A most remarkable book . . . a wonderful account of an odd and unlikely place where for a brief time a small number of people pursued a romantic vision of what a life dedicated to art should be like . . . a superb story.William ONeill author of American Highampampnbsp The Years of Confidence 19451960 The beatnik was born in Venice California in the 1950s. An imaginary figure in many respectsthe invention of both the media and the people who played the beatnik rolethe character quickly assumed nearly mythic proportions for the American public. Coffeehouses beards poetry drugs and freewheeling sexuality were all associated with the beatnik the quintessentialampampnbsp rebel who by rejecting material values represented both a threat and an alluring alternative to the dominant middleclass culture. ampampnbspampampnbspampampnbspampampnbsp In this fascinating book John Arthur Maynard tells the story of the poets and promoters who invented the Beat Generation and who in many cases destroyed themselves in the process. In this look at the least remembered but in its time most publicized beat enclave Maynard focuses on two of Venices most newsworthy residentsLawrence Lipton and Stuart Z. Perkoff. Lipton began as a writer of popular detective stories and screenplays but was determined to be recognized as a poet and social critic. He eventually published The Holy Barbarians which helped to create the enduring public image of the beatnik. Stuart Perkoff was a more gifted poet with fascination and horror we follow his failed attempts to support his family his heroin addiction his first wives courage and mental fragility his sexual entanglements his imprisonment and the development of his own writing. Other characters who move in and out of the story are Kenneth Rexroth Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg as well as lesserknown poets artists hangerson and the many women who were rarely treated as full members of the community. ampampnbspampampnbsp ampampnbspampampnbspFor most of the 1