John Montgomery
John Montgomery was an influential yet largely underrecognized figure in the Beat Generation, born on May 2, 1919, in Spokane, Washington. He is noted for his extensive creative output, particularly as a poet and chronicler of Beat culture, and served as the inspiration for characters in Jack Kerouac's novels, such as Henry Morley in "Dharma Bums" and Alex Fairbrother in "Desolation Angels." Montgomery's personal life remains enigmatic; he was highly reclusive and seldom engaged in interviews, making his individual history difficult to piece together.
Throughout his academic career, he attained multiple degrees, including a B.S. in Economics and a master's in library science, yet he identified as an autodidact fluent in several languages. In addition to his poetry, Montgomery wrote articles clarifying misconceptions about the Beat Movement, positioning it within the broader context of American subcultures. His poetic style, infused with humor and cultural references, remains lesser-known, as he preferred to avoid systematic publication and only submitted work when requested. Despite winning the Alfred Longueil Poetry Prize in 1969, he maintained a low profile regarding his achievements. His memoir contributions concerning significant literary figures of the time have garnered interest from scholars and historians seeking insight into the Beat Generation.
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John Montgomery
Nonfiction Writer and Poet
- Born: May 2, 1919
- Birthplace: Spokane, Washington
- Died: June 5, 1992
Biography
Born in Spokane, Washington, on May 2, 1919, Beat writer and poet John Montgomery produced an extensive creative output but was largely unknown. He was best known as a chronicler of the Beat Generation and as the real-life basis for characters in several Kerouac novels, including Henry Morley in Dharma Bums and Alex Fairbrother in Desolation Angels. Kerouac noted in personal correspondace as well his fascination with Montgomery, who was eccentric and querulous. However, Montgomery was a talented poet in his own right.
Montgomery was highly reclusive. Beyond the sketches Kerouac penned describing him, he was rarely written about and was very closed off in interviews. Little is known of his personal history. He grew up in Idaho, and lived in Oregon and California as a child; he attended the University of California at Berkeley and received a B.S. in Economics in 1940. He served a tour of duty in the army during World War II. Between the early sixties and 1970, he received a master’s in library science from the Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee, an additional M.A. from San Francisco State College, and a certificate to teach foreign language from the University of California, Los Angeles. In spite of this extensive academic training, he considered himself an autodidact, fluent in several self-taught languages including several romance languages and “hip and jive.”
During the 1950’s, Montgomery wrote articles about the Beat Movement in an effort to clear up popular confusion about the movement’s ideals. Montgomery situated Beat culture in the tradition of American subcultures and attempted to defuse some of the powerfully emotional opposition to Beat subculture by historicizing it. It is for this journalistic insight into the Beat culture that Montgomery is best known; however, his poetry is also quite distinctive, particularly for its humor and its display of linguistic prowess.
Montgomery used frequent references to popular culture in his poems, including occasional mentions of the jazz so trendy with other Beat writers. Although Montgomery’s direct mentions of jazz appear to be mostly passing references, scholars frequently find the jazz idiom present in the meter and style of Montgomery’s prose, although Montgomery himself did not profess interest in the idiom.
Although Montgomery’s verse was well respected, he ded not attempt systematically to publish it and only sent it to journals when the editors requested it. Consequently, his verse is uncollected and difficult to find, scattered throughout myriad literary magazines, and unfamiliar to most readers. In establishing this habit against publication, Montgomery drew on the philosophy of another minor Beat, Gary Snyder, who felt that to make poetry a career corrupted the poetry and demeaned the writer. Montgomery won the Alfred Longueil Poetry Prize in 1969, but did not even ask the committee for which poem the prize had been awarded.
An exception to Montgomery’s practice of not formally publishing his work was the memoir of Kerouac published shortly after Kerouac’s death in 1969. Montgomery’s recollections of significant mid-century figures such as Allen Ginsberg, appearing primarily in the Kerouac memoir and in the 1976 booklet Kerouac West Coast, are of great interest to literary and cultural historians.