Barry Miles

"The Beat Hotel has been closed for nearly forty years. But for a brief period - from just after the publication of Howl in 1957 until the building was sold in 1963 - it was home to Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin, Peter Orlovsky, Harold Norse, and a host of other luminaries of the Beat Generation. Now, Barry Miles - acclaimed author of many books on the Beats and a personal acquaintance of many of them - vividly excavates this remarkable period and restores it to a historical picture that has, until now, been skewed in favor of the two coasts of America." "A cheap rooming house on the bohemian Left Bank, the hotel was inhabited mostly by writers and artists, and its communal atmosphere spurred the Beats to incredible heights of creativity."--BOOK JACKET.

More than forty years after the publication of On the Road, Jack Kerouac is more read and revered than ever, especially by a new young generation of seekers who weren't even born until after his death in 1969. Why this is so is the subject of Barry Miles's fresh and intimate exploration of the complex man and extraordinary writer who peopled his fiction with such vivid and engaging characters that the real Jack Kerouac got lost amid all the myths and misperceptions. Drawing on his years of friendship and many conversations with Ginsberg and Burroughs, Miles shows Kerouac as a man full of contradictions, surprisingly conventional in his beliefs as much as he longed to rebel, rarely at peace with himself, though profoundly drawn to the serenity he glimpsed in Zen Buddhism. Far from being a free spirit, Kerouac was never able to break away from his domineering mother, and he spent his life confused and anguished by the fact that he was attracted sexually to men as well as to women. And yet without Kerouac, the Beats may never have gained the notoriety and influence that allowed them to so profoundly shake up American culture in the 1960s and beyond.

Frank Zappa was a bandleader, guitarist, composer, spokesman for free speech and scourge of moralists everywhere. This book follows that winding path and documents every significant career move Zappa made from his emergence in 1960, up to his death in December 1993.

"William Seward Burroughs. Described by Norman Mailer as "the only living American novelist who may conceivably be possessed of genius," this unique underground visionary has lived up to these words. Burroughs's influence has exploded far beyond the ethereal borders of the literati into the realm of popular culture - he has influenced a remarkable spectrum of adventurous writers, artists, filmmakers and musicians. His celebrated bestseller, Naked Lunch, which sparked a precedent-setting obscenity trial, was hailed by Newsweek as "a masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire." And his life, perhaps even more than his work, is the stuff of legend: he became infamous for his open use of heroin, for the bizarre, accidental shooting of his wife and for the explicit sexual nature of his writing. As a result of this legend he has been celebrated by friends and benefactors such as Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Lou Reed."--BOOK JACKET. "In this unconventional but riveting portrait, Barry Miles explores for the first time Burroughs's true cultural significance. He examines the life that led to the creation of masterpieces such as Junky, The Soft Machine and, of course, the monumental Naked Lunch. He also shows through incisive interpretations of the texts - plus invaluable insights into Burroughs's relationships with friends and fellow artists - how the life informs the work and how the work forms a continual whole that circles Greenwich Village, Paris, New Orleans, Mexico City and beyond. And, finally, how Burroughs has come to be a major influence in our culture today through the work of filmmakers Alex Cox and David Cronenberg, rock bands such as Steely Dan and Soft Machine and writers such as J. G. Ballard and William Gibson. For the Naked Lunch is far from over. . ."--BOOK JACKET.

Bowie's career year-by-year, 1963-1987.

"Inspirado en la experiencia de su propia vida, Paulo Coelho nos lleva al pasado para revivir los sueños de una generación que anhelaba la paz y que se atrevió a desafiar el orden social establecido. Hippie cuenta la historia de Paulo, un brasileño flaco y joven, con barba de chivo y cabello largo, que sueña con convertirse en escritor. Así emprende su viaje en busca de libertad y de un significado más profundo para su vida que le lleva desde el 'Tren de la Muerte' a Bolivia, luego a Perú y más tarde en autostop por Chile y Argentina. Las travesías de Paulo lo llevan aún más lejos, a la Plaza Dam en Ámsterdam, donde se podían encontrar jóvenes de ropa colorida, meditando ante inclenso y tocando música, mientras hablan sobre la liberación sexual, la expansión de la conciencia y la búsqueda de una verdad interior. Ahí conoce a Karla, una joven holandesa que espero al compañero ideal que la acompañe a recorrer la soñada "ruta hippie" hasta Nepal. Karla convence a Paulo para que se una a ella en el viaje a bordo del "Magic bus", que recorría Europa y Asia Central hasta Katmandú. Se embarcan en un viaje en compañia de fascinantes personajes, cada cual con una historia diferente y todos en busca de una transformación que cambie sus prioridades y valores. Paulo y Karla exploran su propia relación, un despertar a todos los niveles de la consciencia que los lleva a decidir el camino que marcará el rumbo de sus vidas.

Locked in The Arms of a Crazy Life is the acclaimed biography of Charles Bukowski, the hard-drinking barfly whose semi-autobiographical books about low-life America made him a cult figure across the globe. Extensive research and unique contributions from friends, family and associates - including Mickey Rourke, Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Crumb, Sean Penn, Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg - as well as personal photographs and drawings make this a must for all Bukowski devotees and new readers alike. This updated edition features a new preface by the author, expanded notes and a unique star rating in the bibliography of Bukowski's own works.

In celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Summer of Love, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has launched a major exhibition examining how rock & roll came of age in the late Sixties and influenced everything from fashion and art to politics and literature. I Want to Take You Higher expands on that exhibit, showcasing the infamous icons of the era - from John Lennon's Sgt. Pepper uniform to Janis Joplin's hand-painted Porsche. A host of revealing new interviews offer never-before-published tales from the land of psychedelic wonder. Country Joe McDonald, Allen Ginsberg, Grace Slick, Mickey Hart, Donovan, Bob Weir and members of the influential bands Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape and many others contribute fresh perspectives on now-legendary events. I Want to Take You Higher also features posters, paraphernalia and an illustrated time line (just in case you forgot), as well as classic and previously unpublished images from the greatest rock photographers of the era: Jim Marshall, Baron Wolman, Robert Whitaker, Michael Cooper, Herb Greene, Bob Seidemann and others.

"Fifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, "William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughs wrote novels, memoirs, technical manuals, and poetry. He painted, made collages, took thousands of photographs, produced hundreds of hours of experimental recordings, acted in movies, and recorded more CDs than most rock bands. Burroughs was the original cult figure of the Beat Movement, and with the publication of his novel Naked Lunch, which was originally banned for obscenity, he became a guru to the 60s youth counterculture. In CALL ME BURROUGHS, biographer and Beat historian Barry Miles presents the first full-length biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter century-and the first one to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs's life and examine his long-term cultural legacy. Written with the full support of the Burroughs estate and drawing from countless interviews with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and Burroughs himself, CALL ME BURROUGHS is a rigorously researched biography that finally gets to the heart of its notoriously mercurial subject. "--