Product Description
Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch, an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junk, his first book, a candid, eyewitness account of times and places that are now long gone. This book brings them vividly to life again; it is an unvarnished field report from the American postwar underground. For this definitive 50th-anniversary edition, eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has painstakingly re-created the author's original text, word by word, from archival typescripts. Here for the first time are Burroughs's own unpublished Introduction and an entire omitted chapter, along with many "lost" passages and auxiliary texts by Allen Ginsberg and others. Harris's comprehensive Introduction reveals the composition history of Junk's text and places its contents against a lively historical background. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (99)

Junky
Junky is Burroughs semi-autobiographical novel about being a Heroin addict cirka late 1940s/early 1950s in New York, New Orleans and Mexico City. This book is entertaining and interesting even if it paints a seedy and depressing picture of this lifestyle. Another thing I liked is he talked intelligently about Marijuana (which was rare back then) and there was a seemingly random tangent he went on for several pages about Wilhelm Reich. The thing is even though reading this would serve as a deterrent to Heroin use for any semi-normal person because he was a hipster/famous beat writer I can also imagine a certain portion of the population would consider Heroin a cool, hip thing after reading this.

4 stars
The best part was the Glossary. Did it need one? Am I lame to know jive talk?

This is junk territory
I am a huge fan of the Beat Generation literature and after reading this and Naked Lunch, William Burroughs has become one of my favorite authors.Unlike Naked Lunch Junky is much more straight forward and literal but therein lies its strength.Burroughs makes no attempt to glamorize or demonize his drug use, he simply tells it like it is including the good times and the bad times.It is very much like a memoir that tells the story of his life through his alter ego William Lee.Junky is a fairly short read but still tells a great story.I have just finished reading it and already know that I will be re-reading it in the near future.Highly recommended, buy it now and enter "junk territory"!

A book to long
When a book is in stock it should ship within the next day or two not the next month.I doubt I bother ordeering from this supplier again.

Hardcore writing on the life of an addict
Excellent book on the life of William S. Burroughs and his daily battle with addiction.The book pulls no punches in describing his accounts of getting and using drugs.I could not put this one down.If you are a person that suffers with addiction, you will enjoy the way Burroughs puts into words what junkies go through every day.I gained a whole new perspective on addiction after reading this one.I hope you enjoy it as well. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Bizarre and Sometimes Dull
I like Ginsberg, but some of these ramblings can be as annoying as some of his poetry.Often hard to comprehend without more background information, Ginsberg comes off as lonely, sad, and using way too many drugs to give himself confidence.

wonderfully crazy
This journal of Ginsberg, alone and with his friends, is insighful and crazy.Using long narrations and scattered poetry he lets us into his thoughts on just about everything.A must read for any Ginsberg fan. ... Read more

Product Description
Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Hanna Arendt, Norman Mailer, and Lillian Hellman -among the other things these writers and intellectuals all had in common is Norman Podhoretz.With them Podhoretz was part of "The Family," as the core group of New York intellectuals of the 50s and 60s came to be known.And in Ex-Friends, he has written the intellectual equivalent of a family history- a sparkling chronicle of affection and jealousy, generosity and betrayal, breakdowns and reconciliations, and ultimately of dysfunctions impossible to cure.

Ex-Friends is filled with brilliant portraits of some of the cultural icons who defined our time.Yet anyone who has followed Norman Podhoretz's career as a writer and editor and above all one of the leading controversialists of our time will expect more than just another fond memoir of literary alliances and quarrels, brilliant talk and bruised egos.Indeed, while Ex-Friends has some of the elements of apersonal diary, it is also a journal de combat describing the intellectual and social turbulence of the 60s and 70s and showing how the literary living room was transformed into a political battleground where the meaning of America was fought night by night.Against this backdrop, Podhoretz tells how he left The Family and undertook a trailblazing journey from radical to conservative, a journey that helped redefine America's intellectual landscape in the last quarter of the 20th century and caused his old friends to become ex-friends. If there is a nostalgia in Ex-Friends, it is not only for lost friendships but also for a time of wit, erudition, and passionate argumentation.Norman Podhoretz bodies forth a world when people still believed that what they thought and wrote and said could change the world.Amazon.com Review
"If you like gossip, you'll adore Ex-Friends,"columnist Liz Smith has said. And, boy, does archconservative NormanPodhoretz's account of his bitter splits with important Americanintellectuals rollick. See Norman Mailer, whom critic Podhoretz gave acrucial early boost, get naked and attempt a three-way with hisgirlfriend and Podhoretz! (Podhoretz tried orgies, pot, and speed, buthated them as much as Kerouac's and Bellow's novels). Hear Mailer'stale after he stabbed his wife almost to death and ran straight toPodhoretz's place! Thrill as critic Allen Tate challenges editorWilliam Barrett to a death-duel over Ezra Pound's Bollingen Award! AsWoody Allen said of the literati Podhoretz calls "the Family," "Theyonly kill their own."

Ex-Friends is a nifty if one-sided sketch of the intellectualgang wars, and it captures people more two-faced than does a Cubistpainting. After ideas, writes Podhoretz, the Family's second passionwas "gossiping with the wittiest possible malice about anyone who hadthe misfortune not to be present." Podhoretz only discovered HannahArendt's faked friendship by reading the published letters of Arendt and MaryMcCarthy, and he nails her for her German chauvinism andimpenetrable arrogance. He trashes Allen Ginsberg, who publishedPodhoretz's first poem, for Ginsberg's outrageous grandstanding, andbecause homosexuality outrages him. He liked Lillian Hellman partlybecause she gave glamorous parties, and stomps her for loyalty toStalin's party and her prose ("an imitation of Hammett's imitation ofHemingway"). He skewers many besides the celebs in his subtitle,including Joseph Heller, whose Catch-22 he helped make ahit. He won Jackie Onassis's affection by returning her put-down witha quick "F--- you," like the Brooklyn street tough he was andremains. Mailer betrayed him for not getting him invited to Jackie'sparty.

The Family had big ideas--and, as Podhoretz proves, egos as big asthin-skinned dodo eggs. --Tim Appelo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

thank goodness for men like Norman
Loaned this out from the library and have completed the introduction, the chapter on Ginsberg and am now in the middle of the Mailer chapter.
Love N.P.'s logical conclusions to what has happened to our society.
It is fairly easy to read for a non-intellectual as myself and I would like to quote a sterling example of just one of the passages that validated my views:
pg. 8"What happened in the 1960's was, to put it simply but not inacurately, a mass conversion to leftist radicalism by the formerly liberal intellectual establishment and a commensurate seizure of the enormous power by radical ideas and attitudes over the institutions controlled by intellectuals. These institutions, as everyone now knows, include the universities, the major media of information and entertainment (New York and Hollywood, the big newspapers and magazines, the movies and television), and increasingly even the mainstream churches."

There is nothing BUT such perfect and precise wording on every page of this book and I am SO glad I selected it and look forward to anything else I come across, which I will be seeking out, by Mr. Podhoretz.

trash
I found this book in a box of books someone put out for the trashman. I picked it up because I saw Ginsburg's name in the title though Ihad never heard of the author. The same day I put it back where I found it.

Sparring intellectuals
Norman Podhoretz was a New York intellectual in the 1950's-60's, once editor of Commentary magazine. A left-leaning writer then, in the early 70's he began leaning right and became one of the "founding fathers" of neoconservatism. He was an anti-Communist who rebelled against the anti-American bent of the 60's radicals. (The thought of Jane Fonda all decked out in her love beads sitting down with the North Vietnamese leadership to trash all things American still gives neocons the heebie-jeebies.)

This was when he began breaking with old friends, such as the ones named in the book's title. Most of these people (taken from Podhoretz's viewpoint) are not very pleasant. (Is there anything more vicious than an intellectual scorned?) But Podhoretz is very much on the defensive, and like the "lady who protests too much," makes the reader wary. Whether you go along with his politics or not, I thought it was a pretty interesting book anyway.

A lively look at American intellectual life in the fifties
Norman Podhoretz is one of the most important American intellectuals of the Post- War period. His shift away from the Left toward a Conservative position helped mark a new period in American intellectual life. In this memoir he writes about the ' friends' of a former time, each of whom is a distinguished 'name' by themselves. Allen Ginsberg, Hannah Arendt, the Trillings, Lionel and Diana, Lillian Hellman and Norman Mailer. Podhoretz blends the personal anecodote with the ideological quarrel in explaining his estrangement from these friends. At one point he talks about how their radical indulgence in their own appetites led to a kind of moral chaos which he understood as destructive and damaging.
There is a question raised by many readers of the morality of turning on old friends in this way, and writing as if one were the only righteous man among a bunch of misguided moral morons. Other readers point out the possible envy motive given the fact that all the people he writes about are probably considered by most to be more important ' creative figures ' than him. Certainly Arendt, and Mailer fit this category.
Podhoretz however should not be underestimated and he as a critic , and as a moral and literary guide is a person of considerable weight and stature. I would not say that everything here suits my taste, but there is a great deal of interesting writing about the intellectual life of the American fifties, and of some of its major characters.

It takes an egotist to know one
Podhoretz, the man who recently said what's the big deal about a few thousand dead G.I.'s in Iraq considering what's at stake (without having a clue that nothing is at stake), Norman disparages the artist/intellectual/egotists of the 60's/70's that don't fall in line with his ideology while today he lauds the conservative egomaniacs that have brought our country to its low level of intellectualism and turned a nation founded by intellectual deists into a Disneyworld of McReligion.But it's all fine so long as we make the world safe for democracy.Norman seems to think there is something hypocritical about professing social justice and being a small time celebrity, when in fact, as Freud said, the partial motivation of any "artist" is fame and the love of women (speaking I assume of male artists). Einstein enjoyed the limelight; everyone enjoys the limelight and everyone has his or her weaknesses.Have you ever read Einstein's poetry?YUK!So to disparage the ones you don't happen to like is a bit disingenuous.The true irony is that only an attention-seeking egotist would write a book about such trivial nonsense.But this is all in keeping with a man who explains what writers should be writing if they only knew better, ex., he applauded James Baldwin's early career because he was on his way to being another Henry James; he condemns him when Baldwin's attention turned to racism in America.Imagine that: a black writer distraught over racism in America.The very idea! I think Norm's whole problem can be traced back to his youth, which he relates in his autobiography "Making It," talking about taking the subway from culturally challenged Brooklyn to Manhattan, growing up as a nice Jewish boy, the son of modest working class parents, attending college, and rising among the ranks of the intellectual New York crowd. Nowadays, Norm is comparing the invasion of Iraq to the invasion of Normandy, and explains that Iraq will become democratic by using as an analogy post-WW IIGermany's quick transition to a modern democracy (of course, with the help of 2 1/2 million allied troops occupying it).How did this guy ever have friends to begin with??? ... Read more

Product Description

Here is a unique contribution to the field of poetry: a new collection of works by America's foremost Buddhist meditation master, Chögyam Trungpa. These poems and songs—most of which were written since his arrival in the United States in 1970—combine a background in classical Tibetan poetry with Trungpa's intuitive insight into the spirit of America, a spirit that is powerfully evoked in his use of colloquial metaphor and contemporary imagery.

Most of the poems were originally written in English—clearly the result of the author's own perceptions of new forms and media offered to him by a different culture. Each poem has its own insight and power, which come from a skillful blend of traditional Asian subtlety and precision combined with a thoroughly modern vernacular. Several of the author's calligraphies accompany the collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Amazing WEALTH of Writing Advice
I've been having an ongoing flirtation with the "Beat Generation" this year, having read Diane Di Prima, Anne Waldman, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, among others.When I stumbled across this set of audio CD's, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.To hear these giants of their generation reading their own works was a dream come true.

The title "First Thought, Best Thought" was the phrase that poet Allen Ginsberg used to describe spontaneous and fearless writing--a way of "telling the truth" that arises from naked and authentic experience.

Here's the gist of the CD's:

*William S. Burroughs teaching his breakthrough methods for generating fresh writing--including "the cut-up method," chance operations, and dreamwork.


*Diane di Prima on how to survive as an artist: preserving your sensibility, creating a supportive artistic community, getting published, self-publishing, and much more.


*Allen Ginsberg exploring every stage of poetic activity--from inspiration, to composition, to revision, to performing your poetry in public.


*Anne Waldman on the elements of the poet's craft--from the raw material of the words themselves to the many aspects of the poem in performance.

I must say that my own writing practice (after listening to these CD's a few times) has been profoundly enriched for the better.I've decided to publish my own poetry and I'm experimenting with the cut-up method suggested by Burroughs.It's a blast and funny has hell at times.

If you need a giant dose of inspiration and/or encouragement for your writing, then by all means, BUY THIS COLLECTION!

Of course, the Universe being a giant cross-reference, these authors led me to other great books:"Women of the Beat Generation" by Brenda Knight was an eye-opening read about the women of that generation.

Here's a blurb from that book:"In many ways, women of the Beat were cut from the same cloth as the men: fearless, angry, high risk, too smart, restless, highly irregular. They took chances, make mistakes, made poetry, made love, made history. Women of the Beat weren't afraid to get dirty. They were compassionate, careless, charismatic, marching to a different drummer, out of step. Muses who birthed a poetry so raw and new and full of power that it changed the world. Writers whose words weave spells, whose stories bind, whose vision blinds. Artists for whom curing the disease of art kills."

I'd also recommend, "Fast Speaking Woman" by Anne Waldman and "Memoirs of a Beatnik" by Diane Di Prima.Ms. Waldman got her inspiration for the title poem from the Shaman, Maria Sabina.So, you MUST read about Maria Sabina in this amazing book, "Maria Sabina:Her Life and Chants" by Alvaro Estrada.Here's a taste of one of her chants:

Because I can swim in the immense
Because I can swim in all forms
Because I am the launch woman
Because I am the sacred opposum
Because I am the Lord opposum

I am the woman Book that is beneath the water, says
I am the woman of the populous town, says
I am the shepherdess who is beneath the water, says
I am the woman who shepherds the immense, says
I am a shepherdess and I come with my shepherd, says

Because everything has its origin
And I come going from place to place from the origin . . .

(Alvaro Estrada, "Maria Sabina: her Life and Chants")


... Read more

Product Description
Allen Ginsberg was a serious shutterbug who delighted in taking candid snapshots of his friends and fellow writers, but up until now readers have had little chance to consider the "poetic" world of his photographs. Here in the form of twenty detachable postcards are photographs taken over the years on the poet's many travels and trips abroad. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

very good
i found this book of poetry and poesy from Ginsberg to be delightful.it is perhaps not for non-intellectuals.i myself had trouble with many of the allusions, and am probably above average in intelligence for my age, 17.i don't know.but get it. it's quite insightful. ... Read more

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A collection of poems by one of the greatest literary and cultural figures of the 20th century

Customer Reviews (6)

Ginsberg Does Ginsberg
The Allen Ginsberg CD Poetry Collection is a must-have for anyone interested in mid-20th century popular culture in general, and Beat writing in particular. Its poems hold within them the memory of where an entire demographic has come from. For three hours Ginsberg's voice brings his work to life. Among other things, it reminds us that poetry needs to be heard and not simply read. It also reveals the character of the man himself. He must have been a beautiful guy. A radical, a romantic, a peacemaker, an explorer, a truly passionate eccentric, a pain in the [...]. If our time still produced people (and words) like Ginsberg then our lives would be so much richer.

A great compilation...
I was lucky enough to have gone to three poetry readings held in Harvard Square, Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1970's. The last one I recorded "Contest of the Bards" and Allen requested a copy of it, of which I sent it to him promptly the next day. Allen Ginsberg is an excellent 'orator' and new age poet lauriat of his age and the future ages. He certainly does not have to read like and to sound like previous poets in their delivery style nor in any other 'academically' trained style of delivering 'speak-a-forth-the-naked-truth' enumerations from within, soul strength held. I love this collection and the poet for his strength and style and what he adds to those of us who love the english language.

a treat indeed
great listening. every poem inspires a new poem to be written. could listen to this for hours and hours. beautifully packaged too, a testament. very inspiring.

Excellent CDs
A new years present to myself and I've listened through three times already. Inspiring, makes me want to write and move to California or New York or Europe. Well-packaged, though some typos, and great booklet, 60 pages, with interesting design. Recommended. It's creepy to hear Ginsberg's voice, knowing this was his last major reading of his works. Very good CDs.

Just got this
Just picked up a copy of this from a publishing friend, topnotch CDs, great package as well. The CDs have drawings by Ginsberg printed onto them, and the cardboard sleeve has filmstills from the readings these are taken from at the Knitting Factory. The booklet is lengthy and detailed, with some short pieces by different writers, but they're rather short. One apparently read with Ginsberg these nights; would like to have read more, perhaps? But a great pleasure, to hear these poems in order, great sound quality. Listening to it right now. ... Read more

Product Description
Loaded with new material--a new introduction, additional interviews, as well as new photos and artwork--the second edition of Mavericks of the Mind also includes the transcripts from the events that brought together interviewees from the book to debate philosophical topics in roundtable discussions. This stimulating collection features in-depth conversations with accomplished thinkers, such as Terence McKenna, Laura Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, Rupert Sheldrake, Riane Eisler, and Robert Anton Wilson. The interviews explore such fascinating topics as the frontiers of consciousness exploration, how psychedelics effect creativity, the relationship between science and spirituality, lucid dreaming, quantum physics, morphic field theory, interspecies communication, chaos theory, and time travel. ... Read more

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With captions by Allen Ginsberg and a preface by William S. Burroughs, this is the only book to celebrate and chronicle the gay parade in NYC during its heyday.

An all-new collection-none of the photos, captions, or preface has ever been published before! Taken during the early days of the gay pride parade, these photos were captioned by Allen Ginsberg and laid aside until now. This book provides a unique and personal look into the roots of one the city's most vibrant traditions, as well as being an important addition to gay/lesbian literature and photo documentation.

Hank O'Neal chronicled the New York City gay pride parade from the informal, spontaneous ritual held soon after the Stonewall Riots up to the more orchestrated, glamorous parades of the 80s, before AIDS turned the parade into a political necessity.All of O'Neal's photographs date from 1974 to 1984, when the parade was held on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village (it has since moved to 5th Avenue).The photos capture the personality, the community, and the spirit of the gay pride parade in its earliest stages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

For Gay Nostalgia or Gay History Buffs
Having been a young gay man in New York during the era covered in these photos, I found myself a bit bemused by this book.A large number of the photos are of skinny lads with their shirts off or grimacing drag queens, whereas my own memories are of more varied crowds.The photos themselves are very much alike, and soon begin to blur one into the other.The photographer was not blessed with an artistic or selective eye.Nevertheless, the photos are a historical record, if a partial one.

The picture captions, however, are nothing short of awful.Written by the gay poet and Beatnik icon, Allan Ginsberg, they read like the giddy outpourings of a junior high school glue sniffer.The publisher has seen fit to print each caption twice, once in type and once in Ginsberg's handwriting - a dubious bonus.They have no real relation to the pictures, which might have been made more interesting with some focused comment.

The cover has been tarted up with art work that suggests Day-Glo flower stickers.

its ok
not much to say- a bunch of pics from back in the day- the hot pants and hair and moustaches are interesting to view- ... Read more

Product Description
Poems by a modern master. "[Ginsberg's] powerful mixture of Blake, Whitman, Pound, and Williams, to which he added his own volatile, grotesque, and tender humor, has assured him a memorable place in modern poetry."-- Helen Vendler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Say what?
Regardless of your feelings about the man, his lifestyle, and even his writings, one cannot deny that Ginsberg was one of the monumental figures of 20th century American literature.He was talented, prolific, and was writing good stuff upuntil the very end.

I was very pleased with the contents of this book.At this point I've read most of Ginsberg's writings.While I do in general prefer his earlier work to his later work, I definitely enjoyed the poems in this book.I'd put it a little above his "Cosmopolitan Greetings," which I also enjoyed very much.

I think it's important to not expect the Ginsberg of the 80s and 90s to be the same as the Ginsberg of the 40s and 50s.Like any creative individual, he evolved over time.Some may like the change, others apparently do not.I like all of his work, old and new, and I consider this to be as important a reading as anything else for anyone wanting to get a clear picture of the whole of Ginsberg.For those starting out with ginsberg, I would recommend the collected works book with the red cover from the same publisher to start with.But if you've already got an appreciation for the man and his work, I can recommend this volume without any reservations whatsoever.

5 stars for this one.

the famed beat poet fails to deliver
THE Beat Poet fails to deliver once again. i seriously don't know where this man's fame comes from. it isn't his poetry (with the exception of Howl and a few other poems). there really isn't much to say about ginsberg's work other than it is bad. maybe if he had spent a little time in revision he could have done better. you're best off with his selected or collected poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A true dharma bum in today's world !!!!
Mr. Dorfner is truly a dharma bum in today's society if there ever is one !! Between this novel that deeply researches Jack's life in his hometown of Lowell to his other piece "visions of Rocky Mount", Mr.Dorfner has really done his homework on Jack. I highly recommend this book (and "visions of Rocky Mount") to ANY fan of Kerouac or the beat generation. Thank you, Mr.Dorfner for writing such an informative book !!

...also title on Rocky Mount...
Dorfner...born in Catskills,NY--rode bike, packed his Rucksak, & went-On The Road*...a truly Beatified...hip beat. Make annual Lowell,(MA)Celebrates J Kerouac, 3 days in early Oct.... ... Read more