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The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: "This is the beat generation"). The adjective "beat" (introduced by Herbert Huncke) had the connotations of "tired" or "down and out", but Kerouac added the paradoxical connotations of "upbeat" and "beatific".
Calling this relatively small group of struggling writers, artists, hustlers and drug addicts a "generation" was to make the claim that they were representative and important—the beginnings of a new trend, analogous to the influential Lost Generation. This is the kind of bold move that could be seen as delusions of grandeur, aggressive salesmanship or perhaps a display of perceptive insight. History shows it was clearly not just a delusion, but possibly a real insight into some real trends that became self-reinforcing: the label helped to create what it described.
The members of the beat generation were new bohemian libertines, who engaged in a spontaneous, sometimes messy, creativity. The beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its advocacy of non-conformity and for its non-conforming style.
Echoes of the Beat Generation run throughout all the forms of alternative/counter culture that have existed since then (e.g. "hippies", "punks", etc). The Beat Generation can be seen as the first "subculture". See the "Influences Upon Western Culture" section below.
History The canonical beat generation authors met in New York: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, (in the 1940s) and later (in 1950) Gregory Corso. Columbia University, where Ginsberg and Kerouac had met as undergraduates, was its original locale. In the mid-50s this group expanded to include San Francisco area figures such as Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen and Lew Welch.
The neucleus of the original group of friends began at Columbia University. Jack Kerouac met Lucien Carr, who introduced him to Allen Ginsberg. Carr was associated with David Kammerrer, a closet homosexual former teacher of his who had a crush on Carr and was following him around the country. Through Kammerer they met William S. Burroughs, an older priveledged gentleman who knew the New York gay and junk scenes. Through Burroughs the circle was introduced to Herbert Huncke, a Times Square hustler. The circle also included Burroughs' wife Joan Volmer, and (INSERT NAMES OF FEMALE MEMBERS OF THE GROUP).
Soon the group was all caught up in trouble. Ginsberg was involved in a high speed car chase at the behest of Huncke. Soon after, Carr killed Kammerer in "self defence". Kerouac helped Carr dispose of the weapon, becoming accessory to the crime when Carr turned himself in the next day.
Ginsberg wound up in a mental institute from the car thing. Kerouac's parents refused to bail him from jail. The wealthy parents of his girlfriend at the time, Edie Parker, offered to put up the momey, but only if he promised to marry Edie and live with them in Grosse Point. Kerouac accepted and found life in Grosse Point as miserable as jail.
Meanwhile, Ginsberg met a surrealist named Carl Soloman in the institue, who changed his life profoundly. Shortly after being released, Ginsberg took poetry to the next level (something most serious historians thought to be impossible).
Neal Cassady was soon introduced into the crowd. He was instantly seen as the "proto-beat", the living example of everything the clan (Kerouac especially) strived for. After going on wild cross-country driving adventures, Kerouac wrote the 'beat manifesto' on a speed rush in 3 weeks. The MS was on one giant sheet of paper, in one continuous paragraph. This was the beginning of the "Modern Spontaneous Method", a new style of writing that Kerouac perfected over the years. It was written shortly after the success of "Go" and Burroughs' happiness with the "Junky" MS. The novel was called "On the Road", but it was nearly another decade before it was published (1957) and actually became the "beat manifesto". But Kerouac had found his great vision, and he began to write prolifically for the rest of his short life.
[[Principal writings of the Beat Generation]] Who Walk in Darkness by Chandler Brossard (1952) Flee the Nagry Strangers by George Mandel (1952) Go by John Clellon Holmes (1952) Junky by William S. Burroughs(1953) Howl and other Poems by Allen Ginsberg (1956) On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957) Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (1959) The First Third by Neal Cassady (1970) Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson (19??)
NOTES: Dates given are the dates . In most cases the selections were written several years before publication. Kerouac's first novel, The Town and the City, is not considered a "beat" novel because he had not yet found the form and content that stood out in his later writings, even though the book expresses themes similar to those he would delve further into later in life. The first two selections on this list were by writers who were very loosely connected with the original Beat scene (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Holmes, Carr, Huncke, etc.) but their writing still purveyed the original beat form.
References
Print - Knight, Brenda. Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution. ISBN 1573241385
Online
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