Ruined Time

Cultural Writing. Poetry. RUINED TIME is a memoir, a personal cultural anthology of the Great Depression, World War II and the 1950s...of Hiroshima, the military-industrial complex, and the Beat Generation. "RUINED TIME is the book within the book, the history within the mystery, the mythology of the '50s, the so-called Beat Generation. Briggs reveals the real deal as a participant in that confounding history. His work is a remarkable embodiment of the personal as the political; a brave demonstration of tough insight, survival and triumph"--David Meltzer. Robert Briggs attended Auburn and Columbia Universities and served in the army during the Korean War. A bookseller in Greenwich Village and North Beach in the '50s, he was involved the jazz and poetry scenes. He is the author of The American Emergency, 1989, and a member of the Zen Community of Oregon.

The Beat vision was never "a way of life or a way anywhere in particular it remained a condition an atmosphere of attitudes that poets could feel, painters see, musicians hear, and writers scrutinize. It was a promising fifth dimension in which it was possible for dedicated observers to explore the very limits of wonder." So says Robert Briggs, who considers himself one of those observers and in this memoir he describes his involvement with American literary culture and social life as he attended Auburn and Columbia Universities, served in the Army during the Korean War, and worked as a bookseller in New York's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's North Beach through the 1950s. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)