Synopsis of Desconexión y otros ensayos
This book includes the following essays:
Eroticism, Mysticism and Revolution (Ken Knabb) · The role of poetry and the poet’s place in society · The reality of Henry Miller · Mark Twain · A return to the origins of literature · Disconnection: The art of the Beat generation · Some reflections on jazz as music, rebellion and mysticism · Students take the reins · Letter from San Francisco · Simone Weil · Martin Buber’s Hasidism · Gnosticism.
The edition presented here is preceded by a superb introductory essay on Rexroth’s work by Ken Knabb.
Kenneth Rexroth
Born in 1905 in the city of South Bend (Indiana, USA) into a family of free thinkers, the life of this self-taught writer has taken on the form of a bridge with distance: a lucid and solid link between two outstanding moments of the 20th century: the social upheavals of the beginning of the century and the youth rebellion of the 1960s.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Rexroth played a very active role in many civil rights and anti-war groups (he declared himself a conscientious objector during World War II), and was the main mentor of the cultural and literary ferment that would lead to the so-called "San Francisco Renaissance" after the war. Since the 1950s, he has written poems, plays, essays, and articles on social criticism, translated poetry from seven languages, presented book reviews and programs on independent KPFA radio, and organized for the first time jazz-accompanied poetry readings. He died in Montecito, California, in 1982.
Although Kenneth Rexroth is known among Spanish readers mainly for his poetic work, his versions of oriental poets and his relationship with the Beat generation, his essays are unparalleled. A good example of this is Disconnection and other essays (Pepitas, 2009).
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