The Beat Generation in New York
The Other Poets, Activists and Literary Artists of the Beat Movement
Sep 7, 2009
In the mid 1940s, a group of writers came together in New York City. Hanging around Times Square, writing about drugs, homosexuality and alternative forms of spirituality, these artists pushed the limits of what was socially acceptable in the conformist 40s and 50s.
While it is said that Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Neal Cassady are the original Beat writers, there are a number of other key figures that would cause the movement to explode across the nation.
“Lou was the Glue”
Lucien Cass was born March 1, 1925 in New York City to Russell Carr and Marian Gratz Carr, who were both products of socially prominent St. Louis families.
As a young teenager, Carr met David Kammerer, an English teacher at Washington University in St. Louis. Kammerer was leading a youth group of which Carr was a member and he immediately became infatuated with the boy. For the next five years, Kammerer followed Carr as he moved from city to city and enrolled at Columbia University.
While at school, Carr met and befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac on separate occasions. He met Ginsberg first, in the dormitory they were both living in, when Ginsberg knocked on Carr’s door to find out who was playing a recording of a Brahms trio. Not long after, Carr met Edie Parker, who was dating Kerouac at the time.
It was Lucien Carr who introduced Ginsberg and Kerouac. The core group of the New York Beat scene was complete when Carr further introduced Ginsberg and Kerouac to his older friend, William S. Burroughs, another member of the wealthy social circle in St. Louis.
Burroughs also knew Kammerer, as they had been childhood friends and, as young men, traveled to Paris together. But, as close as they may have been, Burroughs did not condone Kammerer’s behaviour toward Carr. And Carr finally reached his breaking point with his admirer.
In 1944, Carr murdered David Kammerer, in what he said was self-defence, and Kerouac and Burroughs were arrested as material witnesses.
After serving two years in prison, Carr went to work for United Press International. He began as a copy boy and finished his 47 year career as a news editor. He died Jan. 28, 2005 at the age of 79 in Washington, D.C.
According to author Bill Morgan in his book, The Beat Generation in New York, the Carr incident inspired Kerouac and Burroughs, in 1945, to write the novel And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, which was published for the first time in November 2008.
Greenwich Village in 1950
Gregory Nunzio Corso was born March 26, 1930 in New York City to Italian mother Michelina Colonna and Italian American father Sam Corso.
At the age of 20, Corso was recently released from prison and beginning to write poetry. He was supported as an “artist-in-residence” by the Pony Stable, one of New York’s first openly lesbian bars. It was here, while Corso was writing poetry, that he met Allen Ginsberg.
Ginsberg, who was cruising bars, later said he walked into the Pony Stable and immediately noticed Corso, who was sitting at a table alone. Not knowing if Corso was gay, Ginsberg struck up a conversation with him and, after reading Corso’s poems, was impressed with his obvious talent.
Until he met Ginsberg, Corso had read only traditional poetry, but Ginsberg introduced him to contemporary, experimental styles. Eventually, Ginsberg also introduced Corso to the rest of the New York Beat writers.
Corso was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat writers. He died Jan. 17, 2001 at the age of 70 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota.
His works include The Vestal Lady and Other Poems, Gasoline, Bomb, Minutes to Go, written with Sinclair Beiles, William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, The American Express, The Night Last Night was at its Nightest, and Mindfield.
Lucien Carr and Gregory Corso, along with Herbert Huncke and John Clellon Holmes, would live on as members of the original New York Beats, prominent writers and influences of the generation. They were also joined by great writers of the West Coast Scene.
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