Garrets and Pretenders

Bohemian Life in America from Poe to Kerouac

Hailed as "thoroughly fascinating" and "an excellent account" by The New York Times, this chronicle recaptures the vibrantly eccentric lifestyles of generations of free-spirited Americans. Its evocative profiles range from Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Ambrose Bierce to lesser-known nonconformists and iconoclasts. Hoboes, starving poets, suffragettes, and artists' models populate these pages, forming a bustling panoply of banquets, suicides, and ferocious literary rivalries.
Albert Parry's classic survey created a sensation upon its initial publication in 1933. This new edition offers a 1948 reminiscence of the Greenwich Village scene and updates the narrative to the beatnik era of 1960. More than a collection of stories and anecdotes, this well-documented history unfolds with all the panache of a gripping novel. Scores of cartoons, drawings, and caricatures illustrate its memorable views of unconventional lives.