Beatnik Beat Off

MEMOIRS OF A BEATNIK

by Diane di Prima

Olympia Press

Traveller's Companion Series

ORF

by David Meltzer

Essex House

And now, class, the time has come to ask the literary question: What ever became of all those beatniks? Well, some of them are making money writing porn. Which only stands to reason, since one look at the Olympia press publication roster tells you where many young writers of “far out” proclivities, the ones who would have been beats if they’d grown up a few years earlier, are heading. Ronald Travel’s Street of Stairs comes complete with “for years its fame has been steadily and subterraneanly growing” hype and kudos from Bill Burroughs, and what redblooded degenerate wordslinger would not be proud to claim as his own such titles as Love On a Trampoline, Of Sheep and Girls, The Whip Angels, The Sex Life of Robinson Crusoe, Jailbirds in the Backseat, Bondage Trash . . . ?