Behind the Beat

Tuesday, November 21 2006 | Send to a friend

BEHIND THE BEAT

Young people across the nation came to regard themselves as "beatniks" in the 1960s. To some, the term meant free love and drugs. To others, it meant a cultural movement, including liberation of the world from censorship and the spread of ecological consciousness.

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg was one of the premier voices of the so-called Beat Generation. His poem Howl is widely regarded as the first Beat work to gain national attention, and this month that work turns fifty.

Bill Morgan has had an open window into Allen Ginsberg's private life. As Allen's personal archivist, his job was to organize everything for posterity.

Allen did save almost everything during his life. Sometimes he would save his beard clippings. He also saved other things like his tennis shoes when he toured Eastern Europe in 1965, and was kicked out of Czechoslovakia…
- Bill Morgan

Allen Ginsberg died in 1997 at the age of 70.

Bill Morgan talks to Dick Gordon

Bill Morgan has written the first full biography of Allen Ginsberg. Bill was with Allen when he died, and talks to Dick about the life, death and files of the Beat icon.

• Explore Allen Ginsberg's official site
• Find more about the books referenced in the interview here and here
• Listen to Allen Ginsberg read Howl
• Listen to a 1985 interview with Allen

THE WORST HARD TIME

Tim Egan

Dick speaks with author Tim Egan about his book, The Worst Hard Time, which won a National Book Award late last week. 

The book is a gripping account of what has been called the worst prolonged environmental catastrophe this country has ever known: April 14, 1935 -- Black Sunday - when over 300,000 tons of dust and muck fell from the sky in one day. 

Image from Black Sunday

The conversation includes archival tape, oral histories, from people who lived through Black Sunday.

• Find out more about Tim's book