Home » Reading & Literature » Beat Writers » To Wed An Author

To Wed An Author

© Robert Edward Bell

Along the outskirts of San Francisco, lying someplace between the ocean and eternity is a publishing company, whose sands rest on the ancient underwater relics of ships lost on horizons, having crashed years ago on the banks of unchartered shores drying in the heat of some lost tropical summer storm. The setting sun will often set on the silence of memories. Memory descends in the same manner as those lost ships; whose barren skeletal hulls wait half-frozen in space and sound, as the waters of time arise and wash over the rotting wood of dawn. Creative Publishing Company is an older publisher of poetry and prose lying in the heart of Berkley, that resembles an oasis in the midst of a desert grown barren, urging the timid traveler to drink from her clear cooling spring waters.

The writings of the Beat era carried with them some magical mystical element, because as poets and writers they were able to grasp this unnamed space that occupies the heart and hold it in place for a moment, through the craft of writing, making this experience filter into their words. Their actions of living a Beat bohemian lifestyle, reading the Tao-Te-Ching, studying the ancient writings of Zen Buddhism, resounding in the wild midnight readings in the cafe's merged experience into word conveying the feeling and movement of Jazz into the prosaic mood of the written word.

When Jack Kerouac typed On The Road on one long scroll of typing paper, he was not only blending the subconscious towards avant-garde limitations, but was also able to draw from the ancient traditions of the East and place them within the symbolism, the modern paradigm of the West. This aspect of taking old myths of traditions and changing them to fit the view of the post-modern in a new and exciting way was one of the characteristics that gave the beats such energy and internal strength. It also seemed to add to the integrity of the moment, helping to give them a sense of believability.

But underneath this romanticism and almost significant devotion to the craft of writing resided a dark side that bordered upon itself. With the upcoming release of Nobody's Wife, The Smart Alec and The King of the Beats, Joan Kerouac delves deeper into this darkness of the human mind, by giving the reader a look into the beat movement from a woman's point of view.

As the Tao that the beats were so fond of studying, the literary movement from North Beach contained two sides. Like a double-edged sword, the steel from such blades cut