jack kerouac

[Bennett]

Some of the Dharma is pretty good... like other books, gives you insight into who Kerouac is and how messed up he was... had a lot of shit going through is head...

My opinions on the other beats:

Ginsberg: has about five or six early poems (around the time of howl) that are AMAZING, but he dropped off really quickly, started writing crap, became a hippy, and is probably the only person who basically lived his entire life in the shadow of one poem.

Burroughs: my favorite of the three main beats. Incredible writer, but very strange, not always accesible. The documentary, which I think is just entitled: "the Burroughs movie" is awesome. I recommend it very highly.

Cassady: I honestly haven't read anything of his other than letters.

Gary Snyder: I like him a lot, he writes a lot of nature poems, Eastern influence, influence J.Kerouac in a lot of Eastern Philosophy, haiku and the like... he is "japhy ryder" in the dharma bums.

Gregory Corso & Peter Orlovsky: they have some good stuff, but your more like to find in compilations... never got as famous as the rest, but there's some good material to be found there.

Sorry for rambling, and if I told you something you already knew.