Yes. Fills a gap in the Beat genre canon.

liked the idea, wished it was less about who kerouac et al slept with.

It's sad that there were so many women involved with the beat poets, but they're almost never talked about. Because it talks about so many people, each section is pretty short, but overall the author does a good job of writing succinct synopses of each person and it was nice to get to read some of their writing. My complaints are that I wish the girlfriends had gotten a little less page time so that the writers and artists could have had a little more, and I thought that some of what was written about the women wasn't worth the space and could have been replaced with something a little more relevant or interesting.

Very interesting insight into the lifes of the females artists, trailblazers and women or the Beat generation, who often are not credited enough or at all and mostly appear as attachments to their fathers, husbands, boyfriends etc. in other writing.

Some true gems in here and I really enjoyed the variety of sample writings for each artist. However, I would have enjoyed the biographies and the artwork more if there was even more focus paid to the women unrelated to the men because several women were portrayed in this collection with half their biography or sample writing being focused on one of the great male Beat writers - Jack Kerouac I`m looking at you...

Super excited to follow up on some of the amazing artists I discovered through this selection and would recommend it as a starting point for anyone interested in getting more into Beat literature off of the obvious path.

Fascinating anthology on the female figures of the Beat Generation and their influence, even though at certain points the biographies seem a bit simple, which is understandable. A fantastic work of research nevertheless.

This book serves as a nice, strong introduction to the Beat movement, and especially the women of the beat movement--tragic figures consumed by their artistic passions and ruined by either the men they loved (or thought they loved) or by their families that despised the idea that they did not conform to the Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best mentalities of the day.

Be forewarned. The book is a collection of short biographies ranging from two to four pages long, with a small collection of the artist's poetry or prose afterward. It took me a few days to read through this. Biography after biography after biography can get tedious. If the book has a flaw, it is the lack of writing by the actual artists the book proclaims to hold in esteem; however, at the end there is a nice bibliography of works to allow you further exploration.