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Venice West
"A most remarkable book... a wonderful account of an odd and unlikely place where for a brief time a small number of people pursued a romantic vision of what a life dedicated to art should be like... a superb story."
--William O'Neill, author of American The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960 The beatnik was born in Venice, California, in the 1950s. An imaginary figure in many respects, the invention of both the media and the people who played the beatnik role and the character quickly assumed nearly mythic proportions for the American public. Coffeehouses, beards, poetry, drugs, and free-wheeling sexuality were all associated with the beatnik, the quintessential rebel who, by rejecting material values, represented both a threat and an alluring alternative to the dominant middle-class culture. In this fascinating book, John Arthur Maynard tells the story of the poets and promoters who invented the Beat Generation and who, in many cases, destroyed themselves in the process. In this look at the least remembered (but in its time, most publicized) beat enclave, Maynard focuses on two of Venice's most newsworthy Lawrence Lipton and Stuart Z. Perkoff. Lipton began as a writer of popular detective stories and screenplays, but was determined to be recognized as a poet and social critic. He eventually published The Holy Barbarians, which helped to create the enduring public image of the beatnik. Stuart Perkoff was a more gifted poet; with fascination and horror, we follow his failed attempts to support his family, his heroin addiction, his first wive's courage and mental fragility, his sexual entanglements, his imprisonment, and the development of his own writing. Other characters who move in and out of the story are Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, as well as lesser-known poets, artists, hangers-on, and the many women who were rarely treated as full members of the community. For most of the 1950s, the Venice beatniks were able to live and work in isolation. Once the media decided that beats made good copy, however, their peace was shattered. Reporters, drug dealers, violent criminals, and would-be beatniks invaded Venice in such force that many "square" residents began an unrelenting campaign to purge their community of bohemianism. This campaign persisted long after the beats, who tended to ignore politics, had yielded the stage to a new generation of political activists. In this collective biography, based largely on unpublished sources, Maynard tells us how these events affected public perceptions and the beats' own perceptions of themselves.
--William O'Neill, author of American The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960 The beatnik was born in Venice, California, in the 1950s. An imaginary figure in many respects, the invention of both the media and the people who played the beatnik role and the character quickly assumed nearly mythic proportions for the American public. Coffeehouses, beards, poetry, drugs, and free-wheeling sexuality were all associated with the beatnik, the quintessential rebel who, by rejecting material values, represented both a threat and an alluring alternative to the dominant middle-class culture. In this fascinating book, John Arthur Maynard tells the story of the poets and promoters who invented the Beat Generation and who, in many cases, destroyed themselves in the process. In this look at the least remembered (but in its time, most publicized) beat enclave, Maynard focuses on two of Venice's most newsworthy Lawrence Lipton and Stuart Z. Perkoff. Lipton began as a writer of popular detective stories and screenplays, but was determined to be recognized as a poet and social critic. He eventually published The Holy Barbarians, which helped to create the enduring public image of the beatnik. Stuart Perkoff was a more gifted poet; with fascination and horror, we follow his failed attempts to support his family, his heroin addiction, his first wive's courage and mental fragility, his sexual entanglements, his imprisonment, and the development of his own writing. Other characters who move in and out of the story are Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, as well as lesser-known poets, artists, hangers-on, and the many women who were rarely treated as full members of the community. For most of the 1950s, the Venice beatniks were able to live and work in isolation. Once the media decided that beats made good copy, however, their peace was shattered. Reporters, drug dealers, violent criminals, and would-be beatniks invaded Venice in such force that many "square" residents began an unrelenting campaign to purge their community of bohemianism. This campaign persisted long after the beats, who tended to ignore politics, had yielded the stage to a new generation of political activists. In this collective biography, based largely on unpublished sources, Maynard tells us how these events affected public perceptions and the beats' own perceptions of themselves.
253 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1991
51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 26, 2010
I'm researching a book that involves a character who lives in Venice. I had no idea of Venice's history as a major beatnik enclave in the late 50's / early 60's. This was a fascinating read, and Maynard does a great job of illuminating all the elements that led to the development of beat culture in Venice. It does get a bit dry in parts, reading like a textbook. Still, it's an interesting slice of American cultural history, and invaluable to anyone who is interested in the Beat movement.
June 28, 2010
The beatnik movement of the early to late 50s was chronicled mostly in the San Francisco and New York areas. Venice Beach, California, was a third hotbed of hipster rebellion, and its players are covered well in Maynard's book. I'm researching the city for a book I'm writing, and being a Kerouac disciple and a fan of the Beats in general, I found it fascinating. The people who influenced Venice's development are shown to be flawed humans with a common desire to create a counterculture where they could be free to create, without all the trappings of conservative, "modern" America in the mid-20th century. The book is highly detailed and well-documented. The writing can be a bit dry, but it's mostly entertaining and very illuminating. I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in the Beat movement and its partial genesis in Venice Beach.
February 24, 2017
As a girl who grew up in Venice, this was a fascinating read to explore more of the town I know so well. A colorful account of what that era in that unique place was like. Reading this, I got to see my old neighborhood in a new light.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews