of Beat history, few images are more resonant than the ones snapped by various photographers outside City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco on December 5th, 1965. And, with the 60th anniversary of this remarkable session imminent, there is every reason to revisit the moment.

Further, while the principal shots we recall captured more than 20 members of the Beat circle, poets, novelists and artists, too, a sister collection of memorable frames were taken behind the shop, in Adler Place, with the shining star of that supplementary shoot none other than Bob Dylan.

Pictured above: A wide view of the Last Gathering Of the Beats. Image: Peter Breinig/San Francisco Chronicle (see key at the end of the article)

In short, what has become known as the Last Gathering of the Beats then adds a further potent ingredient – a major rock star – making a serious celebration of this historic occasion by Rock and the Beat Generation seem logical indeed: the greatest solo musician of the day hooking up with a glittering gallery of underground scribes and groundbreaking painters of the day.

In various ways in the coming days, R&BG will commemorate this event which these black-and-white pictures froze for generations to come. We will explore why it happened, what it meant for the worlds of alternative literature and alternative popular music making and what legacy has been left by this piece of impromptu street theatre.

Who organised it, who appeared in it, why did it become dubbed ‘the last gathering’ and what lessons can we take away from this extraordinary bohemian bash on the sidewalk and backstreet adjacent to world’s most famous paperback purveyor? We interview poets and novelists, journalists and historians, to put this unique event in context.

There are said to be two survivors of the main shot outside the bookstore. One is poet and printer Andrew Hoyem, whose live appearance celebrating his 90th birthday at City Lights was reviewed very recently within this very digital publication by Jonah Raskin. Another is the formidable Stephen Bornstein, artist and long-time friend of Allen Ginsberg, identified as simply ‘Steve’ the captions we encounter.

Pictured above: Bay Area cameraman Larry Keenan took the alley shot of Dylan and Ginsberg, McClure and Robertson, which was featured on the cover of this author’s 2013 book

We are delighted to reveal that Bornstein himself will be subject of an exclusive Rock and the Beat Generation interview in the coming days. Please look out for it.

It should also be added there is one other individual to account for in that small number of living figures who were framed in that photographic session, someone still very much with us: the aforementioned Bob Dylan.

Although the great singer-songwriter, now 84, was reluctant to appear with the main conclave of active Beats in front of the shop, he did, of course, agree to be captured in the rear alley – today Jack Kerouac Alley – with Ginsberg, Michael McClure and Robbie Robertson, later of the Band, in a collection of images that remain, even in their monochrome understatement, dazzlingly timeless.

Editor’s note: There were a number of photographers on hand who took different pictures from a variety of angles. Among those on hand recording the occasion were Larry Keenan, Dale Smith, leading rock cameraman Jim Marshall and the Chronicle’s Peter Breinig. The caption below helps to identify many of the faces in this legendary line-up…

The Beats, front row, L to R: Robert LaVigne, Shig Murao, Lew Welch, Peter Orlovsky.

Second row, L to R: David Meltzer, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Daniel Langton, Steve (friend of Ginsberg), Richard Brautigan, Garry Goodrow (and son), Andrew Hoyem (on trolley), Leland Meyezove.

Back row, L to R: Stella Levy, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

See also: ‘Live review #10: Andrew Hoyem’, November 22nd, 2025