Herb Gold, elder statesman of the Beat Generation, writes on

[Dave Monroe]

The Jewish Journal
August 12, 2008
Herb Gold, elder statesman of the Beat Generation, writes on
By Tom Teicholz

"Still Alive! (A Temporary Condition)" by Herbert Gold (Arcade, $25).


Herbert Gold, who at 84 is among the elder statesmen of the Beat
Generation, has a new book out, his 28th, a memoir titled "Still
Alive! (A Temporary Condition)."

It is not an autobiography so much as a series of recollections of
encounters with people who have been part of his life -- neighbors,
friends, family, lovers.

[...]

Over the years, as "writer in residue," as Gold calls it, at several
colleges he has known or befriended many other writers of note. At
Cornell he taught and knew Richard Farina and Thomas Pynchon. At SUNY
Binghamton he was a teaching colleague of a young Richard Price.
Although he is no name-dropper, the list of writers Gold has known is
as wide as it is varied. During our conversation, there were few names
that came up that Gold did not have an anecdote about (and usually a
good one).

[...]

http://www.jewishjournal.com/tommywood/article/herb_gold_elder_statesman_of_the_beat_generation_writes_on_20080812/

   "At the simplest level, it had to do with language.  We were
encouraged from mnay directions--Kerouac and the Beat writers, the
diction of Saul Bellow in The Adventures of Augie March, emerging
voices like those of Herbert Gold and Philip Roth--to see how at least
two very distinct kinds of English could be allowed in fiction to
coexist.  Allowed!  It was actually OK to write like this!  Who knew?
The effect was exciting, liberating, strongly positive.  It was not a
case of either/or, but an expansion of possibilities." (SL, "Intro,"
p. 7)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0211&msg=72330