The Lawrence Lipton papers, 1883-2009 (bulk 1950-1975), consist of correspondence, interviews, manuscripts, typescripts, audio recordings, clippings, periodicals, photographs, motion pictures, and ephemera, created and collected by Beat Generation chronicler, novelist, and poet, Lawrence Lipton. The collection documents Lipton's prolific work as a novelist, poet, and columnist through typescripts and manuscripts of his works; correspondence between Lipton and members of the Beats, including Allen Ginsberg; and interviews that Lipton conducted with a variety of notable writers and musicians during the 1960s. Lipton was born in Lodz, Poland, on October 10, 1898. In 1903, Lipton and his family immigrated to the United States -- eventually settling in Chicago. Lipton worked at various times as a graphic artist, a journalist, the publicity director of a large movie theater, a writer and poet, and a jazz composer. In the 1920s, Lipton joined an influential circle of writers in Chicago, including Ben Hecht, Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, Sherwood Anderson, and Harriet Monroe. In the late 1930s, Lipton married his third wife Georgiana Randolph Craig, a well-known author of mystery novels and short stories who wrote under the pseudonym, Craig Rice. In addition to his earlier mystery fiction and articles for such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Chicago Review, and Quarterly Review of Literature, Lipton wrote two literary novels, "Brother, The Laugh is Bitter" (1942) and "In Secret Battle" (1944), and a book of poetry, "Rainbow at Midnight" (1955), which was a Book Club for Poetry selection. In 1959, Lipton published "The Holy Barbarians," the book that linked him to the Beat Generation literary movement. When Lipton wrote "The Holy Barbarians," he had settled in Venice, California, where his home became an informal center for the arts, with Lipton functioning as both teacher and catalyst. In Venice, Lipton was associated with the movement to restore poetry as a vocal art long before the Beats became famous, and he began experimenting with poetry and jazz in 1956. During the last years of his life, Lipton wrote a long-running column of political commentary in the "Los Angeles Free Press" called "Radio Free America." Lipton died in Los Angeles on July 9, 1975.

Lawrence Lipton was born in Lodz, Poland, on October 10, 1898, and brought to America in 1903 by his father, Abraham Lipton. The family moved to Chicago where Abraham Lipton had close friends and relatives. When Lipton was fourteen, his father died.

138.65 Linear Feet 140 boxes and 1 framed portrait

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