"Who howled ... and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manuscriptsAllen Ginsberg, "Howl"
"Beat." A single-word synthesis describing this group of disaffected heroes of the subculture who used the language of the body, as well as of the soul, in their writing. These questers for a new vision, journeying through the inner and outer conflicts of their disparate, though related, lives by experimenting with new modes of transcendence, new styles of writing, and new methods of surviving, paved the way for a new generation of writers by breeching taboos; by exposing their problems, their nightmares, and their fears in print; by shocking the safe, insipid culture of the fifties. They created a movementthe Beat Generation with their revolution of the spirit and their anthem of "Go."
In these critical essays Gregory Stephenson takes the reader on a journey through the literature of the Beat Generation: a journey encompassing that common ethos of Beat literaturethe passage from darkness to light, from fragmented being toward wholeness, from Beat to Beatific. In his introduction, Stephenson provides a brief history of this literary and cultural phenomenon and establishes the basis of these authors’ right to be called a "generation." He examines what sets the Beats apart from other writers of the postwar period, showing which qualities of the works of these dissimilar authors formed the nexus of a movement. He also discusses the effect they had on a very unaware and cautious public.
Stephenson then provides original in-depth examinations of the writings of eight Beat authors and develops new perspectives on their work. He travels through Jack Kerouac’s Duluoz Legend. following Kerouac’s quests for identity, community, and spiritual knowledge. He examines Allen Ginsberg’s use of transcendence in "Howl," discovers the Gnostic vision in William S. Burroughs’ fiction, and studies the mythic, visionary power of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poetry. Stephenson also provides one of the first detailed examinations of the writings of lesser-known Beat authors: John Clellon Holmes. Gregory Corso, Richard Fariña, and Michael McClure. He explores the myth and the mystery of the literary legend of Neal Cassady. And in the conclusion Stephenson integrates the common traits of the Beat writers their use of primitivism, shamanism, myth and magic, spontaneity, and improvisation, all of which led them to a new idiom of consciousness and to the expansion of the parameters of American literature.
Carolyn Cassady, in the foreword to Stephenson’s chapbook on her husband Neal, has stated that "Stephenson’s concise insights illuminate with exceptional clarity the complex dualistic nature Cassady wrestled with throughout his lifeboth real and fictional." Burroughs, commenting on Stephenson’s essay on him, has said, "The precise parallels with my own lines of thought, independently arrived at, are striking." And Ferlinghetti has called the essay on Ginsberg’s "Howl," "excellent." Stephen Moore, in his review of the Cassady essay in The Kerouac Connection, refers to "Stephenson’s growing reputation as one of the best Beat critics writing today."

The Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation

Stephenson, Gregory

Reference

Southern Illinois University Press

In these critical essays Gregory Stephenson takes the reader on a journey through the literature of the Beat Generation: a journey encompassing that common ethos of Beat literature— the passage from darkness to light, from fragmented being toward wholeness, from Beat to Beatific.  He travels through Jack Kerouac’ s Duluoz Legend, following Kerouac’ s quests for identity, community, and spiritual knowledge. He examines Allen Ginsberg’ s use of transcendence in “ Howl,” discovers the Gnostic vision in William S. Burroughs’ s fiction, and studies the mythic, visionary power of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’ s poetry. Stephenson also provides detailed examinations of the writing of lesser-known Beat authors: John Clellon Holmes, Gregory Corso, Richard Fariñ a, and Michael McClure. He explores the myth and the mystery of the literary legend of Neal Cassady. The book concludes with a look at the common traits of the Beat writers— their use of primitivism, shamanism, myth and magic, spontaneity, and improvisation, all of which led them to a new idiom of consciousness and to the expansion of the parameters of American literature.

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Friendly and Flowing Savage: The Literary Legend of Neal Cassady (Esprit Critique)

Textile Bridge Press

A strong case for Stone as an articulate and passionate moralist; In this guide to the fiction of Robert Stone, Gregory Stephenson introduces readers to a novelist of popular appeal and critical acclaim whom he describes as an anomaly among contemporary American writers - an author independent of literary fashions, unaffiliated with groups or movements. In this critical survey, Stephenson identifies the qualities that separate Stone from his peers and have brought him accolades such as the National Book Award, earning him a place of enduring significance in the American canon. Stephenson provides close readings of Stone's novels and short stories, including A Hall of Mirrors, Dog Soldiers, A Flag for Sunrise, Children of Light, Outerbridge Reach, and Damascus Gate. He traces the combination of a stark, hard-boiled realism with the hallucinatory and mystical aspects of Stone's writing. His examination of Stone's attention to character, imagery, and figures of speech stands beside his suggestion that Stone's corpus reveals a coherent, evolving vision of moral, psychological, political, and metaphysical concerns.

Understanding Robert Stone (Understanding Contemporary American Literature)

University of South Carolina Press

Tangier. Déya. Dieppe. Paris. Copenhagen. Chasing the fading contours of the past. Pursuing points of intersection. Encounters with aging literary figures and surviving witnesses to history. Excavating printed artifacts in the back rooms of used book shops. Locating lingering traces: a bullet hole, a logo, graffiti, items of equipment lost or discarded. Conversations with Paul Bowles & Mohammed Mrabet, Brion Gysin, "Pauline Réage," Robert Graves, Maurice Girodias, Berthe Cleyrergue, Edouard Roditi, Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky. Gregory Stephenson grew up in Colorado and Arizona, but has lived in Denmark for many years. Currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Copenhagen, he is the author of six books of literary criticism, including most recently Pilgrims to Elsewhere, also from EyeCorner Press.

POINTS OF INTERSECTION: Meeting Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Robert Graves, Pauline Réage, and others

EyeCorner Press

THE RAGGED PROMISED LAND: Jack Kerouac's America and other scenes. 
Travels in a holey holy land, sojourns in a skid row hotel, larceny & poetic license, a secret Victorian stoner, raptures of an impoverished consumptive young poet, the strange resurrection of old engravings, a gathering of far-flung fragments, moving a ton of weed. Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Akbar del Piombo, Samuel Greenberg, Jerry Kamstra and someone else.

The Ragged Promised Land: Jack Kerouac's America and other scenes

Biographies & Memoirs

Ober-Limbo Verlag

Fleabag Shrine: Diverse Particulars Apropos of N° 9 rue Gît-le-Coeur

History & Criticism

Representations of baseball in Jack Kerouac's letters, journals, fiction, poetry & essays. Perspectives on the spiritual dimensions of the sport, drawn from articles and books by scholars in the field.

IS BASEBALL HOLY? Jack Kerouac and the National Pastime

Religion & Spirituality

Riding Pegasus Bareback: Notes on Gregory Corso

Felix Culpa Press

And the Rivers Thereof: Reflections on Riverine Images in the Writing of Jack Kerouac

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