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Beat Poets

Beat Poets and their poems. A list of the top 100 best and most popular Beat poets. This list contains the best and most popular famous Beat poets in history (with their best poetry).

Beat poets are a group of American poets - including Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Kenneth Rexroth - who were disaffected by contemporary society. The word 'beat' comes from 'beat' as in music, 'beat' as in defeated and 'beat' as in to beatify or make blessed. Beat poetry had a big impact upon the lyrics of singers such as Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Tom Waits.

Rank Beat Poets
1 Allen Ginsberg - Beat Poet
Ginsberg , Allen

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An American Beat poet born in Newark, New Jersey.. American poet; one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation

2 Peter Orlovsky - Beat Poet
Orlovsky , Peter

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An American poet best known for being the lover of Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg.. American poet and actor; lifelong partner of Allen Ginsberg

3 Gregory Corso - Beat Poet
Corso , Gregory

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An American poet, the fourth member of the canon of Beat Generation writers.. American Beat poet "Gasoline" "Bomb"

4 Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Beat Poet
Ferlinghetti , Lawrence

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. Author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and film narration, he is best known for A Coney Island of the Mind (New York: New Directions, 1958), a collection of poems that has been translated into nine languages, with sales of over 1 million copies.. American poet painter liberal activist

5 Bob Kaufman - Beat Poet
Kaufman , Bob

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. American Beat poet and surrealist; coined the term "beatnik"

6 Jack Kerouac - Beat Poet
Kerouac , Jack

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. American novelist and poet

7 Gary Snyder - Beat Poet
Snyder , Gary

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. American poet essayist lecturer and environmental activist; 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

8 Diane Wakoski - Beat Poet
Wakoski , Diane

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. American poet; associated with the deep image confessional and Beat poets

9 Anne Waldman - Beat Poet
Waldman , Anne

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10 Ivor Cutler - Beat Poet
Cutler , Ivor

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Ivor Cutler (15 January 1923 – 3 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme. He appeared in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film in 1967 and on Neil Innes' television programmes. Cutler also wrote books for children and adults and was a teacher at A. S. Neill's Summerhill School and for 30 years in inner-city schools in London. He told Andy Kershaw on his radio show that he also gave private poetry lessons to individuals.. Scottish poet musician songwriter and humorist

11 Royston Ellis - Beat Poet
Ellis , Royston

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Royston Ellis (born 10 February 1941, Pinner, England) is a British writer heavily influenced by the American Beat Generation.. English poet inspired by Beat Generation

12 Adrian Henri - Beat Poet
Henri , Adrian

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Adrian Henri (10 April 1932 – 20 December 2000) was a British poet and painter best remembered as the founder of poetry-rock group The Liverpool Scene and as one of three poets in the best-selling anthology The Mersey Sound, along with Brian Patten and Roger McGough. The trio of Liverpool poets came to prominence in that city's Merseybeat zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s. He was described by Edward Lucie-Smith in British Poetry since 1945 as the "theoretician" of the three. His characterisation of popular culture in verse helped to widen the audience for poetry among 1960s British youth. He was influenced by the French Symbolist school of poetry and surrealist art.. British poet and painter

13 Laura Kasischke - Beat Poet
Kasischke , Laura

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Laura Kasischke (born 1961) is an American fiction writer and American poet with poetry awards and multiple well reviewed works of fiction. Her work has received the Juniper Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Prize, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award for Emerging Writers, and the Beatrice Hawley Award. She is the recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as several Pushcart Prizes.. American poet fiction writer

14 Michael McClure - Beat Poet
McClure , Michael

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Michael McClure (born October 20, 1932 in Marysville, Kansas) is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums. He soon became a key member of the Beat Generation and is immortalized as "Pat McLear" in Kerouac's Big Sur.. American poet playwright songwriter and novelist

15 Rod McKuen - Beat Poet
McKuen , Rod

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Rod McKuen (born April 29, 1933) is a bestselling American poet, composer, and singer.. American poet songwriter composer and singer

16 Charles Olson - Beat Poet
Olson , Charles

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Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970), was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance. Consequently, many postmodern groups, such as the poets of the Language School, include Olson as a primary and precedent figure. He described himself not so much as a poet or writer but as "an archeologist of morning.". American modernist poet

17 Robert Priest - Beat Poet
Priest , Robert

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Robert Priest (born 1951) is a British born Canadian poet and children's author. He has written numerous books of poetry, several children's novels, and has often appeared on CBC radio's hit spoken word show "Wordbeat" under the alias "Dr Poetry". He is well known for his aphorisms and performance poetry. His adult poetry has been categorized as surrealistic satire while his children's poetry is more tender, underpinned with a utopian hopefulness. Canadian novelist Barbara Gowdy has described him as "the voice of the people and the angels, entwined" and the Toronto star has called him "passionate, cocky, alternately adoring and insulting verse." Aside from poetry, Priest has also branched out over the years to write plays, novels and songs, many of which have earned him awards and recognition in Canadian literary circles.. British-born Canadian poet children's author and singer-songwriter

18 Leslie Scalapino - Beat Poet
Scalapino , Leslie

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Leslie Scalapino (July 25, 1944 – May 28, 2010) was a United States poet, experimental prose writer, playwright, essayist, and editor, sometimes grouped in with the Language poets, though she felt closely tied to the Beat poets. A longtime resident of California's Bay Area, she earned an M.A. in English from the University of California at Berkeley. Among her works, Scalapino is the author of way (North Point Press, 1988), a long poem which won the Poetry Center Award, the Lawrence Lipton Prize, and the American Book Award.. American poet experimental prose writer playwright essayist and editor; associated with the Language and Beat poets

19 Laura Ulewicz - Beat Poet
Ulewicz , Laura

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Laura Ulewicz (1930–2007) was an American Poet.. American Beat poet

20 Philip Whalen - Beat Poet
Whalen , Philip

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Philip Glenn Whalen (20 October 1923 – 26 June 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation.. American poet Zen Buddhist and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance; close to the Beat generation