Mania

"Collins and Skover offer a vivid retelling...those in search of a good story and the raw, compelling 'feel' for the mindset and actions of the Beats will be rewarded....The madcap, savage world of the Beats is laid out in spades." -Publishers Weekly

"A balanced history-sometimes admiring, sometimes blistering-of the writers who fractured the glass capsule of literary conformity." -Kirkus Reviews

"Stunning, disturbing, and remarkably intimate....With MANIA, Collins and Skover provide readers with a rare close-up of the lives, the loves, the trials, and the tribulations of a handful of rebels who forged new cultural ground. It is likely this book will help assure that the key figures of the Beat Generation will not soon be forgotten." -Foreword Reviews

"MANIA is a stunning and chilling portrait of rebellious youth gone mad. The story descends into a netherworld of heroes and antiheroes, killers and creators, junkies and geniuses. Collins and Skover, through a thrilling narrative and unprecedented research, reveal how a misfit band of brothers, dreamers, and vagabonds broke old ties, abandoned families, and lived by their own rules to concoct an ecstatic and uninhibited vision of literary modernism. From the macabre killing that opens the book to the grand free speech victory at its climax, MANIA is both a celebratory and cautionary tale of American revolt. A remarkable achievement!" -James L. Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of Bloody Crimes and Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

"Ron Collins and David M. Skover's MANIA is the Outlaw Manifesto of the Cold War era. Wild-eyed and high-octane capers by Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg are told here with vivid freshness. Kick out the doorjambs and read the rollick. A fine rollercoaster of a literary ride." -Douglas Brinkley, bestselling author and editor of Jack Kerouac: Windblown World and Kerouac: Road Novels, 1957-1960