About Table of Contents Purchase
The Cambridge Companion to the Beats, ed. Steven Belletto (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Reviews
To encompass the breadth and depth of Beat studies for a diverse audience is a complex task and difficult task. The Cambridge Companion to the Beats will be beneficial as a guide both to students new to the topic and to seasoned Beat scholars. Taken together, the essays offer an authoritative and nuanced overview with some original and fresh interpretations, frequently examining the more difficult and sophisticated questions of craft and criticism essential to any wider appreciation of the Beats in literary history.
John Wrighton, Notes and Queries
the strongest chapters in the Cambridge Companion maintain a critical distance from the hyperbolic force of Beat mythology while directly engaging with questions of how “Beat” can be defined and understood. . . . The strongest writing found in the Cambridge Companion . . . sets a standard of analysis that helps separate Beat scholarship from repetition of received wisdom or enthrallment to Beat myth.
Thom Robinson, Twentieth Century Literature
a comprehensive collection of academic essays that covers multiple aspects of the literature of the Beat generation. The eighteen essays in this volume reach well beyond the traditional triumvirate of Burroughs, Ginsberg and Kerouac to explore the impact of other writers and artists. . . . [a] comprehensive volume.
Allan Johnston, Journal of Beat Studies
This Companion locates an understanding of the Beats beyond the familiar, identifying a wide range of writers and approaches to writing which are associated with the term Beat. This factor alone makes the volume worthwhile for any reader looking to read beyond the ‘canonical’ Beat authors … As one would expect from a series as authoritative as the Cambridge Companions, every chapter is informed by up-to-date scholarship, written in an approachable style and is fully referenced.
Linda Kemp, Languages and Literature
This work . . . goes above and beyond. . . . A necessary resource for anyone interested in 20th-century American letters. Highly Recommended.
A.P. Pennino, Choice