Whitman's Wild Children: Portraits of Twelve Poets

In Whitman's Wild Children, Neeli Cherkovski looks at twelve contemporary beat poets - Michael McClure, Charles Bukowski, John Wieners, James Broughton, Philip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman, Allen Ginsberg, William Everson, Gregory Corso, Harold Norse, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Jack Micheline - chosen because each, like Whitman, took "his own road" and had little to do with what was thought acceptable in mainstream American culture during the 1940s and 1950s. Cherkovski draws on personal encounters to create biographical portraits that are engaging and animated. The result is an intimate critical memoir, written to reflect the spirit of Whitman's call for "perfect personal candor," about twelve poets who helped define contemporary American literature.