The Best Minds of My Generation A Literary History of the Beats

<p><b>A unique history of the Beats, in the words of the movement's most central member, Allen Ginsberg, based on a seminal series of his lectures <p></b>In 1977, twenty years after the publication of his landmark poem 'Howl', Allen Ginsberg decided it was time to teach a course on the literary history of the Beat Generation - partly to preserve his own memories of those years. <i>The Best Minds of My Generation</i> presents the best of these candid, intimate and illuminating lectures, revealing Kerouac, Burroughs and the rest of the Beats as Ginsberg knew them: friends, confidantes, literary mentors and fellow visionaries in a group who started a revolution. <p>'Marvellous ... spellbinding ... preserving intact the story of the literary movement Ginsberg led, promoted and never ceased to embody' <i>The New York Times Book Review</i> <p>'An awesome exhaustive feat ... fascinatingly readable' <i>Sunday Times</i> <p>'Astonishingly intimate ... Full of penetrating insight and fascinating literary gossip, the book is a major contribution to the core Beat canon ... situates the Beats in cultural history in a way that no other exploration of their work does' <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i></p>