RIP Lucien Carr - journalist and key beat figure
Newsman Lucien Carr Dies at 79
By Martin WeilWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, January 29, 2005; Page B05
"Lucien Carr, 79, who was a friend of the Beat Generation writers since their college days and who spent decades as a mainstay of one of the major news wire services, died Jan. 28 at George Washington University Hospital.
Mr. Carr, who lived in Washington and was retired after 47 years at United Press International, had cancer, according to his longtime companion, Kathleen Silvassy.
Accounts of the founding of the Beat Generation often credit Mr. Carr with bringing together such celebrated figures of the movement as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. "


Carr is the reason the three main writers of the Beat movement - Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg were aware of each other. Without his relatively minor action of introducing the three, there would have been no Beat Generation. And his news career is nothing to sneeze at either. Now if certain of my friends, relations and assorted former schoolmates would just go out and publish, compose and record some classic art - It doesn't have to be on par with HOWL or On The Road - I could have a cool obit someday soon.