The other day I wrote about viewing Neal Cassady’s infamous “lost” Joan Anderson letter at Christie’s Auction House.. Letters are a great way to get to know and understand the writers of the Beat Generation. The novelists and poets were prodigious letter writers. Here are ten books of collected letters by the poets and writers of the Beat Generation.
1.
Neal Cassady: Collected Letters, 1944-1967
2.
Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940-1956
3.
Jack Kerouac’s Dear Carolyn: Letters to Carolyn Cassady
4.
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters
5.
William S. Burroughs’ and Allen Ginsberg’s The Yage Letters Redux
6.
The Selected Letter of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder
7.
Allen Ginsberg and his father’s Family Business: Selected Letters between a Father and Son
8.
Love, H: The Letters of Helene Dorn and Hettie Jones
9.
Distant Neighbors: The Selected Letters of Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder
10.
An Accident Autobiography: The Selected Letters of Gregory Corso
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
Enough to make us envious these days, when friendships and collegiality like theirs are all too rare. Still, they serve us as beacons.
Exactly! Now, we must go out and create our own friendships, sharing our works and our souls.
Some brilliant reading matter, that’s for sure.
Glad you liked the list! There are so many great books to read!
Too many for me – I just can’t keep up. Oh well.
OOPS! YOU LEFT OFF “DOOR WIDE OPEN” BY JOYCE JOHNSON. HOW COME?
Joyce Johnson