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The Beats, Bless 'em, Saluted in Book - Page 2

© Robert Powers

As for Jack Kerouac, whose life was shortened by his untempered thirst for alcohol, his novels and other books continue to sell briskly in the nation's book stores. Of Kerouac's style of writing one-take manuscripts, writer Truman Capote once sniffed, "That's not writing, that's typing."

One of the best pieces of writing in this collection comes from rock singer Patti Smith, also one of the admired modern poets and lyricists of the late 20th century. The last stanza goes: "Oh Allen Allen Ginsberg/oh see what you have done/see see Allen/see what you have done/you took us in/from everywhere/and made us all/as one."

Cheers are in order for Rolling Stone magazine, book editor Holly-George Warren, and publisher Hyperion (a subsidiary of the Walt Disney empire!). "The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats" is fascinating reading worth your time and money.

You might want to put in an early order with the big chubby fellow who lives up at the North Pole. Or go ahead and give yourself a present now.

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