Post by LadyBlue on Feb 19, 2005 13:36:43 GMT -5
But even as the movement was growing, as late as the fall of 1958, Life magazine was still doing battle with the Beats, denying that there was even a “movement”, and stating, “Actually, The Beat Generation is ridiculously small in numbers (120 ‘Beatniks’ at the most).” And this at a time when high school kids in Wichita were selling books of their own poetry in the halls at Southeast High School.
A year later, as P. J. O’Connor points out, Life had grown even more strident, declaiming that the Beats were “... talkers, loafers, passive little con men ... writers who cannot write, painters who cannot paint ... .” The movement had gotten out of hand and the full force of the mass media was being brought bear in an effort to convince the populace that the Beats were a bizarre aberration in American Society, not a harbinger of things to come.
But the genie was out of the bottle — and had been for thirty years.
Initially the Wichita group started as three separate groups, one at Robinson Junior High, one at Roosevelt Junior High, and a third, composed of people two to three years older, at both North and East High Schools. The two younger groups merged at East High during the late 40s, and by the summer of 1950 all three groups had solidified into one.
It was in the 8th grade at Robinson, late in 1945, that I first met Mike McClure. The Robinson group already had about five members, among them Phil Gardner, Francis Honey, Ron Weidman, and Joan Murray. Ironically, although Bruce Conner was only one year behind us in school, and was at Robinson at the same time as the rest of us during our eighth and ninth years, we did not meet him until the 12th grade at East High.
In the 12th grade, as I have indicated, Bruce Conner joined the group, and in the summer of 1950, after we had graduated from East High, we met the third group, most of whom were already in college. Among these were Virginia Bing, David Wright, Maryjane Naanes, Nancy Hurst, Jim Stearns, Phyllis Murray, and John Pearson. It was also about this time that Mike began to seek out advice about his poetry from Irma Wassall, a local poet.
Over the next couple of years others joined the group, such as Betty Schneider, Coleta Eck, Jim Lyle, George Stewart, and Corban LePell.
The group evolved over the period from 1950 to 1953: some people left for New York (Nancy Hurst, Phil Gardner, Maryjane Naanes, and Phyllis Murray), Betty Schneider went to Denver, and others went elsewhere. New people, however, came into the group, and the core remained in Wichita, and at the university.
The intensity of our activity did not let up when we went to the university, but it rather increased. Our lives became one long party and one long discussion.
It is roughly at this point that The Mad Cub begins.
A number of us were involved at this time with the youth group at the Unitarian Church and took on a project to integrate some of the local restaurants. Joining with black young people at the Hutcherson Branch of the YMCA, we staged several peaceful “sit-ins” of mixed groups at the Continental Grills. We also “integrated” the Crest Theatre by having the whites buy the tickets and then bring in some of the black members of our party. The management tried to evict us, but, once seated, we stayed in place until we left of our own accord.
At this time we were circulating our writing informally in a variety of ways: hand-written, typed, and carbon copies were usually passed along from one person to another, and people sometimes read or recited their latest works in conversations over coffee at Manning’s or over beer at The Blue Lantern, or at parties -- and even at our swimming and drinking parties at Wilson’s sandpit, one of our favorite places. We were always aware of what each other was writing and we were all influencing each other. Needing an outlet for our writing, we decided in the spring of 1951 that it was time to put out our own literary magazine, and from that point on, much of our effort was aimed in that direction.
Unfortunately, a conflict was building up in the group. A number of misunderstandings had arisen, one of which was around the story I had written for the magazine. Mike was told that it was an attack on him — which was not my intention at all — and when he learned that I was writing an autobiographical novel about the group, The Kings in the North, he naturally drew the conclusion that this work would also be aimed at him.
By December of 1951, these and other problems were sufficient to cause an open rift between McClure and me as well as between him and some other members in the group. Some suggestion of the other conflicts appears in The Mad Cub, but not the one about the magazine specifically, although it was the most destructive.
In any case, the publication of Provincial Review was in limbo, and it was not published until 1996 by Bruce Conner and me. An examination of the work scheduled to be printed shows clearly that we were already anticipating what would come later when the Beat Movement began. The poetry of David Wright and Jim Lyle, and the short stories of Coleta Eck and Don Duncan in particular all clearly reveal the themes and techniques that would gain nation-wide recognition in just a few years. And the metal mobile of John Pearson’s pictured in the magazine was also quite experimental at the time.
Finally, of course, among the contributors who would achieve major standing in the Beat Movement in San Francisco, were Bruce Conner (who did the cover for the magazine), Mike McClure (who was one of the six who read his poetry the night Ginsberg first read Howl), and Dave Haselwood (whose Auerhahn Press published many of the Beat writers).
The group largely continued, but without the magazine, it now lacked a central purpose. Some people in the group reconciled their differences, but other splits remained. Virginia Bing and David Wright got married, and by June I had married as well. A good deal of The Mad Cub takes place in this period.
The parties continued, and people still worked on their writing and their art, but it was clear that the whole thing was becoming more and more patchwork and temporary. McClure came to a New Year’s Eve party that Phyllis and I gave at the end of 1952, but within a couple of weeks he had left Wichita, first going to New York and then the Southwest, arriving in San Francisco late in 1953. Bruce Conner and Corban LePell left for the University of Nebraska to pursue their studies after the end of the 1952-53 school year.
While some people were leaving, new people continued to come into the group, giving it life for another couple of years. Among these new people were Glenn Todd and Ann McEwen.
A year later, as P. J. O’Connor points out, Life had grown even more strident, declaiming that the Beats were “... talkers, loafers, passive little con men ... writers who cannot write, painters who cannot paint ... .” The movement had gotten out of hand and the full force of the mass media was being brought bear in an effort to convince the populace that the Beats were a bizarre aberration in American Society, not a harbinger of things to come.
But the genie was out of the bottle — and had been for thirty years.
Initially the Wichita group started as three separate groups, one at Robinson Junior High, one at Roosevelt Junior High, and a third, composed of people two to three years older, at both North and East High Schools. The two younger groups merged at East High during the late 40s, and by the summer of 1950 all three groups had solidified into one.
It was in the 8th grade at Robinson, late in 1945, that I first met Mike McClure. The Robinson group already had about five members, among them Phil Gardner, Francis Honey, Ron Weidman, and Joan Murray. Ironically, although Bruce Conner was only one year behind us in school, and was at Robinson at the same time as the rest of us during our eighth and ninth years, we did not meet him until the 12th grade at East High.
In the 12th grade, as I have indicated, Bruce Conner joined the group, and in the summer of 1950, after we had graduated from East High, we met the third group, most of whom were already in college. Among these were Virginia Bing, David Wright, Maryjane Naanes, Nancy Hurst, Jim Stearns, Phyllis Murray, and John Pearson. It was also about this time that Mike began to seek out advice about his poetry from Irma Wassall, a local poet.
Over the next couple of years others joined the group, such as Betty Schneider, Coleta Eck, Jim Lyle, George Stewart, and Corban LePell.
The group evolved over the period from 1950 to 1953: some people left for New York (Nancy Hurst, Phil Gardner, Maryjane Naanes, and Phyllis Murray), Betty Schneider went to Denver, and others went elsewhere. New people, however, came into the group, and the core remained in Wichita, and at the university.
The intensity of our activity did not let up when we went to the university, but it rather increased. Our lives became one long party and one long discussion.
It is roughly at this point that The Mad Cub begins.
A number of us were involved at this time with the youth group at the Unitarian Church and took on a project to integrate some of the local restaurants. Joining with black young people at the Hutcherson Branch of the YMCA, we staged several peaceful “sit-ins” of mixed groups at the Continental Grills. We also “integrated” the Crest Theatre by having the whites buy the tickets and then bring in some of the black members of our party. The management tried to evict us, but, once seated, we stayed in place until we left of our own accord.
At this time we were circulating our writing informally in a variety of ways: hand-written, typed, and carbon copies were usually passed along from one person to another, and people sometimes read or recited their latest works in conversations over coffee at Manning’s or over beer at The Blue Lantern, or at parties -- and even at our swimming and drinking parties at Wilson’s sandpit, one of our favorite places. We were always aware of what each other was writing and we were all influencing each other. Needing an outlet for our writing, we decided in the spring of 1951 that it was time to put out our own literary magazine, and from that point on, much of our effort was aimed in that direction.
Unfortunately, a conflict was building up in the group. A number of misunderstandings had arisen, one of which was around the story I had written for the magazine. Mike was told that it was an attack on him — which was not my intention at all — and when he learned that I was writing an autobiographical novel about the group, The Kings in the North, he naturally drew the conclusion that this work would also be aimed at him.
By December of 1951, these and other problems were sufficient to cause an open rift between McClure and me as well as between him and some other members in the group. Some suggestion of the other conflicts appears in The Mad Cub, but not the one about the magazine specifically, although it was the most destructive.
In any case, the publication of Provincial Review was in limbo, and it was not published until 1996 by Bruce Conner and me. An examination of the work scheduled to be printed shows clearly that we were already anticipating what would come later when the Beat Movement began. The poetry of David Wright and Jim Lyle, and the short stories of Coleta Eck and Don Duncan in particular all clearly reveal the themes and techniques that would gain nation-wide recognition in just a few years. And the metal mobile of John Pearson’s pictured in the magazine was also quite experimental at the time.
Finally, of course, among the contributors who would achieve major standing in the Beat Movement in San Francisco, were Bruce Conner (who did the cover for the magazine), Mike McClure (who was one of the six who read his poetry the night Ginsberg first read Howl), and Dave Haselwood (whose Auerhahn Press published many of the Beat writers).
The group largely continued, but without the magazine, it now lacked a central purpose. Some people in the group reconciled their differences, but other splits remained. Virginia Bing and David Wright got married, and by June I had married as well. A good deal of The Mad Cub takes place in this period.
The parties continued, and people still worked on their writing and their art, but it was clear that the whole thing was becoming more and more patchwork and temporary. McClure came to a New Year’s Eve party that Phyllis and I gave at the end of 1952, but within a couple of weeks he had left Wichita, first going to New York and then the Southwest, arriving in San Francisco late in 1953. Bruce Conner and Corban LePell left for the University of Nebraska to pursue their studies after the end of the 1952-53 school year.
While some people were leaving, new people continued to come into the group, giving it life for another couple of years. Among these new people were Glenn Todd and Ann McEwen.
