Beat Generation books
Beat Generation books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
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John Clellon HolmesOften called the first Beat novel, it follows a group of young New Yorkers through jazz clubs and late nights.
Howl, and Other Poems
Allen GinsbergThe title poem is a long, breath-driven lament for friends damaged by American cities and drugs.
On The Road
Jack KerouacTwo friends drive back and forth across postwar America, and the book became the movement's best-known work.
A Coney Island of the Mind
Lawrence FerlinghettiShort, playful, colloquial poems that made the San Francisco scene widely known.
The Dharma Bums
Jack KerouacKerouac's account of mountain climbing and Zen Buddhism in California, with a fictionalized Gary Snyder.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More beat generation books
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- The Subterraneans
The SubterraneansJack Kerouac - Gasoline
GasolineGregory Corso - Riprap
RiprapGary Snyder - Naked Lunch
Naked LunchWilliam S. Burroughs - Kaddish, and Other Poems
Kaddish, and Other PoemsAllen Ginsberg - Memoirs of a Beatnik
Memoirs of a BeatnikDiane di Prima - Factotum
FactotumCharles Bukowski1975 - Off the road
Off the roadCarolyn Cassady1990 - The Portable Beat reader
The Portable Beat readerAnn Charters1992 - Baby driver
Baby driverJan Kerouac1981 - The outlaw bible of American poetry
The outlaw bible of American poetryAlan Kaufman1999 - Henry James
Henry JamesHenry James1930