Nightcrawling with Kerouac, Ginsberg and the beatniks – in pictures

A new book of photographs by Burt Glinn – featuring a recently discovered essay by Jack Kerouac – captures the beat generation in all their jazz-heavy, late-night glory

Main image: San Francisco 1960 Earl Bostic and his trumpet player playing chess during a break at the Blackhawk. Photograph: Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos

  • David Stone Martin Party, San Francisco, 1960

    Legendary figures – from Allen Ginsberg to Gregory Corso – populate the vibrant in-the-heat-of-the-moment shots Burt Glinn made of the mid-century American counterculture. The Beat Scene, Photographs by Burt Glinn is published this month by RAP. All photographs: Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos
    San Francisco 1960 David Stone Martin PartyLegendary figures – from Allen Ginsberg to Gregory Corso – populate the vibrant in the-heat -of-the-moment shots Burt Glinn made during the heady 1950s. The Beat Scene, Photographs by Burt Glinn is published this month by RAP. All photographs: Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos

  • Beatniks, San Francisco, 1960

    Glinn, a self-taught photographer who worked for Life magazine in the late 1940s before joining Magnum Photos in 1951, is known as much for his insightful social documentary and current affairs photography as for his iconic celebrity portraits, and pioneering work in colour
    San Francisco 1960 BeatniksBurt Glinn, a self-taught photographer who worked for Life magazine in the late 1940s before joining Magnum Photos in 1951 is known as much for his insightful social documentary and current affairs photography as for his iconic celebrity portraits, and pioneering work in colour

  • Gregory Corso at the Seven Arts Coffee Gallery, New York City, 1959

    The book sees Glinn’s atmospheric imagery fittingly paired with a previously unpublished essay by Jack Kerouac, entitled And This Is The Beat Nightlife of New York
    New York City 1959 The book sees Glinn’s atmospheric imagery (here, writer Gregory Corso is shot in the stairwell at the Seven Arts Coffee Gallery) fittingly paired with a previously unpublished essay by Jack Kerouac, entitled And This Is The Beat Nightlife of New York

  • Earl Bostic and his trumpet player play chess, San Francisco, 1960

    All the favourite beatnik hangouts, from the fabled Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district …
    San Francisco 1960 Here, jazz saxophonist Earl Bostic and his trumpet player play chess during a break at the fabled Blackhawk nightclub in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.

  • Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Barney Rosset, New York City, 1957

    … to Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, feature in Glinn’s snapshots of a heady time of cultural innovation
    Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Barney Rosset, New York City 1957 … to Manhattan’s Washington Square Park feature in Ginn’s snapshots of a heady time of cultural innovation

  • Painter Jay DeFeo painting The Rose, San Francisco, 1960

    In addition to the musicians and writers, Glinn also captures the leading visual artists of the time, from Helen Frankenthaler and Barnett Newman to Willem de Kooning and Jay DeFeo
    Painter Jay DeFeo painting The Rose, San Francisco 1960 Among the musicians and writers Glinn captures are also the leading visual artists of the time, from Helen Frankenthaler and Barnett Newman to Bernard Tapié, William de Kooning and Jay DeFeo

  • Allen Ginsberg and Barney Rosset, New York City, 1957

    Ginsberg and Grove Press publisher Rosset are pictured here in an art gallery with fellow writers Gregory Corso and Peter Orlovsky in the background
    Allen Ginsberg and Barney Rosset, New York City 1957 Ginsberg and Grove Press publisher Rosset are pictured here in an art gallery with fellow writers Gregory Corso and Peter Orlovsky in the background

  • Seven Arts Cafe, New York City, 1959

    Some of the best poets of the day performed at this Ninth Avenue venue, near Times Square – from Kerouac, Ginsberg and Corso to Ray Bremser and Diane di Prima
    Seven Arts Cafe, New York City, 1959 Some of the best poets of the day performed at this Ninth Avenue venue, near Time Square – from Kerouac, Ginsberg and Corso to Ray Bremser and Diane di Prima

  • City Lights bookstore, San Francisco, 1960

    The City Lights in San Francisco was a similarly important literary hotspot, with many of the west coast beat writers receiving their mail here
    City Lights bookstore, San Francisco, 1960 The City Lights in San Francisco was a similarly important literary hotspot, with many of the West Coast beat writers receiving their mail here.

  • Hugh Nanton Romney at the White Horse Tavern, New York City 1959

    The entertainer and peace activist Wavy Gravy, formerly known as Hugh Nanton Romney, started out on the beat scene in Greenwich Village, with Bob Dylan, one of his earliest friends
    New York City 1959 Hugh Nanton Romney (later known as Wavy Gravy) at a poetry and song night at the White Horse Tavern
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