89-519: Neal Leon Cassady (February 8, 1926 – February 4, 1968) was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s. Cassady published only two short fragments of prose in his lifetime, but exerted considerable intellectual and stylistic influence through his conversation and correspondence. Letters, poems, and an unfinished autobiographical novel have been published since his death. He
178-519: A San Francisco nightclub, Cassady served a two-year sentence at California's San Quentin State Prison . After his release in June 1960, he struggled to meet family obligations, and Carolyn divorced him when his parole period expired in 1963. Carolyn stated that she was looking to relieve Cassady of the burden of supporting a family, but "this was a mistake and removed the last pillar of his self-esteem". After
267-746: A beachside house just south of Puerto Vallarta , Jalisco , they were joined by Barbara Wilson and Walter Cox. During the next year, Cassady's life became less stable, and the pace of his travels more frenetic. He left Mexico in May, traveling to San Francisco, Denver, New York City, and points in between. Cassady then returned to Mexico in September and October (stopping in San Antonio on the way to visit his oldest daughter, who had just given birth to his first grandchild), visited Ken Kesey's Oregon farm in December, and spent
356-401: A house to be classified by realtors as a raised ranch, there must be a flight of steps to get to the main living floor – which distinguishes it from a split-level house . The ranch house style was adapted for commercial use during the time of the style's popularity. As the concept of a "drive-in" shopping center was being created and popularized, the ranch style was a perfect style to fit into
445-490: A low profile). Beyond style, there were changes in substance. The Beats tended to be essentially apolitical, but the hippies became actively engaged with the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. Among the emerging novelists of the 1960s and 1970s, a few were closely connected with Beat writers, most notably Ken Kesey ( One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ). Though they had no direct connection, other writers considered
534-649: A powerful barbiturate sold under the brand name Seconal . The physician who performed the autopsy wrote simply, "general congestion in all systems." When interviewed later, the physician stated that he was unable to give an accurate report because Cassady was a foreigner and there were drugs involved. "Exposure" is commonly cited as his cause of death, although his widow believes he may have died of kidney failure . Cassady has five known children: Robert William Hyatt Jr. (1945), Cathleen Joanne Cassady (1948), Jami Cassady Ratto (1949), Curtis W. Hansen (1950), and John Allen Cassady (1951). Robert, son of Cassady and Maxine Beam,
623-402: A sense to bridge generations. Philip Lamantia , Michael McClure , Philip Whalen , Ginsberg and Gary Snyder read on October 7, 1955, before 100 people (including Kerouac, up from Mexico City). Lamantia read poems of his late friend John Hoffman. At his first public reading, Ginsberg performed the just finished first part of Howl . It was a success and the evening led to many more readings by
712-600: A settlement from Southern Pacific Railroad for a train-related accident, was demolished in August 1997. In 1950, Cassady married Diane Hansen, a young model who was pregnant with his child, Curtis. Cassady traveled cross-country with both Kerouac and Ginsberg on multiple occasions, including the trips documented in Kerouac's On the Road . Following an arrest in 1958 for offering to share a small amount of marijuana with an undercover agent at
801-804: A student, encouraged and supervised his reading, and found employment for him. Cassady continued his criminal activities, however, and was repeatedly arrested from 1942 to 1944; on at least one of these occasions, he was released by law enforcement into Brierly's safekeeping. In June 1944, Cassady was arrested for possession of stolen goods and served 11 months of a one-year prison sentence. Brierly and he actively exchanged letters during this period, even through Cassady's intermittent incarcerations; this correspondence represents Cassady's earliest surviving letters. Some authors have suggested that Brierly may have also been responsible for Cassady's first homosexual experience. In October 1945, after being released from prison, Cassady married 16-year-old Lu Anne Henderson. In 1946,
890-466: A two-story ranch home will save space, allowing for more square feet of living space on the same footprint. Variants include the California Ranch, Suburban Ranch, Split-Level Ranch, Raised Ranch and Storybook Ranch. The raised ranch is a two-story house in which a finished basement serves as an additional floor. It may be built into a slope to utilize the terrain or minimize its profile. For
979-415: A unique style of his own that he called "spontaneous prose," a stream of consciousness prose form. Cassady's own written work was never formally published in his lifetime, and he left behind only a half-written manuscript and a number of personal letters. Cassady admitted to Kerouac in a letter from 1948, "My prose has no individual style as such, but is rather an unspoken and still unexpressed groping toward
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#17330862030281068-535: Is a domestic architectural style that originated in the United States. The ranch-style house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and wide open layout. The style fused modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period of wide open spaces to create a very informal and casual living style. While the original ranch style was informal and basic in design, ranch-style houses built in
1157-463: Is a tract of ranch-style houses built on and adjacent to Butte Court in Shafter, California, in 2007/08. These houses borrowed their style cues from the 1950s Western-styled ranch houses, with board and batten siding, dovecotes, large eaves, and extensive porches. Notably, all houses in this tract were on 1/4-acre lots, and had their front garages turned sideways so that the garage doors were not dominating
1246-604: Is an artist working in Arvada, Colorado. In February 2017, he was featured in Westword magazine. Cathleen, known as Cathy, is the mother of the only grandchild Cassady met. Cathy, Jami, and John keep a website in memory of their parents and parents' "beat" friends. Curt, born from Cassady's marriage with Diana Hansen, died April 30, 2014, aged 63. He was one of the co-founders of radio station WEBE 108, in Bridgeport, Connecticut . Cassady
1335-582: Is based on Gary Snyder. Kerouac was impressed with Snyder and they were close for several years. In the spring of 1955, they lived together in Snyder's cabin in Mill Valley, California . Most Beats were urbanites and they found Snyder almost exotic, with his rural background and wilderness experience, as well as his education in cultural anthropology and Oriental languages. Lawrence Ferlinghetti called him "the Thoreau of
1424-540: Is best demonstrated within Cassady's letters to family and friends. In a letter to Kerouac from 1953, Cassady begins with the following fervent sentence; Well it's about time you wrote, I was fearing you farted out on top that mean mountain or slid under while pissing in Pismo, beach of flowers, food and foolishness, but I knew the fear was ill-founded for balancing it in my thoughts of you, much stronger and valid if you weren't dead,
1513-552: Is credited with helping Kerouac break with his Thomas Wolfe -influenced sentimental style, as seen in The Town and the City (1950). After reading Cassady's letters, Kerouac was inspired to write his story in Cassady's communication style: "...in a rush of mad ecstasy, without self-consciousness or mental hesitation". This fluid writing style, reading more like a stream of consciousness or hypermanic rapid-fire conversation than written prose,
1602-452: Is not brute savagery, but a healthy balance, a self-regulating system.". Snyder attributed wild to Buddhism and Daoism , the interests of some Beats. "Snyder's synthesis uses Buddhist thought to encourage American social activism, relying on both the concept of impermanence and the classically American imperative toward freedom." While many authors claim to be directly influenced by the Beats,
1691-486: The 1950s , better known as Beatniks . The central elements of Beat culture are the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism , explicit portrayals of the human condition , experimentation with psychedelic drugs , and sexual liberation and exploration. Allen Ginsberg 's Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs ' Naked Lunch (1959), and Jack Kerouac 's On
1780-700: The Columbia University campus in New York City. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures, except Burroughs and Carr, ended up together in San Francisco, where they met and became friends of figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance . In the 1950s, a Beatnik subculture formed around the literary movement, although this was often viewed critically by major authors of the Beat movement. In
1869-516: The Protestant Cemetery, Rome . Ginsberg mentions Shelley's poem Adonais at the beginning of his poem Kaddish , and cites it as a major influence on the composition of one of his most important poems. Michael McClure compared Ginsberg's Howl to Shelley's breakthrough poem Queen Mab . Ginsberg's main Romantic influence was William Blake , and studied him throughout his life. Blake
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#17330862030281958-596: The counterculture of the 1960s , accompanied by a shift in terminology from " beatnik " to " hippie ". Many of the original Beats remained active participants, notably Allen Ginsberg, who became a fixture of the anti-war movement. Notably, however, Jack Kerouac broke with Ginsberg and criticized the 1960s politically radical protest movements as an excuse to be "spiteful". There were stylistic differences between beatniks and hippies—somber colors, dark sunglasses, and goatees gave way to colorful psychedelic clothing and long hair. The Beats were known for "playing it cool" (keeping
2047-578: The following generation . Although Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York, fellow poet Herbert Huncke is credited with first using the word "beat". The name arose in a conversation with writer John Clellon Holmes . Kerouac allows that it was Huncke, a street hustler, who originally used the phrase "beat", in an earlier discussion with him. The adjective "beat" could colloquially mean "tired" or "beaten down" within
2136-463: The southwestern United States . By the 1950s, the California ranch house, by now often called simply the ranch house or "rambler house", accounted for nine out of every ten new houses. The seemingly endless ability of the style to accommodate the individual needs of the owner/occupant, combined with the very modern inclusion of the latest in building developments and simplicity of the design, satisfied
2225-423: The 1960s, elements of the expanding Beat movement were incorporated into the hippie and larger counterculture movements. Neal Cassady , as the driver for Ken Kesey 's bus Furthur , was the primary bridge between these two generations. Ginsberg's work also became an integral element of early 1960s hippie culture, in which he actively participated. The hippie culture was practiced primarily by older members of
2314-518: The African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image "beat to his socks", but Kerouac appropriated the image and altered the meaning to include the connotations "upbeat", "beatific", and the musical association of being "on the beat", and "the Beat to keep" from the Beat Generation poem. The origins of the Beat Generation can be traced to Columbia University and
2403-590: The Beat Generation phenomenon itself has had an influence on American culture leading more broadly to the hippie movements of the 1960s. In 1982, Ginsberg published a summary of "the essential effects" of the Beat Generation: The term " beatnik " was coined by Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958, blending the name of the recent Russian satellite Sputnik and Beat Generation. This suggested that beatniks were (1) "far out of
2492-424: The Beat Generation, the presence of some black writers in this movement did contribute to the movement's progression. While many of the Beats briefly discussed issues of race and sexuality, they spoke from their perspectives—most being white. However, black people added a counterbalance to this; their work supplied readers with alternative views of occurrences in the world. Beats like the poet Robert "Bob" Kaufman and
2581-487: The Beat Generation." As documented in the conclusion of The Dharma Bums , Snyder moved to Japan in 1955, in large measure to intensively practice and study Zen Buddhism . He would spend most of the next 10 years there. Buddhism is one of the primary subjects of The Dharma Bums , and the book undoubtedly helped to popularize Buddhism in the West and remains one of Kerouac's most widely read books. The Beats also spent time in
2670-463: The Beat movement. The Beats were inspired by early American figures such as Henry David Thoreau , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Herman Melville and especially Walt Whitman , who is addressed as the subject of one of Ginsberg's most famous poems, " A Supermarket in California ". Edgar Allan Poe was occasionally acknowledged, and Ginsberg saw Emily Dickinson as having an influence on Beat poetry. The 1926 novel You Can't Win by outlaw author Jack Black
2759-505: The Beats to be a major influence, including Thomas Pynchon ( Gravity's Rainbow ) and Tom Robbins ( Even Cowgirls Get the Blues ). William S. Burroughs is considered a forefather of postmodern literature ; he also inspired the cyberpunk genre. One-time Beat writer LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka helped initiate the Black Arts movement. As there was a focus on live performance among
Neal Cassady - Misplaced Pages Continue
2848-419: The Beats were Guillaume Apollinaire , Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire . Gertrude Stein was the subject of a book-length study by Lew Welch . Admitted influences for Kerouac include Marcel Proust , Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe . Gary Snyder defined wild as "whose order has grown from within and is maintained by the force of consensus and custom rather than explicit legislation". "The wild
2937-410: The Beats, many Slam poets have claimed to be influenced by the Beats. Saul Williams , for example, cites Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Bob Kaufman as major influences. The Postbeat Poets are direct descendants of the Beat Generation. Their association with or tutelage under Ginsberg at The Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and later at Brooklyn College stressed
3026-521: The Beats. Cultural critics have written about the transition of Beat culture in the Village into the Bohemian hippie culture of the 1960s. In 1960, a presidential election year, the Beats formed a political party, the "Beat Party," and held a mock nominating convention to announce a presidential candidate: the African-American street poet Big Brown , won a majority of votes on the first ballot but fell short of
3115-600: The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks , concerning the murder. Beat Generation women who have been published include Edie Parker; Joyce Johnson ; Carolyn Cassady ; Hettie Jones ; Joanne Kyger ; Harriet Sohmers Zwerling ; Diane DiPrima ; Bonnie Bremser ; Lenore Kandel ; and Ruth Weiss , who also made films. Carolyn Cassady wrote her detailed account of life with her husband Neal Cassady which also included details about her affair with Jack Kerouac. She titled it Off
3204-583: The Japanese concept of yūgen . Mr. and Mrs. Jones were associated with several Beats ( Jack Kerouac , Allen Ginsberg , and Gregory Corso ). That is, until the assassination of the Civil Rights leader, Malcolm X . During this time, LeRoi Jones branched off from the other Beat writers, including his wife, to find his identity among the African-American and Islamic communities. The change in his social setting along with awakening influenced his writing and brought about
3293-512: The New Year with Carolyn at a friend's house near San Francisco. Finally, in late January 1968, Cassady returned to Mexico once again. On February 3, 1968, Cassady attended a wedding party in San Miguel de Allende , Guanajuato , Mexico. After the party, he went walking along a railroad track to reach the next town, but passed out in the cold and rainy night wearing nothing but a T-shirt and jeans. In
3382-741: The Northern Pacific Northwest including Washington and Oregon. Kerouac wrote about sojourns to Washington's North Cascades in The Dharma Bums and On the Road . Reed College in Portland, Oregon was also a locale for some of the Beat poets. Gary Snyder studied anthropology there, Philip Whalen attended Reed, and Allen Ginsberg held multiple readings on the campus around 1955 and 1956. Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen were students in Reed's calligraphy class taught by Lloyd J. Reynolds . Burroughs
3471-496: The Road (1957) are among the best-known examples of Beat literature. Both Howl and Naked Lunch were the focus of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to liberalize publishing in the United States. The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists , who celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity. The core group of Beat Generation authors— Herbert Huncke , Ginsberg, Burroughs, Lucien Carr , and Kerouac—met in 1944 in and around
3560-439: The Road , and it was published in 1990. Poet Elise Cowen took her own life in 1963. Poet Anne Waldman was less influenced by the Beats than by Allen Ginsberg's later turn to Buddhism . Later, female poets emerged who claimed to be strongly influenced by the Beats, including Janine Pommy Vega in the 1960s, Patti Smith in the 1970s, and Hedwig Gorski in the 1980s. Although African Americans were not widely represented in
3649-525: The United States (particularly in the Sun Belt region) from around the early 1960s increasingly had more dramatic features such as varying roof lines, cathedral ceilings, sunken living rooms, and extensive landscaping and grounds. First appearing as a residential style in the 1920s, the ranch was extremely popular with the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to the 1970s. The style is often associated with tract housing built at this time, particularly in
Neal Cassady - Misplaced Pages Continue
3738-451: The accident and left incriminating notebooks behind. He was given the option to plead insanity to avoid a jail term and was committed for 90 days to Bellevue Hospital , where he met Carl Solomon . Solomon was arguably more eccentric than psychotic. A fan of Antonin Artaud , he indulged in self-consciously "crazy" behavior, like throwing potato salad at a college lecturer on Dadaism . Solomon
3827-535: The artist Wally Hedrick to sit in the window dressed in full beard, turtleneck, and sandals, creating improvisational drawings and paintings. By 1958 tourists who came to San Francisco could take bus tours to view the North Beach Beat scene, prophetically anticipating similar tours of the Haight-Ashbury district ten years later. A variety of other small businesses also sprang up exploiting (and/or satirizing)
3916-415: The beatniks, or at least found the parodies humorous (Ginsberg, for example, appreciated the parody in the comic strip Pogo ) others criticized the beatniks as inauthentic poseurs . Jack Kerouac feared that the spiritual aspect of his message had been lost and that many were using the Beat Generation as an excuse to be senselessly wild. During the 1960s, aspects of the Beat movement metamorphosed into
4005-550: The bus named Furthur on the iconic first half of the journey from San Francisco to New York, which was immortalized by Tom Wolfe 's book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). Cassady appears at length in a documentary film about the Merry Pranksters and their cross-country trip, Magic Trip (2011), directed by Alex Gibney . In January 1967, Cassady traveled to Mexico with fellow prankster George "Barely Visible" Walker and Cassady's longtime girlfriend Anne Murphy. In
4094-501: The couple traveled to New York City to visit their friend, Hal Chase , another protégé of Brierly's. While visiting Chase at Columbia University , Cassady met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Although Cassady did not attend Columbia, he soon became friends with them and their acquaintances, some of whom later became members of the Beat Generation. While in New York, Cassady persuaded Kerouac to teach him to write fiction. Cassady's second wife, Carolyn, has stated, "Neal, having been raised in
4183-546: The development of many of his most notable works, like Somebody Blew Up America , in which he reflected on the attacks of 9/11 and America's reaction to this incident about other occurrences in America. One of the key beliefs and practices of the Beat Generation was free love and sexual liberation, which strayed from the Christian ideals of American culture at the time. Some Beat writers were openly gay or bisexual, including two of
4272-473: The divorce, in 1963, Cassady shared an apartment with Allen Ginsberg and Beat poet Charles Plymell at 1403 Gough Street in San Francisco. Cassady first met author Ken Kesey during the summer of 1962; he eventually became one of the Merry Pranksters , a group that formed around Kesey in 1964, who were vocal proponents of the use of psychedelic drugs . During 1964, Cassady served as the main driver of
4361-408: The emotions they felt toward jazz. They used their pieces to discuss feelings, people, and objects they associate with jazz music, as well as life experiences that reminded them of this style of music. Kaufman's pieces listed above "were intended to be freely improvisational when read with Jazz accompaniment" (Charters 327). He and other writers found inspiration in this genre and allowed it to help fuel
4450-605: The end of 1954 and began writing Howl . Lawrence Ferlinghetti , of the new City Lights Bookstore , started to publish the City Lights Pocket Poets Series in 1955. Kenneth Rexroth 's apartment became a Friday night literary salon (Ginsberg's mentor William Carlos Williams , an old friend of Rexroth, had given him an introductory letter). When asked by Wally Hedrick To organize the Six Gallery reading , Ginsberg wanted Rexroth to serve as master of ceremonies, in
4539-559: The eventual nomination. The Associated Press reported, "Big Brown's lead startled the convention. Big, as the husky African American is called by his friends, wasn't the favorite son of any delegation, but he had one tactic that earned him votes. In a chatterbox convention, only once did he speak at length, and that was to read his poetry." Ginsberg had visited Neal and Carolyn Cassady in San Jose, California in 1954 and moved to San Francisco in August. He fell in love with Peter Orlovsky at
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#17330862030284628-439: The front of the house. Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan specified that Walter White 's house in the television series be a Rancher. In an early draft of the script for the series' pilot episode , he described the house as "a three-bedroom RANCHER in a modest neighborhood. Weekend trips to Home Depot keep it looking tidy, but it'll never make the cover of ' Architectural Digest '." The real house used to film exteriors in
4717-488: The houses often have owner modifications that add individual character to the fairly uniform style. As these houses were mostly built between 1945 and 1970, they have modern infrastructure and their heating/cooling systems, wiring, plumbing, windows, doors, and other systems can all be easily repaired and upgraded. Small-scale tract building of ranch houses ended in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those still built today have usually been individual custom houses. One exception
4806-544: The houses to cut costs, eventually reducing the style down to a very bland and uninteresting house, with little of the charm and drama of the early versions. By the late 1970s, the ranch house was no longer the house of choice, and had been eclipsed by the neo-eclectic styles of the late 20th century. Very late custom ranch houses of the later 1970s begin to exhibit features of the neo-eclectics, such as dramatically elevated rooflines, grand entryways, and traditional detailing. These neo-eclectic houses typically continue many of
4895-508: The large tracts of ranch homes being built. Commercial ranch buildings, such as supermarkets and strip malls, typically follow the residential style with simple rustic trim, stucco or board and batten siding, exposed brick and shake roofs, and large windows. American tastes in architecture began to change in the late 1960s, a move away from Googie and Modernism and ranch houses towards more formal and traditional styles. Builders of ranch houses also began to simplify and cheapen construction of
4984-589: The late 1990s, a revival of interest in the ranch style house occurred in United States. The renewed interest in the design is mainly focused on existing houses and neighborhoods, not new construction. Younger house buyers find that ranch houses are affordable entry level homes in many markets, and the single story living of the house attracts older buyers looking for a house they can navigate easily as they age. The houses' uniquely American heritage, being an indigenous design, has furthered interest as well. The houses' simplicity and unpretentious nature, in marked contrast to
5073-406: The lifestyle interior features of the ranch house, such as open floor plans, attached garages, eat-in kitchens, and built-in patios, though their exterior styling typically owes more to northern Europe or Italy or 18th and 19th century house styles than the ranch house. Neo-eclectic houses also have a significant level of formality in their design, both externally and internally, the exact opposite of
5162-520: The mainstream of society" and (2) "possibly pro-Communist." Caen's term stuck and became the popular label associated with a new stereotype—the man with a goatee and beret reciting nonsensical poetry and playing bongo drums while free-spirited women wearing black leotards dance. An early example of the "beatnik stereotype" occurred in Vesuvio's (a bar in North Beach , San Francisco) which employed
5251-493: The meeting of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Carr, Hal Chase and others. Kerouac attended Columbia on a football scholarship. Though the beats are usually regarded as anti-academic, many of their ideas were formed in response to professors like Lionel Trilling and Mark Van Doren . Classmates Carr and Ginsberg discussed the need for a "New Vision" (a term borrowed from W. B. Yeats ), to counteract what they perceived as their teachers' conservative, formalistic literary ideals. Ginsberg
5340-411: The mid-1960s onward, the ranch house echoed the national trend towards sleekness in design, with the homes becoming even simpler and more generic as this trend continued. Prominent features are of the original ranch house style include: Constructing a one-story ranch-style house requires a larger space and significant formwork, including foundation, roofing, windows, and various materials. In contrast,
5429-407: The more dramatic and formal nature of neo-eclectic houses, makes them appealing for some buyers. The more distinctive ranch houses, such as modernist Palmer and Krisel , Joseph Eichler and Cliff May designs, as well as custom houses with a full complement of the style's features, are in particular demand in many markets. Many ranch-style neighborhoods are now well-established, with large trees, and
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#17330862030285518-466: The morning, he was found in a coma by the tracks, reportedly by Anton Black, later a professor at El Paso Community College , who carried Cassady over his shoulders to the local post office building. Cassady was then transported to the closest hospital, where he died a few hours later on February 4, aged 41. The exact cause of Cassady's death remains uncertain. Those who attended the wedding party confirm that he took an unknown quantity of secobarbital ,
5607-621: The most prominent (Ginsberg and Burroughs ). However, the first novel does show Cassady as frankly promiscuous. Kerouac's novels feature an interracial love affair ( The Subterraneans ), and group sex ( The Dharma Bums ). The relationships among men in Kerouac's novels are predominately homosocial . The original members of the Beat Generation used several different drugs, including alcohol, marijuana , benzedrine , morphine , and later psychedelic drugs such as peyote , Ayahuasca , and LSD . They often approached drugs experimentally, initially being unfamiliar with their effects. Their drug use
5696-563: The needs of the time. Ranch houses were built throughout America and were often given regional facelifts to suit regional tastes. The "Colonial Ranch" of the Midwest is one such noted variant, adding American Colonial features to the facade of the California ranch house. Ranch houses of the 1940s and 1950s are typically more deliberately themed in nature than those of the 1960s and 1970s, with features such as dovecotes , Swiss board edging on trim, and generally western and even fantasy trim styling. From
5785-526: The needs of their inhabitants. Walls were often built of adobe brick and covered with plaster, or more simply used board and batten wood siding. Roofs were low and simple, and usually had wide eaves to help shade the windows from the Southwestern heat. Buildings often had interior courtyards which were surrounded by a U-shaped floor plan. Large front porches were also common. These low slung, thick-walled, rustic working ranches were common in what would become
5874-536: The new craze. In 1959, Fred McDarrah started a "Rent-a-Beatnik" service in New York, taking out ads in The Village Voice and sending Ted Joans and friends out on calls to read poetry. "Beatniks" appeared in many cartoons, movies, and TV shows of the time, perhaps the most famous being the character Maynard G. Krebs in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959–1963). While some of the original Beats embraced
5963-679: The next 20 years. During this period, Cassady worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and kept in touch with his "Beat" acquaintances, even as they became increasingly different philosophically. While working there he lived in San Francisco at 29 Russell Street. The couple eventually had three children and settled down in a ranch house in Monte Sereno, California , 50 miles south of San Francisco , where Kerouac and Ginsberg sometimes visited. This home, built in 1954 with money from
6052-403: The now locally famous Six Gallery poets. It was also a marker of the beginning of the Beat movement since the 1956 publication of Howl ( City Lights Pocket Poets , no. 4), and its obscenity trial in 1957 brought it to nationwide attention. The Six Gallery reading informs the second chapter of Kerouac's 1958 novel The Dharma Bums , whose chief protagonist is "Japhy Ryder", a character who
6141-445: The personal. There is something there that wants to come out; something of my own that must be said. Yet, perhaps, words are not the way for me." Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generationers in
6230-435: The slums of Denver amongst the world's lost men, determined to make more of himself, to become somebody, to be worthy and respected. His genius mind absorbed every book he could find, whether literature, philosophy, or science. Jack had a formal education, which Neal envied, but intellectually he was more than a match for Jack, and they enjoyed long discussions on every subject." Carolyn Robinson met Cassady in 1947, while she
6319-454: The social-activist legacy of the Beats and created its own body of literature. Known authors are Anne Waldman , Antler , Andy Clausen, David Cope, Eileen Myles , Eliot Katz, Paul Beatty , Sapphire , Lesléa Newman , Jim Cohn , Thomas R. Peters Jr. (poet and owner of beat book shop), Sharon Mesmer, Randy Roark, Josh Smith, David Evans. Ranch house Ranch (also known as American ranch , California ranch , rambler , or rancher )
6408-459: The southwest United States, which experienced a population explosion during this period, with a corresponding demand for housing. The style was soon exported to other nations and became popular worldwide. Its popularity waned in the late twentieth century as neo-eclectic house styles featuring historical and traditional decoration became more popular. Preservationist movements have begun in some ranch house neighborhoods, reinforced by an interest in
6497-470: The style from a younger generation who did not grow up in such homes. This revival has been compared to that which other house styles such as the bungalow and Queen Anne experienced in the twentieth century. The 20th-century ranch house style has its roots in Spanish colonial architecture of the 17th to 19th century. These buildings used single-story floor plans and native materials in a simple style to meet
6586-449: The typical ranch-style house. Additionally, the increase in land prices has meant a corresponding increase in the number of two-story houses being built, and a shrinking of the size of the average lot; both trends inhibit the traditional ranch house style. Ranch style houses are occasionally still built today, but mainly in the Western states and, usually, as individual custom. Beginning in
6675-415: The weapon. Carr turned himself in the following morning and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Kerouac was charged as an accessory, and Burroughs as a material witness, but neither were prosecuted. Kerouac wrote about this incident twice in his works: once in his first novel, The Town and the City , and again in one of his last, Vanity of Duluoz . He wrote a collaboration novel with Burroughs, And
6764-619: The writer LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) provide through their work distinctly Black perspectives on the movement. Kaufman wrote about a number of his experiences with the racist institutions of the time. Following his time in the military, he had trouble with police officers and the criminal justice system. Like many of the Beats, Kaufman was also a fan of jazz and incorporated it into his work to describe relationships with others. LeRoi Jones ( Amiri Baraka ) married Beat writer, Hettie Cohen, who became Hettie Jones , in 1958. Together with Diane di Prima , they worked to develop Yūgen magazine, named for
6853-459: Was 14, for shoplifting and car theft when he was 15, and for car theft and fencing stolen property when he was 16. In 1941, the 15-year-old Cassady met Justin W. Brierly , a prominent Denver educator. Brierly was well known as a mentor of promising young men and was impressed by Cassady's intelligence. Over the next few years, Brierly took an active role in Cassady's life. Brierly helped admit Cassady to East High School where he taught Cassady as
6942-500: Was a big part of the scene in the Village, as was Burroughs, who lived at 69 Bedford Street. Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and other poets frequented many bars in the area, including the San Remo Cafe at 93 MacDougal Street on the northwest corner of Bleecker, Chumley's , and Minetta Tavern . Jackson Pollock , Willem de Kooning , Franz Kline , and other abstract expressionists were also frequent visitors of and collaborators with
7031-453: Was a realization of the experiences you would be having down there, rail, home, and the most important, climate, by a remembrance of my own feelings and thoughts (former low, or more exactly, nostalgic and unreal; latter hi) as, for example, I too seemed to spend time looking out upper floor windows at sparse, especially night times, traffic in females—old or young. On the Road became a sensation. By capturing Cassady's voice, Kerouac discovered
7120-477: Was arrested in 1949. The police attempted to stop Jack Melody (a.k.a. "little Jack") while he was driving a car in Queens with Priscella Arminger (alias, Vickie Russell or "Detroit Redhead") and Allen Ginsberg in the back seat. The car was filled with stolen items Little Jack planned to fence. Jack Melody crashed while trying to flee, rolled the car and the three of them escaped on foot. Allen Ginsberg lost his glasses in
7209-504: Was born to Maude Jean (Scheuer) and Neal Marshall Cassady in Salt Lake City, Utah . His mother died when he was 10, and he was raised by his alcoholic father in Denver, Colorado . Cassady spent much of his youth either living on the streets of skid row , with his father, or in reform school . As a youth, Cassady was repeatedly involved in petty crime. He was arrested for car theft when he
7298-408: Was broadly inspired by intellectual interest, and many Beat writers thought that their drug experiences enhanced creativity, insight, or productivity. The use of drugs was a key influence on many of the social events of the time that were personal to the Beat generation. Gregory Corso considered English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley a hero, and he was buried at the foot of Shelley's grave in
7387-419: Was cited as having a strong influence on Burroughs. In many ways, Surrealism was still considered a vital movement in the 1950s. Carl Solomon introduced the work of French author Antonin Artaud to Ginsberg, and the poetry of André Breton had direct influence on Ginsberg's poem Kaddish . Rexroth, Ferlinghetti, John Ashbery and Ron Padgett translated French poetry. Second-generation Beat Ted Joans
7476-560: Was given shock treatments at Bellevue; this became one of the main themes of Ginsberg's "Howl", which was dedicated to Solomon. Solomon later became the publishing contact who agreed to publish Burroughs' first novel, Junkie , in 1953. Beat writers and artists flocked to Greenwich Village in New York City in the late 1950s because of low rent and the "small town" element of the scene. Folksongs, readings and discussions often took place in Washington Square Park . Allen Ginsberg
7565-622: Was introduced to the group by David Kammerer . Carr had befriended Ginsberg and introduced him to Kammerer and Burroughs. Carr also knew Kerouac's girlfriend Edie Parker , through whom Burroughs met Kerouac in 1944. On August 13, 1944, Carr killed Kammerer with a Boy Scout knife in Riverside Park in what he claimed later was self-defense. He dumped the body in the Hudson River , later seeking advice from Burroughs, who suggested he turn himself in. He then went to Kerouac, who helped him dispose of
7654-586: Was named "the only Afro-American Surrealist" by Breton. Philip Lamantia introduced Surrealist poetry to the original Beats. The poetry of Gregory Corso and Bob Kaufman shows the influence of Surrealist poetry with its dream-like images and its random juxtaposition of dissociated images, and this influence can also be seen in more subtle ways in Ginsberg's poetry. As the legend goes, when meeting French Surrealist Marcel Duchamp , Ginsberg kissed his shoe and Corso cut off his tie. Other influential French poets for
7743-470: Was prominently featured as himself in the "scroll" (first draft) version of Jack Kerouac 's novel On the Road , and served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in the 1957 version of that book. In many of Kerouac's later books, Cassady is represented by the character Cody Pomeray. Cassady also appeared in Allen Ginsberg 's poems, and in several other works of literature by other writers. Cassady
7832-540: Was studying for her master's in theater arts at the University of Denver. Five weeks after Lu Anne's departure, Cassady got an annulment from Lu Anne and married Carolyn on April 1, 1948. Carolyn's book, Off the Road : Twenty Years with Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg (1990), details her marriage to Cassady and recalls him as "the archetype of the American Man". Cassady's sexual relationship with Ginsberg lasted off and on for
7921-456: Was the subject of Ginsberg's self-defining auditory hallucination and revelation in 1948. Romantic poet John Keats was also cited as an influence. Writers of the Beat Generation were heavily influenced by jazz artists like Billie Holiday and the stories told through Jazz music. Writers like Jack Kerouac ( On the Road ), Bob Kaufman ("Round About Midnight," "Jazz Chick," and "O-Jazz-O"), and Frank O'Hara ("The Day Lady Died") incorporated
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