Last Gasp edition, 1988, first printing.
Di Prima creates a self-portrait of a new kind of woman,
pre-woman's liberation.
-MICHAEL PERKINS
Growing up in the fifties, you had to figure it out for yourself.
which she did, and stayed open . . . Her search for human center
is among the most moving I have witnessed.
-ROBERT CREELEY
Overwhelming honesty . . . It is the only book that I have
encountered that presents a totally accurate and at the same time
moving account of the Beat period.
-ROBERT A. WILSON
Long regarded as an underground classic for its gritty and unabashedly erotic portrayal of the Beat years, Memoirs of a Beatnik is a moving account of a powerful woman artist coming of age sensually and intellectually in a movement dominated by a small confederacy of men, many of whom she lived with and loved. Filled with anecdotes about her adventures in New York City, Diane di Prima's memoir shows her learning to "raise her rebellion into art," and making her way toward literary success. Memoirs of a Beatnik offers a fascinating narrative about the courage and triumphs of the imagination.
