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Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, William Burroughs, and Diane Di Prima – is there an aspiring poet or prose writer today who would miss a chance to meet and learn with these literary mentors face-to-face, sharing the secrets of their craft? That irresistible opportunity is now available with First Thought, Best Thought, the first landmark release from Naropa University’s treasured audio archives.

Selected and edited by poet Randy Roark from thousands of hours of performances and teaching sessions, First Thought, Best Thought offers listeners four rare gems of inspiration and practical wisdom, including:· Allen Ginsberg on how we "discharge the spontaneous energy of genuine experience" onto the page· Anne Waldman on living your poetic practice by melting the boundaries between poetry on the page, performance, and every act of expression you choose to commit· William Burroughs on breakthrough methods for generating fresh writing – including "the cut-up method," chance operations, and dream work· Diane Di Prima on how to survive as an artist: preserving your sensibility; creating a supportive artistic community; approaches to getting published, self-publishing, and more

"First thought, best thought" was the phrase that Allen Ginsberg used to describe the kind of spontaneous, fearless writing taught here – a way of telling the truth that arises from naked and authentic experience. In these thought-provoking sessions, anyone with a passion for words is sure to discover a wealth of insights for expressing themselves with greater immediacy and creativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Amazing WEALTH of Writing Advice
I've been having an ongoing flirtation with the "Beat Generation" this year, having read Diane Di Prima, Anne Waldman, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, among others.When I stumbled across this set of audio CD's, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.To hear these giants of their generation reading their own works was a dream come true.

The title "First Thought, Best Thought" was the phrase that poet Allen Ginsberg used to describe spontaneous and fearless writing--a way of "telling the truth" that arises from naked and authentic experience.

Here's the gist of the CD's:

*William S. Burroughs teaching his breakthrough methods for generating fresh writing--including "the cut-up method," chance operations, and dreamwork.


*Diane di Prima on how to survive as an artist: preserving your sensibility, creating a supportive artistic community, getting published, self-publishing, and much more.


*Allen Ginsberg exploring every stage of poetic activity--from inspiration, to composition, to revision, to performing your poetry in public.


*Anne Waldman on the elements of the poet's craft--from the raw material of the words themselves to the many aspects of the poem in performance.

I must say that my own writing practice (after listening to these CD's a few times) has been profoundly enriched for the better.I've decided to publish my own poetry and I'm experimenting with the cut-up method suggested by Burroughs.It's a blast and funny has hell at times.

If you need a giant dose of inspiration and/or encouragement for your writing, then by all means, BUY THIS COLLECTION!

Of course, the Universe being a giant cross-reference, these authors led me to other great books:"Women of the Beat Generation" by Brenda Knight was an eye-opening read about the women of that generation.

Here's a blurb from that book:"In many ways, women of the Beat were cut from the same cloth as the men: fearless, angry, high risk, too smart, restless, highly irregular. They took chances, make mistakes, made poetry, made love, made history. Women of the Beat weren't afraid to get dirty. They were compassionate, careless, charismatic, marching to a different drummer, out of step. Muses who birthed a poetry so raw and new and full of power that it changed the world. Writers whose words weave spells, whose stories bind, whose vision blinds. Artists for whom curing the disease of art kills."

I'd also recommend, "Fast Speaking Woman" by Anne Waldman and "Memoirs of a Beatnik" by Diane Di Prima.Ms. Waldman got her inspiration for the title poem from the Shaman, Maria Sabina.So, you MUST read about Maria Sabina in this amazing book, "Maria Sabina:Her Life and Chants" by Alvaro Estrada.Here's a taste of one of her chants:

Because I can swim in the immense
Because I can swim in all forms
Because I am the launch woman
Because I am the sacred opposum
Because I am the Lord opposum

I am the woman Book that is beneath the water, says
I am the woman of the populous town, says
I am the shepherdess who is beneath the water, says
I am the woman who shepherds the immense, says
I am a shepherdess and I come with my shepherd, says

Because everything has its origin
And I come going from place to place from the origin . . .

(Alvaro Estrada, "Maria Sabina: her Life and Chants")


... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Anne (Lesley) Waldman, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 3759 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Chapters: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lenny Bruce, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Anne Waldman, Rod Mckuen, Michael John Fles, Dick Mcbride, Bob Kaufman, Ken Nordine, Harry Fainlight, Lew Welch, John Ross, Lord Buckley, Philip Whalen, Lenore Kandel, Neeli Cherkovski, Ted Joans, Janine Pommy Vega, Bob Mcfadden, Babs Gonzales, Walt Curtis, A. D. Winans. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 175. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Irwin Allen Ginsberg (pronounced ; June 3, 1926 April 5, 1997) was an American poet who vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression. In the 1950s, Ginsberg was a leading figure of the Beat Generation, an anarchic group of young men and women who combined poetry, song, sex, wine and illicit drugs with passionate political ideas that championed personal freedoms. Major literary works of the Beat Generation include the novels On The Road by Jack Kerouac and Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, as well as Ginsberg's epic poem Howl, in which he celebrates his fellow "angelheaded hipsters" and excoriates what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. The poem, dedicated to writer Carl Solomon, has a memorable opening: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed bymadness, starving hysterical naked,dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawnlooking for an angry fix... Howl made Ginsberg famous because of a 1957 obscenity trial in which a San Francisco prosecutor argued it contained "filthy, vulgar, obscene, and disgusting language." The poem seemed especially outrageous in 1950s America because it depicted both heterosexual and homosexual copulation at a time when sodomy laws made homosexual acts a crime in every U.S. state. Howl reflected Ginsberg's own bisexuality and his ho...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1017 ... Read more

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60-minute VHS video features Ms. Waldman reading from Helping the Dreamer, New and Selected Poems, and other works. Also features an interview withpoet Lewis MacAdams. ... Read more

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, William S. Burroughs, Hotel Chelsea, Anne Waldman, Ken Kesey, Herbert Huncke, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Neal Cassady, Sur La Route, John Clellon Holmes, le Festin Nu, Claude Pélieu, Gregory Corso, Diane Di Prima, Ed Sanders, Michael Mcclure, Beat Hotel, Philip Lamantia, Gerald Nicosia, Philip Whalen, Peter Orlovsky, Hettie Jones, Docteur Sax, le Livre Des Haïkus, Les Souterrains, Lew Welch, Les Anges de La Désolation, Howl, Bob Kaufman, Satori à Paris, Mexico City Blues, Pic, Big Sur, Luanne Henderson, Visions de Gérard, David Meltzer, Vraie Blonde, et Autres, Visions de Cody, Lucien Carr, Pull My Daisy, Maggie Cassidy, Tristessa, Vanité de Duluoz. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Jack Kerouac (prononcez ) (né le 12 mars 1922 à Lowell, dans le Massachusetts, mort le 21 octobre 1969 à St. Petersburg, en Floride) est un écrivain et poète américain. Considéré aujourd'hui comme l'un des auteurs américains les plus importants du siècle, il est même pour la communauté beatnik le ». Son style rythmé et immédiat, auquel il donne le nom de « prose spontanée », a inspiré de nombreux artistes et écrivains et en premier lieu le chanteur américain Bob Dylan. Les œuvres les plus connues de Kerouac, Sur la route, considéré comme le manifeste de la beat generation, Les Clochards célestes, Big Sur ou Le Vagabond solitaire, narrent de manière romancée ses voyages à travers les États-Unis. Le genre cinématographique du road movie est directement influencé par ses techniques et par son mode de narration. Jack Kerouac a passé la majeure partie de sa vie partagé entre les grands espaces américains et l'appartement de sa mère à Lowell dans le Massachusetts. Ce paradoxe est à l'...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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Chapters: Virginia Woolf, Colette, Gertrude Stein, H.d., Rebecca West, Djuna Barnes, Pool Group, Anne Waldman, Amy Lowell, Susan Howe, Marianne Moore, Mina Loy, Janet Flanner, Kay Boyle, Bryher, Gunvor Hofmo, Anneli Rufus, Lorine Niedecker, Diane Wakoski, Rachel Blau Duplessis, Grace Andreacchi, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Maxine Chernoff, Fanny Howe, Hilda Morley, Harryette Mullen, Diane Di Prima, Barbara Guest, Madeline Gleason, Dorothy Richardson, Alice Notley, Joanne Kyger, Bernadette Mayer, Kristin Prevallet, Adrienne Monnier, Margery Latimer, Joan Retallack, Tina Darragh, Janine Pommy Vega, Blanaid Salkeld, Eva Figes, Mary Devenport O'neill, Maggie O'sullivan. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 249. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 July 27, 1946) was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914, and the second with her partner Alice B. Toklas, from 1907 until Stein's death in 1946. Stein shared her salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, first with Leo and then with Alice. Throughout her lifetime, Stein also cultivated significant relationships with well-known members of the avant garde artistic and literary world. Stein was gregarious and had a wealth of friends and modern paintings that attracted many to her Paris salon. Her personality also allowed her to transform her social outlets, by focusing on new friendships, members of the youthful generation of the time. For example, Stein was friends with "up and coming" artists Matisse and Picasso in the early 1900s, writers Thornton Wilder and Ernest Hemingway in the 20s, and with the American GIs in the 40s. Each period ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=62004 ... Read more

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Poetry and polemics have typically gone in opposite directions—the fine flame of the sonnet, blue cone in orange, versus the raging blazes of oratory. But opposites are alike in every way but one, and when poets have bcome politically aroused, Areopagiticas of language have been ignited (look it up!). Now three poets long associated with the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa in Boulder have joined their linguistic bonfires in a volume of polemical poems. Put a dark glass over your mind’s eye and read! ... Read more