Sinclair Beiles in Cape Town

 Good to see that Gregory Penfold in Cape Town has received his copy of Who was Sinclair Beiles?, published by Dye Hard Press.

Glowing review of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

I found this glowing review of Who was Sinclair Beiles? on Goodreads today: I certainly could not have asked for more!

Thank you, Mat!

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An excellent 'festschrift' (or 'celebration'), rather than a strict biography, on the mysterious South African beat writer, Sinclair Beiles.

Beiles is probably most famous for helping Burroughs get Naked Lunch published at Olympia through Girodias, at a time when Burroughs was really strung out on paregoric and/or heroin. His most famous work in print is probably as one of the four contributors (Beiles, Burroughs, Corso & Gysin) of the now legendary cut-up compilation, Minutes to Go, published in 1960.

 However, as this book illustrates, Beiles is [sic] quite a prolific poet and playwright and apart from the above two works, much of his writing has surfaced 'under the radar' and hasn't been the subject of much attention by either critics or fellow poets and writers. Beiles is someone whose quality of writing is as notoriously inconsistent as it is hard to track down and read his books in the first place.

One of his books of poetry, Yeoville, for example, was only published in a limitation of 4 copies.

What Beiles has in common with Burroughs is their meeting in Tangier and in Paris, an interest in drugs, an interest in experimental artists and writers and also, interestingly, a regular allowance from their families which allowed them both to focus much time on their writing.

I hope this book goes some way to revealing more about this great writer to the literary world. His poetry and plays have been criminally neglected and underrated and it is high time that his work is evaluated alongside many of the other great beat writers who are already firmly and undeniably well ensconced in the beat cannon and annals of history (in particular Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg).

Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska have done a terrific job of compiling these (mostly flattering) articles on Sinclair and his art. This is the best introduction to a little-known artist.

If you can obtain a copy, I recommend getting the second edition which is revised and expanded and contains an excellent bibliography-in-progress of Beiles' works in print.

Read the original post.

Raymond Foye writes about Who was Sinclair Beiles?

 

Burning the midnight oil with SINCLAIR BEILES, a wonderful poet who I always heard about, but knew very little about. A South African poet who lived at the Beat Hotel and was the editor of Naked Lunch + Samuel Beckett, at Olympia Press, followed by many years of mental illness which he often documented in his poems. Thanks to Gerard Bellaart for sending this book, full of essential information and many poems.

Originally posted on Facebook, 25 September, 2022.

Sinclair Beiles and the Beat Generation

 A new article about Sinclair Beiles has been published in New Frame, and Who was Sinclair Beiles?, which was published by Dye Hard Press, gets a mention.

The article starts: The 1950s were a tumultuous time for an Australian criminal and con artist called William Lindsay Pearson. An array of jewels was stolen from Brenthurst, the Johannesburg estate of the Oppenheimer family, founders of the Anglo American mining giant, in 1955. This treasure was, ultimately, derived from political connections to the apartheid state and the exploitation of Black workers.  ... more.

Sinclair Beiles and John Lennon

I had a dream recently that Sinclair Beiles had hooked up with John Lennon in London, in 1965, and together they had worked on some cut-up prose poems.

As Mike Hardaker has pointed out, such a meeting would not have been impossible.

And on the subject of music, Beiles once maintained that he had read poetry at a Grateful Dead concert at the Great Pyramids in Egypt. The Dead had indeed once played there, sometime in the 70s, but had Beiles shared the stage with them? Who knows ...

Wanna know more about Sinclair Beiles?

Then order Who was Sinclair Beiles? - email dyehardpress.comiafrica.com for details.

Who was Sinclair Beiles? at the Beat Hotel Revisited

Excerpts from Who was Sinclair Beiles? will be read by French actor Emmanuel Barrouyer at the Beat Hotel Revisited event in Paris on Friday, 3 November 2017. The event is organised by Tsunami Gang, Tsunami Books and Paris Surrealiste, and presented by Henrik Aeshna and Steve Dalachinsky.

Heathcote Williams, radical poet, playwright, actor, and friend of Sinclair Beiles, dies

Heathcote Williams, the radical poet, playwright, actor and polymathic English genius, has died at the age of 75. He had been ill for some time and died on Saturday in Oxford.

He was the author of many polemical poems, written over four decades in a unique documentary style. They included works about the devastation being wrought on the natural environment – Sacred Elephant, Whale Nation and Falling For a Dolphin – and Autogeddon, a grim and majestic attack on the car. Read more.

Heathcote Williams also contributed a chapter to the revised edition of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

Review of Who was Sinclair Beiles? by Dawn Swope

This little book grows and grows. It is a revised and expanded edition, the third edition in all. The book
first surfaced in 2009.

Little was known about Sinclair Beiles outside of his home country, South Africa. He got a name largely by being around Burroughs, Gysin, Ginsberg and Corso at the ‘Beat Hotel’ in Paris in the 1950s. There were photos of them all together. Beiles collaborated on the cult book Minutes To Go in 1960. There were conversations about books in the pipeline. Beiles worked at the Olympia Press, famous of course for Maurice Girodias and Junkie and other things.

Beiles never quite established his name in Europe and he struggled in his homeland also. His Ashes of
Experience won prizes but caused few ripples anywhere.

But he had a gift and a band of people did believe in him over the years. Gary Cummiskey for one, Fred de Vries, Carl Weissner, Heathcote Williams. They all befriended Beiles through Europe, Amsterdam, London, Greece, South Africa.

Beiles was hampered by his drug consumption, his personal issues. He was always on the cusp of something. He was a casualty of the literary world, a sometime Syd Barrett figure. A nearly man.

Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska have researched and then some more to strip away the layers of time and fog around Beiles. More understanding, photos, bibliographies, letters. Well done to them.

Published in Beat Scene no 80, December 2015

Sinclair Beiles: Poet of Many Parts and Places, by Jan Herman

Dye Hard Press has re-issued Who Was Sinclair Beiles? in a revised and expanded edition. I posted an item about the first edition when it was published five years ago. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed. As I wrote then, Beiles was best known for his association with the Beats. He collaborated on Minutes to Go with William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Gregory Corso, and helped to shepherd Burroughs’ manuscript of Naked Lunch into print at the Paris-based Olympia Press, where he worked as an editor. “Best known” is a questionable term, though. If he was known at all, it was only among a certain segment of avant-garde expatriate writers and artists living in Tangier, Paris, London, Rotterdam, Athens, and other far-flung places, where he spent many years scraping by in various capacities....Read more

Sinclair Beiles: a man apart by Josh Medsker

Sinclair Beiles was a South African writer associated with the Beat movement of the late 50s and early 60s. During the time of his earliest successes, he moved from South Africa to Paris, to live with the community of writers and artists, which included Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin, and William Burroughs, among others, at what would become known as The Beat Hotel. Yet, this “beat” tag could not contain him. He also spent the early 60s in Greece, working with the Greek artist Takis on multimedia works, all the while spooling out his own brand of surrealistic, enigmatic poetry. He floated around Europe in the decades that followed… coming back to his homeland in the 90s, settling down in the artists’ enclave of Yeoville, in Johannesburg. He continued to experiment restlessly, until his death in 2000. He is relatively unknown outside of Beat and South African literary circles. Hopefully this article will go a long way towards correcting that. More .

Out now: Who was Sinclair Beiles?, revised and expanded edition.

Available from Dye Hard Press at R150 per copy, including postage (South Africa only). Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com.  For overseas orders, price will vary according to increased postal rates - please enquire with publisher.

Due out January 2015: A revised and expanded edition of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

Coming soon: A revised and expanded edition of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

A revised and expanded edition of Who was Sinclair Beiles?, including new material by Heathcote Williams and Carl Weissner, with additional photographs of Sinclair from the 1970s by Gerard Bellaart. Due out November 2014.

Coming soon from Dye Hard Press: a revised and expanded edition of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

Michael Adamis - Sinclair Beiles: collaboration on Genesis

Sinclair Beiles: "(I wrote a) choral drama called Genesis, which I did with the Greek composer Micheal Adamis, which was originally performed at the Athens festival, which is the largest cultural festival in the world. The text was a cut-up which I used from a book on water, and after the cut-up, the text began to look like the story of a rise and fall of a civilisation. I wanted to have it performed here (in Johannesburg), but the arsehole I spoke to said no, because it was written in Greek. I objected, saying that it had been performed in Japan, to which he replied 'That’s different'.

(Sinclair Beiles interviewed by Gary Cummiskey, 1994, included in Who was Sinclair Beiles?, edited by Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska, Dye Hard Press, 2009). 

You can read more about Beiles's Genesis collaboration with Michael Adamis here

A review of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

Before I opened Dye Hard Press‘ new volume, its title, Who was Sinclair Beiles? was a question I certainly didn’t know the answer to. His is a name I’ve occasionally come across, as a poet who, as a resident of Paris’ famous “Beat Hotel,” created cut-ups with William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Gregory Corso, and helped to edit Naked Lunch and as a resident of the famed “Beat Hotel” in Paris. But there’s where my knowledge stopped.

Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska have brought together a collection of eleven essays and interviews which address the question, “Who Was Sinclair Beiles?” from multiple angles...Read more here

The Idiot’s Voice: More Dissidence from Cold Turkey

Leonard Cohen, who is not given to easy praise, has called Sinclair Beiles "one of the great poets of the century". Meaning the 20th century - they met back in the early 1960s on the Greek island of Hydra. Was Cohen being uncharacteristically hyperbolic? Well, William S Burroughs, also not given to easy praise, once  wrote: "The poetry of Sinclair Beiles is distinguished and long distilled; its unexpected striking images bring forth a flash of surprised recognition. The poems open slowly in your mind, like Japanese paper flowers in water." ...  Read more here

A photo by Xristos Aggelakopoulos

Sinclair Beiles in Beat Scene

Beat Scene No 64, features articles about Diane de Prima, William Everson, Jay Landesman, Anne Waldman, Janine Pommy Vega, Gary Snyder and William Burroughs, as well as a slightly shortened version of the eponymous chapter of Who Was Sinclair Beiles? by Gary Cummiskey, and more. Visit Beat Scene for details.

’n Roerende chaos

Indien jy wil weet hoe jy in die laaste dekade verander het, hoef jy net ’n boek of ’n gedig te lees waarvan jy tien jaar gelede gehou het. Só het ek agtergekom vele literêre helde het intussen saam met my jeugdige romantiek en boheemse versugtinge gesneuwel.


Onder hierdie dooie ikone tel die meeste skrywers van die Beat-generasie wat die wêreld- letterkunde in die 1950s onherroeplik verander en die deure afgeskop het vir die kontra-kulturele revolusie van die 1960s..Read more here