The Rough Guide To Cult Fiction, is billed as a guide to over 200 cult authors including genre benders, beats, gurus, drunks, junkies, sinners, and surrealists. According to the editor, in the entry for Herbert Huncke the book discusses how he spent his last years in the Chelsea financially supported by the Grateful Dead. Photo: Huncke in his room at the Chelsea © Laki Vazakas
Other Chelsea authors who made the Cult Book:
Charles Bukowski -- Stayed in 1010, Janis Joplin's room, when he came to town to read at St. Mark's on the Bowery.
Arthur C. Clarke -- On Sept. 29, 2004, a new plaque was added to the front of the Hotel Chelsea, to commemorate that Clarke wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey,” while living in room 1008 at the hotel.
Leonard Cohen -- Do I really need to spell out what went down with Leonard & Janis?
Allen Ginsberg -- In 1973, Ginsberg recorded songs & poems on a Wallensack tape recorder in Harry Smith's room on the Third floor. Many of these were later released by the Smithsonian Institution on the Folkways label.
Brion Gysin -- Took a few hits of acid with his pal John Giorino in room 703 and they both lived to tell about it.
The Cult Guide also covers Sarah Bernhardt's little known fictional efforts. Perhaps the next time, they'll include the famous picture of her asleep in a coffin in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel. Source: Turn West on 23rd: A Toast to New York's Old Chelsea.
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