[Ads-l] Better Citation of Antedating of "Beat Generation"

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Tue Aug 4 01:40:35 UTC 2015


I have previously posted the following citation for "beat generation":

beat generation (OED 1952)

1948 John Clellon Holmes _Journal_ 10 Dec. in Arthur  & Kit Knight _The Beat Vision: A Primary Sourcebook_ (1987) 78  Kerouac speaks to Harrington (in a letter written and mailed from here) about "the beat generation," the "generation of furtives".

I had the Boston University special collections check the original of this journal, and it turns out that Knight & Knight got it wrong.  The original reads as follows:

Jack speaks to Alan (in a letter written and mailed here) about the "beat generation," the "generation of furtives".

Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list