Literary Kicks

This is my personal project, unaffiliated with any corporation, university or organization, and dedicated to a couple of writers who mean a lot to me. There's a lot of material here, much of it written by me, plus some contributions by friends, relatives, cool people on the 'Net, and a couple of well-known Beat scholars and subterranean types who I met through this project. To enter the labyrinth click on one of these names :

Jack Kerouac

Allen Ginsberg

There are also pages on The Beat Generation, Films About The Beats, Beat Connections in Rock Music, Buddhism : The Beat Religion, and the origin of the term 'Beat.' I also try to keep up to date on recent Beat news (last updated April 22, 1995). And finally, if you want you can read about my recent experience trying out for the film of 'On The Road'.

I'm not any special kind of expert on these topics, and I've never met any of the Beats in person, although I once stood next to a friend while he got Allen Ginsberg's autograph at a poetry reading (Ginsberg, by the way, was very gracious). I'm a fiction writer myself, and I'm planning on introducing an original fiction section to these pages soon. I'm adding stuff (and fixing typos) as I go along, so check back with me here occasionally.

Literary Kicks went live on July 23, 1994, and I've gotten a great response since then. I've received many nice notes of encouragement, some contributions, and zero flames (so much for the myth of the unfriendly Internet). I'm always happy to get feedback, and my e-mail address is at the bottom of the page.

All the text here is copyrighted by me, except for the actual excerpts from Beat writings. Thanks to the people at Charm.Net for providing a very well-managed and affordable service. I created the "postage stamp" images on some of these pages with a $150 Logitech hand-held scanner and a $50 copy of PC Paintbrush (so please don't be too critical of my graphics, I'm strictly an amateur). The image at the top of this page is my alteration of a picture of Paul Verlaine, the 19th Century French poet. The quote under it (turn off your mind ...) is from John Lennon.

Literary Kicks
by Levi Asher = brooklyn@netcom.com