Though the San Francisco poets were the first to write about homosexuality -- Duncan’s “The Homosexual in Society” was published in 1944 -- Beat writers like Allen Ginsberg were quick to make queer sex a major component of their work. Ginsberg’s epic poem “Howl” was, in Ginsberg’s words, “an acknowledgment of the basic reality of homosexual joy.” A major part of “the homosexual tradition in American poetry” that began with Walt Whitman, Ginsberg was linked to Whitman as only a gay man could be. As Ginsberg told his Gay Sunshine interviewer Allen Young, Ginsberg’s bed-mate Cassady “slept with Gavin Arthur, who slept with Edward Carpenter, who slept with Whitman,” thus establishing a sexual link between the two good gay poets. Though not all the Beats were gay, critic Bernard Wolfe was right when, in a hostile essay, he wrote that the Beat scene was “overrun with homosexuals.”

Queer Beats: How the Beats Turned America On to Sex collects some of “the writings that shocked America out of the 1950s;” making possible today’s GLBT movement. To be sure, none of the Beats, not even Ginsberg, were involved in the type of organizing, lobbying or protesting that we now associate with activism. As editor Regina Marler put it, “the Beat writers’ influence on the nascent gay rights movement is seen most notably in [their] open avowal of orientation, of acts, of fantasies - the Beat sensibility of friendship...extending itself to their writings.” Ginsberg’s “Howl,” when it was first published in 1956, was almost unique in its “powerful, unabashed depictions of gay sex.” Though “Howl’s” graphic language made it the target of government censorship, the poem’s success in court paved the way for the publication of other, more honest depictions of homosexual love.

In Queer Beats, editor Marler “brings together a diverse collection of primary and secondary texts that allow the Beat writers to be viewed from and through the perspective of their fluid sexuality. It is the first book of its nature. There is, of course, more queer and queer-ish Beats writing that could be included in any single volume, but I hope that Queer Beats provides a starting point for further reading and fresh insights.” In addition to publishing excerpts from Ginsberg’s “Howl” - the naughty bits included - Queer Beats features work by Burroughs, Kerouac, Alan Ansen, Diane di Prima and Harold Norse, just to name a few. And while Marler extended the scope of her book to include pieces by John Wieners (“A Poem for Cocksuckers”), Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, she inexplicably left out the San Francisco Renaissance poets; an omission that detracts from this otherwise excellent collection.

Though most of the selections have been published before (as befits an anthology), Queer Beats also includes a segment of poet John Giorno’s still-unpublished memoirs, where Giorno recalls the time when “I Met Jack Kerouac For One Glorious Moment in 1958;” that is, before Kerouac got fat and disgustingly drunk. If nothing else, this recollection of the Beats’ heyday by one of its last survivors makes Queer Beats worth the price. And while Giorno is (in)famous for “publishing the cock sizes of the writers and artists he’d had sex with,” his failure to score with the avowedly heterosexual Kerouac - Giorno blames Ginsberg for breaking up their tête-à-tête - means that the size of Kerouac’s appendage has been lost to posterity. But while most of the Beats are long gone, Kerouac and his comrades continue to influence our lives through their writings, as they do in this fascinating anthology.

“MY FAVORITE BOOK” is by Byron Daugherty of South Beach, Florida: “David Stukas’s Biceps of Death [Kensington]. His writing is immensely entertaining; very witty, and it’s actually a who-done-it that gives you the chance to solve it. Also in his favor is his positive handling of twinks, bears and leathermen. There’s something for everyone in there. But my favorite of all time is The Gay Book of Lists by Leigh Rutledge [Alyson]. With information to spice up any conversation, and facts to chill mothers and their boxes of Kellogg’s cereal, it has to be the required gay reading. Very informative, but entertaining too.” If you have a favorite book, e-mail the title, author and a sentence or two explaining why you like the book (along with your name) to jessemonteagudo@aol.com. Subject: "Book Nook Favorite Book."

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and gay book lover who lives in South Florida, not far from Jay Quinn. He has been to the Outer Banks (and enjoyed it). Write him a note at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.