The Beat Generation was a literary

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...

era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by

Silent Generation The Silent Generation, also known as the Traditionalist Generation, is the Western demographic cohort following the Greatest Generation and preceding the Baby Boomers. The Silent Generation is generally defined as people born from 1928 to 1945. ...

ers in the

1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...

, better known as

Beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. History In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the undergr ...

s. The central elements of Beat culture are the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with

psychedelic drug Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science o ...

s, and sexual liberation and exploration. Allen Ginsberg's ''

Howl Howl most often refers to: *Howling, an animal vocalization in many canine species *Howl (poem), a 1956 poem by Allen Ginsberg Howl may also refer to: Film * ''The Howl'', a 1970 Italian film * ''Howl'' (2010 film), a 2010 American arthouse b ...

'' (1956), William S. Burroughs' '' Naked Lunch'' (1959), and

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

's ''

On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonis ...

'' (1957) are among the best known examples of Beat literature.Charters (1992) ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Both ''Howl'' and ''Naked Lunch'' were the focus of

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...

trials that ultimately helped to liberalize publishing in the United States.Ann Charters, ''introduction'', to ''Beat Down to Your Soul'', Penguin Books (2001) p. xix " ..the conclusion of the obscenity trial in San Francisco against Lawrence Ferlinghetti for publishing Ginsberg's ''Howl and Other Poems'' ..in which Judge

Clayton W. Horn Clayton may refer to: People *Clayton (name) *Clayton baronets *The Clayton Brothers, Jeff and John, jazz musicians *Clayton Brothers, Rob and Christian, painter artists *Justice Clayton (disambiguation), the judges Clayton Places Canada * Clayt ...

concluded for the defendant that 'Howl' had what he called 'redeeming social content.'", p. xxxiii "After the successful ''Howl'' trial, outspoken and subversive literary magazines sprung up like wild mushrooms throughout the United States."Ted Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'', New York: Avon, 1988. p. 347, trade paper edition : "The ruling on ''Naked Lunch'' in effect marked the end of literary censorship in the United States." The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity. The core group of Beat Generation authors— Herbert Huncke, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Lucien Carr, and Kerouac—met in 1944 in and around the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

campus in New York City. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures, with the exception of Burroughs and Carr, ended up together in San Francisco, where they met and became friends of figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. In the 1950s, a

subculture formed around the literary movement, although this was often viewed critically by major authors of the Beat movement. In the 1960s, elements of the expanding Beat movement were incorporated into the

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

and larger counterculture movements.

Neal Cassady Neal Leon Cassady (February 8, 1926 – February 4, 1968) was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s. He was prominently featured as himself in the "scroll" (first d ...

, as the driver for Ken Kesey's bus '' Furthur'', was the primary bridge between these two generations. Ginsberg's work also became an integral element of early 1960s hippie culture, in which he actively participated. The

culture was practiced primarily by older members of the following generation.

Origin of name

Although Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York, fellow poet Herbert Huncke is credited with first using the word "beat". The name arose in a conversation with writer

John Clellon Holmes John Clellon Holmes (March 12, 1926, Holyoke, Massachusetts – March 30, 1988, Middletown, Connecticut) was an American author, poet and professor, best known for his 1952 novel '' Go''. Considered the first " Beat" novel, ''Go'' depicted even ...

. Kerouac allows that it was Huncke, a street hustler, who originally used the phrase "beat", in an earlier discussion with him. The adjective "beat" could colloquially mean "tired" or "beaten down" within the African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image "beat to his socks", but Kerouac appropriated the image and altered the meaning to include the connotations "upbeat", "beatific", and the musical association of being "on the beat", and "the Beat to keep" from the ''Beat Generation'' poem.

Significant places

Columbia University

The origins of the Beat Generation can be traced to

and the meeting of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Carr, Hal Chase and others. Kerouac attended Columbia on a football scholarship. Though the beats are usually regarded as anti-academic, many of their ideas were formed in response to professors like

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

and Mark Van Doren. Classmates Carr and Ginsberg discussed the need for a "New Vision" (a term borrowed from W. B. Yeats), to counteract what they perceived as their teachers' conservative, formalistic literary ideals.

Times Square "underworld"

Ginsberg was arrested in 1949. The police attempted to stop Ginsberg while he was driving with Huncke, his car filled with stolen items that Huncke planned to fence. Ginsberg crashed the car while trying to flee and escaped on foot, but left incriminating notebooks behind. He was given the option to plead insanity to avoid a jail term, and was committed for 90 days to Bellevue Hospital, where he met Carl Solomon. Solomon was arguably more eccentric than psychotic. A fan of

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

, he indulged in self-consciously "crazy" behavior, like throwing potato salad at a college lecturer on Dadaism. Solomon was given shock treatments at Bellevue; this became one of the main themes of Ginsberg's "Howl", which was dedicated to Solomon. Solomon later became the publishing contact who agreed to publish Burroughs' first novel, ''

Junkie Junkie is a pejorative usually referring to a person with an addiction. Entertainment and media * ''Junkie'' (novel), a novel by William S. Burroughs * "Junkie" (song), 2013 song by Medina featuring Svenstrup & Vendelboe * ''The Junkies'', a ...

'', in 1953.

Greenwich Village

Beat writers and artists flocked to Greenwich Village in New York City in the late 1950s because of low rent and the "small town" element of the scene. Folksongs, readings and discussions often took place in Washington Square Park. Allen Ginsberg was a big part of the scene in the Village, as was Burroughs, who lived at 69 Bedford Street.Beard and Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village''. "The Beat Generation in the Village." 165–198. Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and other poets frequented many bars in the area, including the San Remo Cafe at 93 MacDougal Street on the northwest corner of Bleecker, Chumley's, and Minetta Tavern. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and other abstract expressionists were also frequent visitors of and collaborators with the Beats. Cultural critics have written about the transition of Beat culture in the Village into the Bohemian hippie culture of the 1960s. In 1960, a presidential election year, the Beats formed a political party, the "Beat Party," and held a mock nominating convention to announce a presidential candidate: the African-American street poet

Big Brown Big Brown may refer to: * Big Brown (horse), an American thoroughbred racehorse * Big brown bat, an North American bat * Big Brown, a nickname for the delivery company United Parcel Service * Big Brown Box, an Australian online retailer *Big Brown ...

, won a majority of votes on the first ballot but fell short of the eventual nomination. The Associated Press reported, "Big Brown's lead startled the convention. Big, as the husky African American is called by his friends, wasn't the favorite son of any delegation, but he had one tactic that apparently earned him votes. In a chatterbox convention, only once did he speak at length, and that was to read his poetry."

San Francisco and the Six Gallery reading

Ginsberg had visited Neal and Carolyn Cassady in San Jose, California in 1954 and moved to San Francisco in August. He fell in love with Peter Orlovsky at the end of 1954 and began writing ''Howl''. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, of the new City Lights Bookstore, started to publish the City Lights Pocket Poets Series in 1955.

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider h ...

's apartment became a Friday night literary salon (Ginsberg's mentor William Carlos Williams, an old friend of Rexroth, had given him an introductory letter). When asked by Wally Hedrick to organize the Six Gallery reading, Ginsberg wanted Rexroth to serve as master of ceremonies, in a sense to bridge generations. Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, Ginsberg and

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

read on October 7, 1955, before 100 people (including Kerouac, up from Mexico City). Lamantia read poems of his late friend John Hoffman. At his first public reading Ginsberg performed the just finished first part of ''Howl''. It was a success and the evening led to many more readings by the now locally famous Six Gallery poets. It was also a marker of the beginning of the Beat movement, since the 1956 publication of ''Howl'' (''City Lights Pocket Poets'', no. 4) and its obscenity trial in 1957 brought it to nationwide attention. The Six Gallery reading informs the second chapter of Kerouac's 1958 novel '' The Dharma Bums,'' whose chief protagonist is "Japhy Ryder", a character who is actually based on Gary Snyder. Kerouac was impressed with Snyder and they were close for a number of years. In the spring of 1955 they lived together in Snyder's cabin in

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

. Most Beats were urbanites and they found Snyder almost exotic, with his rural background and wilderness experience, as well as his education in

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

and Oriental languages. Lawrence Ferlinghetti called him "the Thoreau of the Beat Generation." As documented in the conclusion of ''The Dharma Bums'', Snyder moved to Japan in 1955, in large measure in order to intensively practice and study Zen Buddhism. He would spend most of the next 10 years there.

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

is one of the primary subjects of ''The Dharma Bums'', and the book undoubtedly helped to popularize Buddhism in the West and remains one of Kerouac's most widely read books.

Pacific Northwest

The Beats also spent time in the Northern Pacific Northwest including Washington and Oregon. Kerouac wrote about sojourns to Washington's North Cascades in ''The Dharma Bums'' and ''On the Road''. Reed College in Portland, Oregon was also a locale for some of the Beat poets. Gary Snyder studied anthropology there, Philip Whalen attended Reed, and Allen Ginsberg held multiple readings on the campus around 1955 and 1956.

and Philip Whalen were students in Reed's calligraphy class taught by

Lloyd J. Reynolds Lloyd J. Reynolds (1902–1978) was an American calligrapher and professor at Reed College (1929–1969) who taught classes on creative writing, art, and calligraphy. Lloyd Reynolds was born in 1902 in Bemidji, Minnesota. He received a BA in Bota ...

Significant figures

Burroughs was introduced to the group by David Kammerer. Carr had befriended Ginsberg and introduced him to Kammerer and Burroughs. Carr also knew Kerouac's girlfriend

Edie Parker Edie Kerouac-Parker (September 20, 1922 – October 29, 1993) was the author of the memoir ''You'll Be Okay'', about her life with her first husband, Jack Kerouac, and the early days of the Beat Generation. While an art student under George G ...

, through whom Burroughs met Kerouac in 1944. On August 13, 1944, Carr killed Kammerer with a Boy Scout knife in Riverside Park in what he claimed later was self-defense. He waited, then dumped the body in the Hudson River, later seeking advice from Burroughs, who suggested he turn himself in. He then went to Kerouac, who helped him dispose of the weapon. Carr turned himself in the following morning and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Kerouac was charged as an accessory, and Burroughs as a material witness, but neither were prosecuted. Kerouac wrote about this incident twice in his own works: once in his first novel, '' The Town and the City'', and again in one of his last, '' Vanity of Duluoz''. He wrote a collaboration novel with Burroughs, ''

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks ''And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'' is a novel by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. It was written in 1945, a full decade before the two authors became famous as leading figures of the Beat Generation, and remained unpublished in co ...

'', concerning the murder.

Participants

Women

Beat Generation women who have been published include Edie Parker; Joyce Johnson; Carolyn Cassady; Hettie Jones;

Joanne Kyger Joanne Kyger (November 19, 1934 – March 22, 2017) was an American poet. The author of over 30 books of poetry and prose, Kyger was associated with the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beat Generation, Black Mountain, and the New Y ...

; Harriet Sohmers Zwerling;

Diane DiPrima Diane di Prima (August 6, 1934October 25, 2020) was an American poet, known for her association with the Beat movement. She was also an artist, prose writer, and teacher. Her magnum opus is widely considered to be ''Loba'', a collection of poem ...

; and Ruth Weiss, who also made films. Carolyn Cassady wrote her own detailed account about life with husband Neal Cassady which also included details about her affair with Jack Kerouac. She titled it '' Off the Road'', and it was published in 1990. Poet

Elise Cowen Elise Nada Cowen (July 31, 1933 – February 27, 1962) was an American poet. She was part of the Beat generation, and was close to Allen Ginsberg, one of the movement's leading figures. Background Born to a middle-class Jewish family in Washi ...

took her own life in 1963. Poet Anne Waldman was less influenced by the Beats than by Allen Ginsberg's later turn to

. Later, female poets emerged who claimed to be strongly influenced by the Beats, including Janine Pommy Vega in the 1960s, Patti Smith in the 1970s, and

Hedwig Gorski Hedwig Irene Gorski (born July 18, 1949) is an American performance poet and an avant-garde artist who labels her aesthetic as "American futurism." The term "performance poetry," a precursor to slam poetry, is attributed to her. It originated ...

in the 1980s.

African Americans

Although African Americans were not widely represented in the Beat Generation, the presence of some black writers in this movement did contribute to the movement's progression. While many of the Beats briefly discussed issues of race and sexuality, they spoke from their own perspectives—most being white. However, black people added a counterbalance to this; their work supplied readers with alternative views of occurrences in the world. Beats like the poet Robert "Bob" Kaufman and the writer LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) provide through their work distinctly Black perspectives on the movement. Kaufman wrote about a number of his experiences with the racist institutions of the time. Following his time in the military, he had trouble with police officers and the criminal justice system. Like many of the Beats, Kaufman was also a fan of

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

and incorporated it into his work to describe relationships with others. LeRoi Jones (

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

) married Beat writer, Hettie Cohen, who became Hettie Jones, in 1958. They worked together with Diane di Prima, to develop ''

Yūgen Japanese aesthetics comprise a set of ancient ideals that include '' wabi'' (transient and stark beauty), '' sabi'' (the beauty of natural patina and aging), and '' yūgen'' (profound grace and subtlety). These ideals, and others, underpin much o ...

'' magazine. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were associated with a number of Beats (

, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso). That is, until the assassination of the Civil Rights leader, Malcolm X. During this time, LeRoi Jones branched off from the other Beat writers, including his wife, to find his identity among the African-American and Islamic communities. The change in his social setting along with awakening influenced his writing and brought about the development of many of his most notable works, like ''Somebody Blew Up America'', in which he reflected on the

attacks of 9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

and America's reaction to this incident in relation to other occurrences in America.

Culture and influences

Sexuality

One of the key beliefs and practices of the Beat Generation was free love and sexual liberation, which strayed from the Christian ideals of American culture at the time. Some Beat writers were openly gay or bisexual, including two of the most prominent (Ginsberg and Burroughs). However, the first novel does show Cassady as frankly promiscuous. Kerouac's novels feature an interracial love affair ('' The Subterraneans''), and group sex ('' The Dharma Bums''). The relationships among men in Kerouac's novels are predominately homosocial.

Drug use

The original members of the Beat Generation used a number of different drugs, including alcohol,

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

, benzedrine, morphine, and later

s such as

peyote The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. ''Peyote'' is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to gl ...

, Ayahuasca, and LSD. They often approached drugs experimentally, initially being unfamiliar with their effects. Their drug use was broadly inspired by intellectual interest, and many Beat writers thought that their drug experiences enhanced creativity, insight, or productivity. The use of drugs was a key influence on many of the social events of the time that were personal to the Beat generation.

Romanticism

Gregory Corso considered English Romantic poet

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

a hero, and he was buried at the foot of Shelley's grave in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome. Ginsberg mentions Shelley's poem ''

Adonais ''Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc.'' () is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley for John Keats in 1821, and widely regarded as one of Shelley's best and best-known works.Kaddish,'' and cites it as a major influence on the composition of one of his most important poems. Michael McClure compared Ginsberg's ''

'' to Shelley's breakthrough poem '' Queen Mab.'' Ginsberg's main Romantic influence was William Blake, and studied him throughout his life. Blake was the subject of Ginsberg's self-defining auditory hallucination and revelation in 1948. Romantic poet

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

was also cited as an influence.

Jazz

Writers of the Beat Generation were heavily influenced by

artists like Billie Holiday and the stories told through Jazz music. Writers like

(''On the Road''), Bob Kaufman ("Round About Midnight," "Jazz Chick," and "O-Jazz-O"), and Frank O'Hara ("The Day Lady Died") incorporated the emotions they felt toward Jazz. They used their pieces to discuss feelings, people, and objects they associate with Jazz music, as well as life experiences that reminded them of this style of music. Kaufman's pieces listed above "were intended to be freely improvisational when read with Jazz accompaniment" (Charters 327). He and other writers found inspiration in this genre and allowed it to help fuel the Beat movement.

Early American sources

The Beats were inspired by early American figures such as

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book '' Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and ...

, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville and especially Walt Whitman, who is addressed as the subject of one of Ginsberg's most famous poems, ''

A Supermarket in California "A Supermarket in California" is a poem by American poet Allen Ginsberg first published in ''Howl and Other Poems'' in 1956. In the poem, the narrator visits a supermarket in California and imagines finding Federico García Lorca and Walt Whitman ...

''.

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

was occasionally acknowledged, and Ginsberg saw Emily Dickinson as having an influence on Beat poetry. The 1926 novel '' You Can't Win'' by outlaw author

Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), ''Shallow Hal'' (2001), ''Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ''E ...

was cited as having a strong influence on Burroughs.

French surrealism

In many ways,

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

was still considered a vital movement in the 1950s. Carl Solomon introduced the work of French author

to Ginsberg, and the poetry of

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

had direct influence on Ginsberg's poem '' Kaddish.'' Rexroth, Ferlinghetti,

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

and

Ron Padgett Ron Padgett (born June 17, 1942, Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. ''Great Balls of Fire'', Padgett's first full-length collection of poems, was published in 1969. He ...

translated French poetry. Second-generation Beat

Ted Joans Theodore Joans (July 4, 1928 – April 25, 2003) was an American jazz poet, surrealist, trumpeter, and painter, who from the 1960s spent periods of time travelling in Europe and Africa. His work stands at the intersection of several avant-gar ...

was named "the only Afro-American Surrealist" by Breton. Philip Lamantia introduced Surrealist poetry to the original Beats. The poetry of Gregory Corso and Bob Kaufman shows the influence of Surrealist poetry with its dream-like images and its random juxtaposition of dissociated images, and this influence can also be seen in more subtle ways in Ginsberg's poetry. As the legend goes, when meeting French Surrealist Marcel Duchamp, Ginsberg kissed his shoe and Corso cut off his tie.Miles (2001) ''Ginsberg''. Other influential French poets for the Beats were Guillaume Apollinaire, Arthur Rimbaud and

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

Modernism

Gertrude Stein was the subject of a book-length study by Lew Welch. Admitted influences for Kerouac include

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe.

Buddhism and Daoism

Gary Snyder defined wild as "whose order has grown from within and is maintained by the force of consensus and custom rather than explicit legislation". "The wild is not brute savagery, but a healthy balance, a self-regulating system.". Snyder attributed wild to

and Daoism, the interests of some Beats. "Snyder's synthesis uses Buddhist thought to encourage American social activism, relying on both the concept of impermanence and the classically American imperative toward freedom."

Topics

While many authors claim to be directly influenced by the Beats, the Beat Generation phenomenon itself has had an influence on American culture leading more broadly to the hippie movements of the 1960s. In 1982, Ginsberg published a summary of "the essential effects" of the Beat Generation:

* Spiritual liberation, sexual "revolution" or "liberation," i.e., gay liberation, somewhat catalyzing women's liberation, black liberation, Gray Panther activism. * Liberation of the world from censorship. * Demystification and/or decriminalization of cannabis and other drugs. * The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll as a high art form, as evidenced by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and other popular musicians influenced in the later fifties and sixties by Beat generation poets' and writers' works. * The spread of ecological consciousness, emphasized early by
Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...
and Michael McClure, the notion of a "Fresh Planet." * Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization, as emphasized in writings of Burroughs, Huncke, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. * Attention to what Kerouac called (after Oswald Spengler, Spengler) a "second religiousness" developing within an advanced civilization. * Return to an appreciation of idiosyncrasy vs. state regimentation. * Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures, as proclaimed by Kerouac in his slogan from ''On the Road'': "The Earth is an Indian thing."

"Beatniks"

The term "

" was coined by Herb Caen of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' on April 2, 1958, blending the name of the recent Russian satellite Sputnik and Beat Generation. This suggested that beatniks were (1) "far out of the mainstream of society" and (2) "possibly pro-Communist." Caen's term stuck and became the popular label associated with a new stereotype—the man with a goatee and beret reciting nonsensical poetry and playing bongo drums while wikt:free spirit, free-spirited women wearing black leotards dance. An early example of the "beatnik stereotype" occurred in Vesuvio Cafe, Vesuvio's (a bar in North Beach, San Francisco, North Beach, San Francisco) which employed the artist Wally Hedrick to sit in the window dressed in full beard, turtleneck, and sandals, creating improvisational drawings and paintings. By 1958 tourists who came to San Francisco could take bus tours to view the North Beach Beat scene, prophetically anticipating similar tours of the Haight-Ashbury district ten years later. A variety of other small businesses also sprang up exploiting (and/or satirizing) the new craze. In 1959, Fred McDarrah started a "Rent-a-Beatnik" service in New York, taking out ads in ''The Village Voice'' and sending

and friends out on calls to read poetry. "Beatniks" appeared in many cartoons, movies, and TV shows of the time, perhaps the most famous being the character Maynard G. Krebs in ''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' (1959–1963). While some of the original Beats embraced the beatniks, or at least found the parodies humorous (Ginsberg, for example, appreciated the parody in the comic strip ''Pogo (comic strip), Pogo'') others criticized the beatniks as inauthentic poseurs.

feared that the spiritual aspect of his message had been lost and that many were using the Beat Generation as an excuse to be senselessly wild.

"Hippies"

During the 1960s, aspects of the Beat movement metamorphosed into the counterculture of the 1960s, accompanied by a shift in terminology from "beatnik" to "hippie". Many of the original Beats remained active participants, notably Allen Ginsberg, who became a fixture of the anti-war movement. Notably, however, Jack Kerouac broke with Ginsberg and criticized the 1960s politically radical protest movements as an excuse to be "spiteful". There were stylistic differences between beatniks and hippies—somber colors, dark sunglasses, and goatees gave way to colorful psychedelic clothing and long hair. The Beats were known for "playing it cool" (keeping a low profile). Beyond style, there were changes in substance: The Beats tended to be essentially apolitical, but the hippies became actively engaged with the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement.

Literary legacy

Among the emerging novelists of the 1960s and 1970s, a few were closely connected with Beat writers, most notably Ken Kesey (''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest''). Though they had no direct connection, other writers considered the Beats to be a major influence, including Thomas Pynchon (''Gravity's Rainbow'') and Tom Robbins (''Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (novel), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues''). William S. Burroughs is considered a forefather of postmodern literature; he also inspired the cyberpunk genre. One-time Beat writer Amiri Baraka, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka helped initiate the Black Arts movement. As there was focus on live performance among the Beats, many poetry slam, Slam poets have claimed to be influenced by the Beats. Saul Williams, for example, cites Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Bob Kaufman as major influences. The Postbeat Poets are direct descendants of the Beat Generation. Their association with or tutelage under Ginsberg at The Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and later at Brooklyn College stressed the social-activist legacy of the Beats and created its own body of literature. Known authors are Anne Waldman, Antler (poet), Antler, Andy Clausen, David Cope, Eileen Myles, Eliot Katz, Paul Beatty, Sapphire (author), Sapphire, Lesléa Newman, Jim Cohn, Thomas R. Peters, Jr. (poet and owner of beat book shop), Sharon Mesmer, Randy Roark, Josh Smith, David Evans.

Rock and pop music

The Beats had a pervasive influence on rock and roll and popular music, including the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison. The Beatles spelled their name with an "a" partly as a Beat Generation reference, and John Lennon was a fan of Jack Kerouac. The Beatles even put Beat writer William S. Burroughs on the cover of their album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.'' Ginsberg later met and became friends of members of the Beatles, and Paul McCartney played the drums, guitar, Hammond organ, and maracas on Ginsberg's album ''Ballad of the Skeletons.'' Ginsberg was a close friend of Bob Dylan and toured with him on the Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. Dylan cites Ginsberg and Kerouac as major influences. Jim Morrison cites Kerouac as one of his biggest influences, and fellow The Doors, Doors member Ray Manzarek has said "We wanted to ''be'' beatniks." In his book ''Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors'', Manzarek also writes "I suppose if Jack Kerouac had never written ''On the Road'', The Doors would never have existed." Michael McClure was also a friend of members of The Doors, at one point touring with Manzarek. Ginsberg was a friend of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, a group of which

was a member, which also included members of the Grateful Dead. In the 1970s, Burroughs was a friend of Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, David Bowie, and Patti Smith. The musical group Steely Dan is named after a steam-powered dildo in Burroughs' '' Naked Lunch''. British progressive rock band Soft Machine is named after Burroughs' novel ''The Soft Machine''. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits, a Beat fan, wrote "Jack and Neal" about Kerouac and Cassady, and recorded "On the Road" (a song written by Kerouac after finishing the novel) with Primus (band), Primus. He later collaborated with Burroughs on the theatrical work ''The Black Rider''. Jazz musician/film composer Robert Kraft (composer), Robert Kraft (not to be confused with NFL Team owner Robert Kraft) wrote and released a contemporary homage to Jack Kerouac and Beat Generation aesthetics entitled "Beat Generation" on the 1988 album ''Quake City''. Musician Mark Sandman, who was the bass guitarist, lead vocalist and a former member of the alternative jazz rock band Morphine (band), Morphine, was interested in the Beat Generation and wrote a song called "Kerouac" as a tribute to

and his personal philosophy and way of life. The band Aztec Two-Step recorded "The Persecution & Restoration of Dean Moriarty (On the Road)" in 1972. There was a resurgence of interest in the beats among bands in the 1980s. Ginsberg worked with the Clash and Burroughs worked with Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Kurt Cobain, and Ministry (band), Ministry, among others. Bono of U2 cites Burroughs as a major influence, and Burroughs appeared briefly in a U2 video in 1997. Post-punk band Joy Division named a song "Interzone" after a collection of stories by Burroughs. Laurie Anderson featured Burroughs on her 1984 album ''Mister Heartbreak'' and in her 1986 concert film, ''Home of the Brave (1986 film), Home of the Brave.'' The band King Crimson produced the album ''Beat (King Crimson album), Beat'' inspired by the Beat Generation. More recently, American artist Lana Del Rey references the Beat movement and Beat poetry in her 2014 song "Brooklyn Baby". In 2021, rapper Milo (musician), R.A.P. Ferreria released the album ''Bob's Son: R.A.P. Ferreira in the Garden Level Cafe of the Scallops Hotel'', named for Bob Kaufman and containing many references to the work of Kaufman, Jack Kerouac, Amiri Baraka, and other beat poets.

Criticism

The Beat Generation was met with scrutiny and assigned many stereotypes. Several magazines, including ''Life (magazine), Life'' and ''Playboy,'' depicted members of the Beat Generation as Nihilism, nihilists and as unintellectual. This criticism was largely due to the ideological differences between American culture at the time and the Beat Generation, including their Buddhist-inspired beliefs. Norman Podhoretz, a student at Columbia with Kerouac and Ginsberg, later became a critic of the Beats. His 1958 ''Partisan Review'' article "The Know-Nothing Bohemians" was a vehement critique primarily of Kerouac's ''On the Road'' and ''The Subterraneans,'' as well as Ginsberg's ''Howl''. His central criticism is that the Beat embrace of spontaneity is bound up in an anti-intellectual worship of the "primitive" that can easily turn toward mindlessness and violence. Podhoretz asserted that there was a link between the Beats and criminal delinquents. Ginsberg responded in a 1958 interview with ''The Village Voice'', specifically addressing the charge that the Beats destroyed "the distinction between life and literature". In the interview, he stated that "the bit about anti-intellectualism is a piece of vanity, we had the same education, went to the same school, you know there are 'Intellectuals' and there are intellectuals. Podhoretz is just out of touch with twentieth-century literature, he's writing for the eighteenth-century mind. We have a personal literature now—Marcel Proust, Proust, Thomas Wolfe, Wolfe, William Faulkner, Faulkner, James Joyce, Joyce."

Internal criticism

In a 1974 interview,Knight, Arthur Winfield. Ed. ''The Beat Vision'' (1987), Paragon House. ; (pbk).

comments on the subject of "casualties" of the Beat Generation:Charters (2001) ''Beat Down to Your Soul''.

Kerouac was a casualty too. And there were many other casualties that most people have never heard of, but were genuine casualties. Just as, in the 60s, when Allen and I for a period there were almost publicly recommending people to take acid. When I look back on that now I realize there were many casualties, responsibilities to bear.

When the Beats initially set out to "construct" new communities that shirked conformity and traditionalism, they invoked the symbols of the most marginalized ethnic identities of their time. As the reality set in, of racial self-identity lost within the communal constructs of their own making, most of the Beat writers altered their message drastically to acknowledge the social impulse to marginalize the self in the conflict between isolationism and absorption of self by communal instincts seeking belonging. They began to deeply engage with new themes such as the place of the white man in America and declining patriarchal institutions.

Quotes

Films

* ''D.O.A. (1950 film), D.O.A.'' (1949) — a film noir, set in San Francisco, which includes one of the earliest (fictional) depictions of the Beat culture *Jack Kerouac (wrote), Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie (directed) ''Pull My Daisy'' (1958) *''Bell, Book and Candle''* (1958) (motion picture) *''The Beat Generation''* (1959) (motion picture) *''A Bucket of Blood''* (1959) Roger Corman Production *''The Subterraneans (film), The Subterraneans''* (1960) (motion picture) *''Visit to a Small Planet'' (1960) (motion picture) *''Greenwich Village Story''* (1961) *''Next Stop, Greenwich Village''* (1976) *''Heart Beat (film), Heart Beat'' (1980) (motion picture) *''What Happened to Kerouac?'' (1986) (documentary) *''Absolute Beginners (film), Absolute Beginners'' (1986) (motion picture) *''Naked Lunch (film), Naked Lunch'' (1991) (motion picture) *''Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg'' (1993) (documentary) *''So I Married an Axe Murderer'' (1993) (motion picture) *''Allen Ginsberg Live in London'' (1995) (documentary) *''The Last Time I Committed Suicide'' (1997) *''The Source (1999 film), The Source'' (1999) (documentary) *''Beat (2000 film), Beat'' (2000) (motion picture) *''American Saint'' (2001) (dramatic motion picture) *''Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs on the Road'' (2007) *''Neal Cassady#In film, Neal Cassady''* (2007) *''Crazy Wisdom: The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics'' (2008) (documentary) *''Howl (2010 film), Howl'' (2010) (motion picture) *''William S. Burroughs: A Man Within'' (2010) (documentary) *''Magic Trip'' (2011) (documentary) *''Big Sur (film), Big Sur'' (2012) (motion picture) *''Corso: The Last Beat'' (2012) (documentary) *''On the Road (2012 film), On the Road'' (2012) (motion picture) *
The Beat Hotel
' (2012) (documentary) *''Kill Your Darlings (2013 film), Kill Your Darlings'' (2013) (motion picture) * ''Christopher Felver, Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder'' (2013) (documentary) *''Inside Llewyn Davis'' (2013) (motion picture)

References

Sources

* Ann Charters, Charters, Ann (ed.) (1992) ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Penguin Books. (hc); (pbk). Th
table of contents is online
* Ann Charters, Charters, Ann (ed.) (2001) ''Beat Down to Your Soul: What Was the Beat Generation?'' NY: Penguin, 2001. * Knight, Arthur Winfield. Ed. ''The Beat Vision'' (1987) Paragon House. ; (pbk) * Knight, Brenda. ''Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution''. * McClure, Michael. ''Scratching the Beat Surface: Essays on New Vision from Blake to Kerouac''. Penguin, 1994. * Miles, Barry (2001). ''Ginsberg: A Biography''. London: Virgin Publishing Ltd., paperback, 628 pages, * Ted Morgan (writer), Morgan, Ted (1983) ''Literary Outlaw The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs.'' , first printing, trade paperback edition Avon, NY, NY * Phillips, Lisa. ''Beat Culture and the New America 1950–1965'' published by the Whitney Museum of American Art in accordance with an exhibition in 1995/1996. softcover. hardcover (Flammarion) * Raskin, Jonah. ''American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and the Making of the Beat Generation''. University of California Press, 2004. * Starer, Jacqueline. Les écrivains de la Beat Generation éditions d'écarts Dol de Bretagne France. 1SBN 978-2-919121-02-1 * Weidner, Chad. ''The Green Ghost: William Burroughs and the Ecological Mind''. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016. 1SBN 978-0809334865

External links

Beat Poetry, Broadsides and Little Magazines Digital Collection: Utah State University
{{Authority control Beat Generation, 20th-century American literature American literary movements Cultural generations Literary circles Culture of Columbia University History of Columbia University North Beach, San Francisco Obscenity controversies in literature 1940s neologisms Counterculture communities