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e-List #47
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ELLIS, Royston. Original typescript of an essay titled “The Leaping Years”. 13” x 8”, 11 pages (plus cover page) typed on recto only, with corrections likely in Ellis's hand (almost entirely corrections of typos, the occasional addition or deletion). The last page bears the notation “Given to me by Royston Ellis 1960 John Rolph (Scorpion Press)”—Scorpion published Royston's first two books, Jiving to Gyp (1959) and Rave (1960). Evidence of paperclip, light foxing to first three pages, else near fine. “
Royston Ellis, British writer, biographer and writer. As a poet he is considered to be the “main British representative of the Beat Generation. England's answer to Allen Ginsberg.” Born in 1941, he left school at 16 and at age 18 he began to publish poetry, with Living to Gyp in 1959 and Rave in 1960. “Heavily influenced by the American Beat poets such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg”, he performed sequences of poems on stage accompanied by rock music; calling this mix “rocketry.” During these performances he was backed by then unknown musicians such as Jimmy Page and The Beatles (in fact it was Ellis that convinced the band to switch their name from The Beetles). He left England in the early 1960s, travelling extensively—“Berlin, Moscow, The Canary Islands...” While in Guernsey in 1963 he once again met The Beatles and inspired two of their songs, Paperback Writer and Polythene Pam. He continued to publish poetry and travel, eventually settling in Sri Lanka.
In 1960 Ellis caused a nationwide controversy with remarks he made about the “teenage lifestyle” on the television programme Living For Kicks. It is possible this piece had its origins with that incident, but as far as we have been able to determine this piece about the newly-minted “teenager” is unpublished. “It's a hard time for us kids then. One minute life is a giggle, the next minute a drag… For some reason the term ‘teenager', like ‘Teddy Boy', has become a dirty word. No adult seems aware that the Teddy Boy is now an old man well into his twenties…” He muses on the American beats, “…an intellectual (pseudo or otherwise) who seems to represent the very soul of the American West Coast. He makes his own rules, and he certainly doesn't care for the synthetic way of living” and thoroughly describes their British “cousins”, the beatniks. “The teenage world, like any other really, is full of phonies, fish and fornicators.” He writes of “bundles” (fights) in cafes, working life, dancing, and (at length) sex. This is an infinitely -quotable, charmingly sincere piece on what it means to be a British teenager in 1960.
$1,500.00
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