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{{short description|Literary movement}}
{{for-multi|the subculture surrounding the literary movement|Beatnik|the play|Beat Generation (play){{!}}''Beat Generation'' (play)|the film|The Beat Generation (film){{!}}''The Beat Generation'' (film)}}
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The '''Beat Generation''' was a literary [[subculture]] movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post–[[World War II]] and [[Cold War]] eras.<ref>Evans, Mike, ''The Beats: from Kerouac to Kesey : an illustrated journey through the Beat Generation'', Running Press, Introduction</ref> The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members of the [[Silent Generation]] in the 1950s, better known as [[Beatnik]]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]]s, and [[Sexual revolution|sexual liberation]] and exploration.<ref>[http://www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php The Beat Generation – Literature Periods & Movements.]</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Beat Down to Your Soul: What was the Beat Generation?|last = Charters|first = Ann|publisher = Penguin Books|year = 2001|isbn = 0141001518}}</ref>

[[Allen Ginsberg]]'s ''[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]'' (1956), [[William S. Burroughs]]' ''[[Naked Lunch]]'' (1959), and [[Jack Kerouac]]'s ''[[On the Road]]'' (1957) are among the best-known examples of Beat literature.<ref name="Charters92toc">Charters (1992) ''The Portable Beat Reader''.</ref> Both ''Howl'' and ''Naked Lunch'' were the focus of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to liberalize publishing in the United States.<ref name="Ann Charters 2001">Ann Charters, ''introduction'', to ''Beat Down to Your Soul'', Penguin Books (2001) {{ISBN|978-0-14100-151-7}} 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]] 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."</ref><ref name="Ted Morgan 1988. p 347">Ted Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'', New York: Avon, 1988. p. 347, trade paper edition {{ISBN|0-380-70882-5}}: "The ruling on ''Naked Lunch'' in effect marked the end of literary censorship in the United States."</ref> The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] [[Hedonism|hedonists]], who celebrated [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|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 Columbia University's campus in [[New York City]]. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures, except 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 [[Beatnik]] 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 [[History of the hippie movement|hippie]] and larger [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] movements. [[Neal Cassady]], as the driver for [[Ken Kesey]]'s bus ''[[Furthur (bus)|Furthur]]'', was the primary bridge between these two generations. Ginsberg's work also became an integral element of 1960s [[hippie]] culture, in which he actively participated. The hippie culture was practiced primarily by older members of the following generation, the [[baby boomers]].

==Etymology==
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".<ref name="britannica">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/57467/Beat-movement|title=Beat movement (American literary and social movement) – Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=britannica.com|access-date=2014-11-30}}</ref> The name arose in a conversation with writer [[John Clellon Holmes]]. 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",<ref>"''Beat to his socks'', which was once the black's most total and despairing image of poverty, was transformed into a thing called the Beat Generation..." James Baldwin, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What is it?," ''The New York Times'', July 29, 1979.</ref><ref>"The word 'beat' was primarily in use after World War II by jazz musicians and hustlers as a slang term meaning down and out, or poor and exhausted. The jazz musician Mezz Mezzrow combined it with other words, like 'dead beat' ..." Ann Charters, ''The Portable Beat reader'', 1992, {{ISBN|0-670-83885-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-670-83885-1}}.</ref><ref>"Hebert Huncke picked up the word [beat] from his show business friends on the Near North Side of Chicago, and in the fall of 1945 he introduced the word to William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac." [[Steven Watson (author)|Steven Watson]], "The Birth of the Beat Generation" (1995), p. 3, {{ISBN|0-375-70153-2}}.</ref> but Kerouac expanded on 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.<ref>The exuberance is much stronger in the published ''On the Road'', than in its manuscript (in scroll-form). Luc Sante: "In the scroll the use of the word "holy" must be 80 percent less than in the novel, and psalmodic references to the author's unique generation are down by at least two-thirds; uses of the word "beat", for that matter, clearly favor the exhausted over the beatific." [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/books/review/Sante2-t-1.html ''New York Times Book Review''], August 19, 2007.</ref>

==Significant places==
===Columbia University===
The origins of the Beat Generation can be traced to Columbia University and the meeting of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Carr, Hal Chase and others. Kerouac attended Columbia on a football scholarship.<ref>Beard, Rick, and Leslie Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village: Culture and Counterculture''. New Brunswick, N.J. Published for the Museum of the City of New York by Rutgers University Press. 167.</ref> Though the beats are usually regarded as anti-academic,<ref>"In this essay "Beat" includes those American poets considered avant-garde or anti-academic from c. 1955 – 1965.", Lee Hudson, "Poetics in Performance: The Beat Generation" collected in ''Studies in interpretation, Volume 2'', ed Esther M. Doyle, Virginia Hastings Floyd, 1977, Rodopi, {{ISBN|90-6203-070-X}}, 9789062030705, p. 59.</ref><ref>"... resistance is bound to occur in bringing into the academy such anti-academic writers as the Beats.", Nancy McCampbell Grace, Ronna Johnson, ''Breaking the rule of cool: interviewing and reading women beat writers'', 2004, Univ. Press of Mississippi, {{ISBN|1-57806-654-9}}, {{ISBN|978-1-57806-654-4}}, p. x.</ref><ref>"The Black Mountain school originated at the sometime Black Mountain College of Asheville, North Carolina, in the 1950s and gave rise to an anti-academic academy that was the center of attraction for many of the disaffiliated writers of the period, including many who were known in other contexts as the Beats or the Beat generation and the San Francisco school." Steven R. Serafin, Alfred Bendixen, ''The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature'', 2005, Continuum International Publishing Group, {{ISBN|0-8264-1777-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8264-1777-0}}, p. 901.</ref> many of their ideas were formed in response to professors like [[Lionel Trilling]] 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, [[Formalism (literature)|formalistic]] literary ideals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Genter |first=Robert |year=2004 |title="I'm Not His Father": Lionel Trilling, Allen Ginsberg, and the Contours of Literary Modernism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25115190 |journal=College Literature |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=22–52|doi=10.1353/lit.2004.0019 |jstor=25115190 |s2cid=171033733 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Curious About Columbia? |url=http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_forum/question_of_the_week/archive_6.html |access-date=August 17, 2022 |website=c250.columbia.edu}}</ref>

===Times Square "underworld"===
Ginsberg was arrested in 1949. The police attempted to stop Jack Melody (a.k.a. "little Jack") while he was driving a car in Queens with Priscella Arminger (alias, Vickie Russell or "Detroit Redhead") and Allen Ginsberg in the back seat. The car was filled with stolen items Little Jack planned to fence. Jack Melody crashed while trying to flee, rolled the car and the three of them escaped on foot. Allen Ginsberg lost his glasses in the accident and 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]].<ref>Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'' (1988), pp. 163–165.</ref>

Solomon was arguably more eccentric than psychotic. A fan of [[Antonin Artaud]], he indulged in self-consciously "crazy" behavior, like throwing potato salad at a college lecturer on [[Dada]]ism. Solomon was given [[Electroconvulsive therapy|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 (novel)|Junkie]]'', in 1953.<ref>Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'' (1988), pp 205–6.</ref>

===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]].<ref>McDarrah, Fred W., and Gloria S. McDarrah. 1996. ''Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village''. New York: Schirmer Books.</ref> Allen Ginsberg was a big part of the scene in the Village, as was Burroughs, who lived at 69 Bedford Street.<ref name="Beard, Rick 1993">Beard and Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village''. "The Beat Generation in the Village." 165–198.</ref>

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]].<ref name="Beard, Rick 1993" /> [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Willem de Kooning]], [[Franz Kline]], and other abstract expressionists were also frequent visitors of and collaborators with the Beats.<ref>Beard and Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village''. "The Beat Generation in the Village." 170.</ref> Cultural critics have written about the transition of Beat culture in the Village into the Bohemian hippie culture of the 1960s.<ref>Beard and Berlowitz. 1993. ''Greenwich Village''. "The Beat Generation in the Village." 178.</ref>

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 (poet)|Big Brown]], won a majority of votes on the first ballot but fell short of the eventual nomination.<ref name="Austin Statesman">{{cite news |title=Beat Party Nominates Anti-Presidential Choice |date=July 21, 1960}}</ref> 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 earned him votes. In a chatterbox convention, only once did he speak at length, and that was to read his poetry."<ref name="Amarillo Globe Times">{{cite news |title=Anti-Presidential Nominee Named on 5th Beat Ballot |date=July 21, 1960}}</ref>

===San Francisco and the Six Gallery reading===
{{See also|San Francisco Renaissance}}
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.
[[File:Lawrence Ferlinghetti.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Lawrence Ferlinghetti]]
[[Kenneth Rexroth]]'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]]<ref>Jonah Raskin, American Scream: ''Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and the Making of the Beat Generation'': "Wally Hedrick, a painter and veteran of the Korean War, approached Ginsberg in the summer of 1955 and asked him to organize a poetry reading at the Six Gallery... At first, Ginsberg refused. But once he'd written a rough draft of ''[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]'', he changed his 'fucking mind,' as he put it."</ref> 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]] 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wills |first=David S. |date=2015-10-07 |title=Sixty Years After the Six Gallery Reading |url=https://www.beatdom.com/sixty-years-after-the-six-gallery-reading/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Beatdom |language=en-US}}</ref>

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.<ref>Ginsberg, Allen. ''Howl.'' 1986 critical edition edited by Barry Miles, ''Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography'' {{ISBN|0-06-092611-2}} (pbk.)</ref><ref>McClure, Michael. ''Scratching the Beat Surface: Essays on New Vision from Blake to Kerouac.'' Penguin, 1994. {{ISBN|0-14-023252-4}}.</ref>

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 based on Gary Snyder. Kerouac was impressed with Snyder and they were close for several years. In the spring of 1955, they lived together in Snyder's cabin in Mill Valley, California. 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]] and Oriental languages. Lawrence Ferlinghetti called him "the [[Henry David Thoreau|Thoreau]] of the Beat Generation."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Mike |date=2013-11-07 |title=Adaptation And The Environmental Beat: Poet-Activist Gary Snyder Lands In Albuquerque {{!}} Weekly Alibi |url=https://alibi.com/art/adaptation-and-the-environmental-beat-poet-activist-gary-snyder-lands-in-albuquerque/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |language=en-US}}</ref>

As documented in the conclusion of ''The Dharma Bums'', Snyder moved to Japan in 1955, in large measure to intensively practice and study [[Zen|Zen Buddhism]]. He spent most of the next 10 years there. [[Buddhism]] 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 widely read books.<ref>Bradley J. Stiles, ''Emerson's contemporaries and Kerouac's crowd: a problem of self-location'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8386-3960-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8386-3960-3}}, p. 87: "Although Kerouac did not introduce Eastern religion into American culture, his writings were instrumental in popularizing Buddhism among mainstream intellectuals."</ref>

===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''.<ref name="blogspot">{{Cite web|url=http://pacificnwseasons.blogspot.com/2008/09/kayak-camping-on-ross-lake-paddling-in.html|title=Pacific Northwest Seasons: Ross Lake: Paddling in the Path of Beat Poets|date=September 22, 2008|publisher=pacificnwseasons.blogspot.com|access-date=2014-11-30}}</ref>

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.<ref name="reed">{{Cite web|url=http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/winter2008/features/the_beats/|title=Reed Magazine: When the Beats Came Back (1/6)|publisher=reed.edu|access-date=2014-11-30|archive-date=November 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114000533/https://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/winter2008/features/the_beats/|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Gary Snyder]] and [[Philip Whalen]] were students in Reed's calligraphy class taught by [[Lloyd J. Reynolds]].<ref name="reed2">{{Cite web|url=http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOROOT=%2Freedhisttxt&CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=theme&CISOBOX1=Calligraphy&CISOSORT=centeb&#124;f&CISOSTART=1,21|title=Reed Digital Collections : Search Results|publisher=cdm.reed.edu|access-date=2014-11-30}}</ref>

==Significant figures==
{{External media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?76140-1/biographers-beat-era-writers Discussion of biographies of Beat poets Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bob Kaufman, and others, October 22, 1996], [[C-SPAN]]}}
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]], through whom Burroughs met Kerouac in 1944.

On August 13, 1944, Carr killed Kammerer with a Boy Scout knife in [[Riverside Park (Manhattan)|Riverside Park]] in what he claimed later was self-defense.<ref>Knight, Brenda, ''Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists, and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution'', 978-1573241380, Conari Press, 1998.</ref> He 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/books/11kaku.html|title=A Jack Kerouac-William S. Burroughs Collaboration: 'And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date=2008-11-10|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-09-12|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

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 works: once in ''[[The Town and the City]]'', his first novel, and again in ''[[Vanity of Duluoz]]'', his last novel. With Burroughs, he co-wrote ''[[And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks]]'', concerning the murder.<ref name=":1" />

==Participants==
===Women===
Beat Generation women who have been published include Edie Parker; [[Joyce Johnson (author)|Joyce Johnson]]; [[Carolyn Cassady]]; [[Hettie Jones]]; [[Joanne Kyger]]; [[Harriet Sohmers Zwerling]]; [[Diane di Prima|Diane DiPrima]]; [[Bonnie Bremser]]; [[Lenore Kandel]]; [[Elise Cowen]]; and [[Ruth Weiss (beat poet)|ruth weiss]], who also made films. Carolyn Cassady wrote her detailed account of life with her 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]] took her own life in 1962. Poet [[Anne Waldman]] was less influenced by the Beats than by Allen Ginsberg's later turn to Buddhism. 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]] in the 1980s.<ref>*{{Cite web|url=http://www.ake.hacettepe.edu.tr/Install/JASTFiles/jast27.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-10-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328094817/http://www.ake.hacettepe.edu.tr/Install/JASTFiles/jast27.pdf |archive-date=March 28, 2012 |df=mdy}} TV interview 1982 poets [[Hedwig Gorski]] and [[Robert Creeley]] discuss Beats. Special Robert Creeley issue, Turkey.</ref><ref>[http://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/an-interview-with-hedwig-gorski-a-performance-poet-and-avant] Interview 2013 by Greece Blues site Michalis Limnios BLUES @ GREECE.</ref>

===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 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 [[Bob Kaufman|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]] and incorporated it into his work to describe relationships with others. LeRoi Jones ([[Amiri Baraka]]) married Beat writer, Hettie Cohen, who became [[Hettie Jones]], in 1958. Together with [[Diane di Prima]], they worked to develop ''Yūgen'' magazine, named for the Japanese concept of [[Japanese aesthetics#Yūgen|yūgen]]. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were associated with several Beats ([[Jack Kerouac]], [[Allen Ginsberg]], and [[Gregory Corso]]). That is, until the assassination of the Civil Rights leader [[Malcolm X]]. During this time, LeRoi Jones departed 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 [[September 11 attacks|attacks of 9/11]] and America's reaction to this incident about 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,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Type Writer Is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation|last=Morgan|first=Bill|publisher=Counterpoint|year=2011|location=Berkeley, CA}}</ref> which strayed from the Christian ideals of American culture at the time.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Prothero|first=Stephen|year=1991|title=On the Holy Road: The Beat Movement as Spiritual Protest|journal=The Harvard Theological Review|volume=84|issue=2|pages=205–222|doi=10.1017/S0017816000008166|s2cid=162913767 }}</ref> Some Beat writers were openly gay or bisexual, including two of the most prominent (Ginsberg<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Hemmer|editor-first=Kurt|title=Encyclopedia of Beat Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabeat00hemm|url-access=limited|publisher=[[Facts On File, Inc.]]|date=2007|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabeat00hemm/page/n123 111]|isbn=978-0-8160-4297-5|quote=These early books, too, are windows into the poet's efforts to find a place for his homosexual identity in the repressive pre-Stonewall United States.}}</ref> and Burroughs<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Hemmer|editor-first=Kurt|title=Encyclopedia of Beat Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabeat00hemm|url-access=limited|publisher=Facts On File, Inc.|date=2007|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabeat00hemm/page/n44 32]|isbn=978-0-8160-4297-5|quote=And then, before the end of the decade, Burroughs had gone—leaving cold-war America to escape his criminalization as a homosexual and drug addict, to begin 25 years of expatriation.}}</ref>). 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 [[homosociality|homosocial]].<ref name="blogspot2">{{Cite web|url=http://notsogentlereader.blogspot.com/2009/07/hetero-and-homo-social-relationships-in.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106174932/http://notsogentlereader.blogspot.com/2009/07/hetero-and-homo-social-relationships-in.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 6, 2013|title=Hetero- and Homo-Social Relationships in Jack Kerouac's On the Road|work=Not-So-Gentle Reader blog|access-date=2014-11-30|date=July 23, 2009}}</ref>

===Drug use===
The original members of the Beat Generation used several different drugs, including alcohol, marijuana, [[Amphetamine|benzedrine]], [[morphine]], and later [[psychedelic drug]]s such as [[peyote]], [[ayahuasca]], and [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/drugs-literature-poetry_b_1011124.html|title=The Great Drug-Induced Poems|last=Lundberg|first=John|date=2011-10-16|website=Huffington Post|access-date=2017-09-12}}</ref> 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.<ref>Allen Ginsberg, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7jEwBwAAQBAJ&dq=allen+ginsberg+lsd+every+man+woman+child&pg=PT219 ''The Essential Ginsberg''], Penguin UK, 2015.</ref> The use of drugs was a key influence on many of the social events of the time that were personal to the Beat generation.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.beatdom.com/substance-use/|title=Substance Use|date=2010-09-14|work=Beatdom|access-date=2017-09-12}}</ref>

===Romanticism===
[[Gregory Corso]] considered English Romantic poet [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] a hero, and he was buried at the foot of Shelley's grave in the [[Protestant Cemetery, Rome]]. Ginsberg mentions Shelley's poem ''[[Adonaïs|Adonais]]'' at the beginning of his poem ''[[Kaddish (poem)|Kaddish]],'' and cites it as a major influence on the composition of one of his important poems. [[Michael McClure]] compared Ginsberg's ''[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]'' to Shelley's breakthrough poem ''[[Queen Mab (poem)|Queen Mab]].''<ref>McClure, Michael. ''Scratching the Beat Surface''.</ref>

Ginsberg's main Romantic influence was [[William Blake]],<ref>"Throughout these interviews [in ''Spontaneous Mind''] Ginsberg returns to his high praise of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Ginsberg obviously loves Blake the visionary and Whitman the democratic sensualist, and indeed Ginsberg's literary personality can be construed as a union of these forces." Edmund White, ''Arts and letters'' (2004), p. 104, {{ISBN|1-57344-195-3}}, {{ISBN|978-1-57344-195-7}}.</ref> and he studied him throughout his life. Blake was the subject of Ginsberg's self-defining auditory hallucination and revelation in 1948.<ref>"Ginsberg's intense relationship with Blake can be traced to a seemingly mystical experience he had during the summer of 1948." ''ibid'', p. 104.</ref> Romantic poet [[John Keats]] also was cited as an influence.{{Citation needed|date= February 2018}}

===Jazz===
Writers of the Beat Generation were heavily influenced by jazz artists like [[Billie Holiday]] and the stories told through the music. Writers like [[Jack Kerouac]] (''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 in the [[Transcendentalism|transcendentalist]] movement, such as [[Henry David Thoreau]], [[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]]". [[Edgar Allan Poe]] was occasionally acknowledged, and Ginsberg saw [[Emily Dickinson]] as having an influence on Beat poetry. The 1926 novel ''[[You Can't Win (book)|You Can't Win]]'' by outlaw author [[Jack Black (author)|Jack Black]] was cited as having a strong influence on Burroughs.<ref>Ted Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'' (1988), p.36-37 of trade paper edition, "When Billy [William Burroughs] was thirteen, he came across a book that would have an enormous impact on his life and work. Written by someone calling himself Jack Black, ''You Can't Win'' was the memoir of a professional thief and drug addict."</ref>

===French surrealism===
In many ways, [[surrealism]] was still considered a vital movement in the 1950s. [[Carl Solomon]] introduced the work of French author [[Antonin Artaud]] to Ginsberg, and the poetry of [[André Breton]] had direct influence on Ginsberg's poem ''[[Kaddish (poem)|Kaddish]].''{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}} Rexroth, Ferlinghetti, [[John Ashbery]] and [[Ron Padgett]] translated French poetry. Second-generation Beat [[Ted Joans]] was named "the only Afro-American Surrealist" by Breton.<ref>According to William Lawlor: "André Breton, the founder of surrealism and Joans's {{Sic}} mentor and friend, famously called Joans the 'only Afro-American surrealist' (qtd. by James Miller in _Dictionary of Literary Biography_ 16: 268)", p. 159, ''Beat culture: lifestyles, icons, and impact'', ABC-CLIO, 2005, {{ISBN|1-85109-400-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-85109-400-4}}. Ted Joans said, "The late André Breton the founder of surrealism said that I was the only Afro-American surrealist and welcomed me to the exclusive surrealist group in Paris", p. 102, ''For Malcolm: poems on the life and the death of Malcolm X'', Dudley Randall and Margaret G. Burroughs, eds, Broadside Press, Detroit, 1967. There is some question about how familiar Breton was with Afro-American literature: "If it is true that the late André Breton, a founder of the surrealist movement, considered Ted Joans the only Afro-American surrealist, he had not read Kaufman; at any rate, Breton had much to learn about Afro-American poetry." Bernard W. Bell, "The Debt to Black Music", ''Black World/Negro Digest'' March 1973, p. 86.</ref>

[[Philip Lamantia]] introduced Surrealist poetry to the original Beats.<ref>Allen Ginsberg commented: "His interest in techniques of surreal composition notoriously antedates mine and surpasses my practice ... I authoritatively declare Lamantia an American original, soothsayer even as Poe, genius in the language of Whitman, native companion and teacher to myself." Allen Ginsberg, Bill Morgan, ''Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952–1995'', p. 442, "Philip Lamantia, Lamantia As Forerunner", HarperCollins, 2001, {{ISBN|9780060930813}}.</ref> 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.<ref name="Miles, Ginsberg">Miles (2001) ''Ginsberg''.</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2010}} Other influential French poets for the Beats were [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Arthur Rimbaud]] and [[Charles Baudelaire]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

===Modernism===
[[Gertrude Stein]] was the subject of a book-length study by [[Lew Welch]]. Admitted influences for Kerouac include [[Marcel Proust]], [[Ernest Hemingway]] and [[Thomas Wolfe]].<ref>"In 'Author's Introduction,' which is included in ''Lonesome Traveler'' (1960), Kerouac ... goes on to mention Jack London, William Saroyan, and Ernest Hemingway as early influences and mentions Thomas Wolfe as a subsequent influence." William Lawlor, ''Beat culture: lifestyles, icons, and impact'', 2005, {{ISBN|1-85109-400-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-85109-400-4}} p. 153. "And if one considers The Legend of Dulouz, one must acknowledge the influence of Marcel Proust. Like Proust, Kerouac makes his powerful memory the source of much of his writing and again like Proust, Kerouac envisions his life's literary output as one great book." Lawlor, p. 154.</ref>

===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 Buddhism 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."<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Garton-Gundling |first1=Kyle |title=Beat Buddhism and American freedom. |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Beat+Buddhism+and+American+freedom.-a0492538902 |website=thefreelibrary.com |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |access-date=11 May 2019 |archive-date=December 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201226061806/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Beat+Buddhism+and+American+freedom.-a0492538902 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Topics==
[[File:beat generation stockholm.jpg|upright|thumb|right|A section devoted to the beat generation at a bookstore in Stockholm]] While many authors claim to be directly influenced by the Beats, the Beat Generation phenomenon has had an influence on American culture leading more broadly to the hippie movements of the 1960s.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}<ref>Hill, R. A. (2022). Counterculture of the 1960s. ''Salem Press Encyclopedia''. </ref>
In 1982, Ginsberg published a summary of "the essential effects" of the Beat Generation:<ref>Ginsberg, Allen ''A Definition of the Beat Generation,'' from ''Friction, 1'' (Winter 1982), revised for ''Beat Culture and the New America: 1950–1965''.</ref>

<blockquote style="font-size:100%">
* Spiritual liberation, sexual "revolution" or "liberation," i.e., gay liberation, somewhat catalyzing women's liberation, black liberation, and [[Gray Panthers]] 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]], Jack Loeffler, and [[Michael McClure]], the notion of a "Fresh Planet."
* Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization, as emphasized in the 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."
</blockquote>

==="Beatniks"===
{{Main|Beatnik}}
The term "[[beatnik]]" 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."<ref>{{Cite web| title=Pocketful of Notes | author=Herb Caen | work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] | url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/1997/02/06/MN18715.DTL | publisher=sfgate.com | date=February 6, 1997 | access-date=2010-01-30}}

"...''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' magazine, preparing a picture spread on S.F.'s Beat Generation (oh, no, not AGAIN!), hosted a party in a No. Beach house for 50 Beatniks, and by the time word got around the sour grapevine, over 250 bearded cats and kits were on hand, slopping up Mike Cowles' free booze. They're only Beat, know, when it comes to work&nbsp;..."</ref> 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 drum]]s while [[wikt:free spirit|free-spirited]] women wearing black [[leotard]]s dance.{{Citation needed|date= February 2018}}

An early example of the "beatnik stereotype" occurred in [[Vesuvio Cafe|Vesuvio's]] (a bar in 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 10 years later.<ref>William T. Lawlor (ed.), ''Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons and Impact,'' p. 309.</ref>

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 [[Ted Joans]] and friends out on calls to read poetry.<ref>Arthur and Kit Knight (ed.), ''The Beat Vision,'' New York: Paragon House, 1987, p. 281.</ref>

"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]]''<ref>Ginsberg, ''Howl: Original Draft Facsimile''.</ref>) others criticized the beatniks as inauthentic [[poseur]]s. [[Jack Kerouac]] 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.<ref>"Tracing his definition of the term ''Beat'' to the fulfillments offered by ''beatitude'', Kerouac scorned sensationalistic phrases like 'Beat mutiny' and 'Beat insurrection,' which were being repeated ''ad nauseam'' in media accounts. 'Being a Catholic,' he told conservative journalist William F. Buckley, Jr. in a late-sixties television appearance, 'I believe in order, tenderness, and piety,'" David Sterritt, ''Screening the Beats: media culture and the Beat sensibility'', 2004, p. 25, {{ISBN|0-8093-2563-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8093-2563-4}}.</ref>

==="Hippies"===
{{Main|Hippie}}
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]]".<ref>[[Ed Sanders]] said in an interview in the film ''The Source'' (1999) (at the 1hr 17secs point) that he observed the change immediately after the 1967 [[Human Be-In]] event: "And right after the Be-In all of a sudden you were no longer a beatnik, you were a hippie." Similar remarks by Sanders: an interview with Jessa Piaia in ''SQUAWK Magazine'', Issue #55, commented: "I've begun Tales of Beatnik Glory, Volume 3. Set in the Hippie era, it defines that delicate time when reporters no longer called us 'Beatnik,' but started to call us 'Hippie.'", https://www.angelfire.com/music/squawk/eds2.html; "There was a big article January of 1966, on page one of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, under the heading 'Beatnik Leader Wants Marijuana.' It was just before "hippie" replaced 'Beatnik.'" Ed Sanders, Larry Smith, Ingrid Swanberg, ''D.A. Levy & the mimeograph revolution'' (2007).</ref> 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".<ref>Gore Vidal quotes Ginsberg speaking of Kerouac: "'You know around 1968, when we were all protesting the Vietnam War, Jack wrote me that the war was just an excuse for 'you Jews to be spiteful again.'" Gore Vidal, ''Palimpsest: A Memoir'', 1995, {{ISBN|0-679-44038-0}}.</ref>

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).<ref>For example, see the meaning of "cool" as explained in the Del Close, John Brant spoken word album ''[[How to Speak Hip]]'' from 1959.</ref>

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.<ref>Allen Ginsberg comments on this in the film "The Source" (1999); Gary Snyder discusses the issue in a 1974 interview, collected in ''The Beat Vision'' (1987), Paragon House. {{ISBN|0-913729-40-X}}; {{ISBN|0-913729-41-8}} (pbk), edited by Arthur Winfield Knight: "... the next key point was Castro taking over Cuba. The apolitical quality of Beat's thought changed with that. It sparked quite a discussion and quite a dialogue; many people had been basic pacifists with considerable disillusion with Marxian revolutionary rhetoric. At the time of Castro's victory, it had to be rethought again. Here was a revolution that had used violence and that was a good thing. Many people abandoned the pacifist position at that time or at least began to give more thought to it. In any case, many people began to look to politics again as having possibilities. From that follows, at least on some levels, the beginning of civil rights activism, which leads through our one whole chain of events: the Movement.<br /><br />We had little confidence in our power to make any long-range or significant changes. That ''was'' the 50s, you see. It seemed that bleak. So our choices seemed entirely personal existential lifetime choices that there was no guarantee that we would have any audience, or anybody would listen to us; but it was a moral decision, a moral poetic decision. Then Castro changed things, then Martin Luther King changed things ..."</ref>

===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]]'')<ref>Pynchon, Thomas. ''Slow Learner.'' Vintage Classics, 2007. {{ISBN|0-09-953251-4}}.</ref> 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.<ref>"Sterling also identifies [in ''Mirroshades'' (1986)] postmodernist authors Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs as forerunners of cyberpunk." Keith Booker, Anne-Marie Thomas, ''The Science Fiction Handbook'', 2009, p. 111, {{ISBN|1-4051-6205-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-6205-0}}.</ref><ref>"... it should hardly be surprising that to discover that the work of William S Burroughs had a profound impact on both punk music and cyberpunk science fiction." Larry McCaffery, ''Storming the reality studio: a casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction'', 1991, p. 305.</ref><ref>"Cyberpunk writers acknowledge their literary debt to Burroughs and Pynchon, as well as to New Wave writers from the 1960s and 1970s such as J. G. Ballard and Samuel Delany.", Jenny Wolmark, ''Aliens and others: science fiction, feminism, and postmodernism'', 1994, {{ISBN|0-87745-447-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87745-447-2}}.</ref>

One-time Beat writer [[Amiri Baraka|LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka]] helped initiate the [[Black Arts Movement]].<ref>"(LeRoi Jones) ... is best known as a major cultural leader, one of the African American writers who galvanized a second Black Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s ..." – page xi, "Preface", Komozi Woodard, ''A nation within a nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Black power politics'' (1999, UNC Press), {{ISBN|0-8078-4761-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8078-4761-9}}.</ref>

As there was a 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.<ref>Williams, Saul. ''Said the Shotgun to the Head.'' MTV, 2003, p.184, {{ISBN|0-7434-7079-6}}.</ref>

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]]<ref>"During the eighties, Ginsberg used his position as director of the writing department at Naropa, introduced his classes to the wide range of literature of the Beat Generation. Many of his students became poets and educators and are grouped under an entirely new category that has been labeled Postbeat Poets." Bill Morgan, William Morgan, ''The Typewriter Is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation'', 2010, p. 245, {{ISBN|1-4165-9242-3}}, {{ISBN|978-1-4165-9242-6}}.</ref> 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, and David Evans.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

===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,<ref>"... the name Beatles comes from 'Beat' ..." Regina Weinreich, [https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/11/style/11iht-bookthu.t.html?pagewanted=1 "Books: The Birth of the Beat Generation"], ''The Sunday New York Times Book Review'', January 11, 1996; a review of Steven Watson's ''THE BIRTH OF THE BEAT GENERATION: Visionaries, Rebels, and Hipsters 1944–1960''.</ref> and [[John Lennon]] was a fan of Jack Kerouac.<ref>Ellis Amburn describes a telephone conversation with Jack Kerouac: "John Lennon subsequently contacted Kerouac, revealing that the band's name was derived from 'Beat.' 'He was sorry he hadn't come to see me when they played Queens,' Kerouac said, referring to the Beatles Shea Stadium concert in 1965." Amburn, Ellis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=bN0PJn6VCNIC&q=Lennon ''Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac''], p. 342, {{ISBN|0-312-20677-1}}.</ref> The Beatles even put Beat writer William S. Burroughs on the cover of their album ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]].''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Beat Generation FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Angelheaded Hipsters|last=Weidman|first=Rich|publisher=Backbeat Books|year=2015}}</ref>

Ginsberg was a close friend of Bob Dylan<ref>Wills, D. "Father & Son: Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan," in Wills, D. (ed.), ''Beatdom Vol. 1'' (Mauling Press: Dundee, 2007), pp. 90–93</ref> and toured with him on the [[Rolling Thunder Revue]] in 1975. Dylan cites Ginsberg and other Beats as major influences.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wills |first=David S. |date=2007-07-28 |title=Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan |url=https://www.beatdom.com/allen-ginsberg-and-bob-dylan/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Beatdom |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[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."<ref>" As Ray Manzarek recalls when Morrison was studying at UCLA: 'He certainly had a substantial investment in books. They filled an entire wall of his apartment. His reading was very eclectic. It was typical of the early- to mid-sixties hipster student. [...] And lots of Beatniks. We wanted to _be_ beatniks. But we were too young. We came a little too late, but we were worshippers of the Beat Generation. All the Beat writers filled Morrison's shelves [...]' (Manzarek 1999, 77)" Sheila Whiteley, ''Too much too young: popular music, age and gender'' (2005, Routledge)</ref> 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 [[Neal Cassady]] 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]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}

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]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Graham |title=Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous |date=2014 |publisher=Syzygy |isbn=9-7-8-90-822792-0-7 |pages=70}}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Article/3091/Tom-Waits-The-Pursuit-of-the-Beats|title=Tom Waits – The Pursuit of the Beats|work=www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk|access-date=2017-09-12}}</ref> He later collaborated with Burroughs on the theatrical work ''[[The Black Rider]]''.

Jazz musician/film composer [[Robert Kraft (composer)|Robert Kraft]] wrote and released a contemporary homage to Beat Generation aesthetics entitled "Beat Generation" on the 1988 album ''Quake City''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Holden |first=Stephen |date=19 May 1980 |title=Sounds Around Town |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/427202678 |work=New York Times|id={{ProQuest|427202678}} }}</ref>

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 [[Jack Kerouac]] and his philosophy and way of life.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.bohemian.com/northbay/mark-sandman/Content?oid=2179959 |title=Mark Sandman |author=Greg Cahill |date=November 24–30, 2004 |journal=North Bay Bohemian}}</ref>

The band [[Aztec Two-Step]] recorded "The Persecution & Restoration of Dean Moriarty (On the Road)" in 1972.<ref>{{Cite web|title= Aztec Two-Step|year=1972 |url=http://www.discogs.com/Aztec-Two-Step-Aztec-Two-Step/release/2343866|publisher=Discogs|access-date=May 30, 2015}}</ref>

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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} [[Bono]] of [[U2]] cites Burroughs as a major influence,<ref>Bono comments approvingly on the Burroughs cut up method: "That's what the Burroughs cut up method is all about. You cut up the past to find the future." As quoted by John Geiger in ''Nothing is true – everything is permitted: the life of Brion Gysin'', p. 273, attributed to John Waters, ''Race of the Angels: The Genesis of U2'' (London, Fourth Estate, 1994), {{ISBN|1-85702-210-6}} {{ISBN|978-1857022100}}.</ref><ref>"... author WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, 84, whose nihilistic novels have influenced U2 front man BONO ... ", Martha Pickerill, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101027125303/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986451,00.html ''Time''], June 2, 1997.</ref> and Burroughs appeared briefly in a U2 video in 1997.<ref>"The next video, ''Last Night on Earth'' was shot in Kansas City, with beat author William S. Burroughs making a cameo." p. 96 David Kootnikoff, ''U2: A Musical Biography'' (2010) {{ISBN|0-313-36523-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-313-36523-2}}.</ref> 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]].''{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}} The band [[King Crimson]] produced the album ''[[Beat (King Crimson album)|Beat]]'' inspired by the Beat Generation.<ref>{{cite news |first=Boo |last=Browning |date=29 July 1982 |title=Homage to the Gurus of Beat |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1982/07/29/homage-to-the-gurus-of-beat/e11eccef-a822-4ebf-94a3-397d7439e6c8/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=22 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Robert |last=Palmer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/14/arts/the-pop-life-013588.html |title=The Pop Life |work=The New York Times |date=14 July 1982 |access-date=22 February 2021}}</ref>

More recently, American artist [[Lana Del Rey]] references the Beat movement and Beat poetry in her 2014 song "[[Brooklyn Baby]]".{{Citation needed|date= February 2018}}

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. {{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

==Criticism==
The Beat Generation was met with scrutiny and assigned many stereotypes. Several magazines, including ''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.<ref name=":0" />

[[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''.<ref>Collected in ''The Norman Podhoretz Reader'' by Norman Podhoretz, Thomas L. Jeffers, Paul Johnson. Free Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-4165-6830-8}}.</ref> His central criticism is that the Beat's 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.{{Citation needed|date= February 2018}}

Ginsberg responded in a 1958 interview with ''[[The Village Voice]]'',<ref>In: ''Spontaneous Mind''.</ref> 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]]."<ref>Ginsberg, Allen, ''Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews, 1958–1996,'' p. 5, {{ISBN|0-06-093082-9}}.</ref>

===Internal criticism===
In a 1974 interview,<ref name="Knight, Arthur Winfield 1987">Knight, Arthur Winfield. Ed. ''The Beat Vision'' (1987), Paragon House. {{ISBN|0-913729-40-X}}; {{ISBN|0-913729-41-8}} (pbk).</ref> [[Gary Snyder]] comments on the subject of "casualties" of the Beat Generation:<ref name="Charters01">Charters (2001) ''Beat Down to Your Soul''.</ref>

<blockquote style="font-size:100%">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, and responsibilities to bear.</blockquote>

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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martinez |first=Manuel Luis |title=Countering the Counterculture: Rereading Postwar American Dissent from Jack Kerouac to Tomás Rivera |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=2003 | pages=52 |isbn=9780299192839 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PetNsyuGKAMC}}</ref>

==Quotes==
{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% | Three writers do not make a generation.|[[Gregory Corso]]<ref>Lerner, Richard and Lewis MacAdams, directors "What Ever Happened to Kerouac?" (1985).</ref> (sometimes also attributed to [[Gary Snyder]])}}

{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% | Nobody knows whether we were catalysts or invented something, or just the froth riding on a wave of its own. We were all three, I suppose.|[[Allen Ginsberg]]<ref>Burns, Glen ''Great Poets Howl: A Study of Allen Ginsberg's Poetry, 1943–1955'', {{ISBN|3-8204-7761-6}}.</ref>}}

==Films==
{{Div col}}
* ''[[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, movie)
*''[[The Beat Generation (film)|The Beat Generation]]'' (1959, movie)
*''[[A Bucket of Blood]]'' (1959) Roger Corman Production
*''[[The Subterraneans (film)|The Subterraneans]]'' (1960, movie)
*''[[Visit to a Small Planet]]'' (1960, movie)
*''[[Greenwich Village Story]]'' (1961)
*''[[Next Stop, Greenwich Village]]'' (1976)
*''[[Heart Beat (film)|Heart Beat]]'' (1980, movie)
*''What Happened to Kerouac?'' (1986, documentary)
*''[[Absolute Beginners (film)|Absolute Beginners]]'' (1986, movie)
*''[[Naked Lunch (film)|Naked Lunch]]'' (1991, movie)
*''[[Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg]]'' (1993, documentary)
*''[[So I Married an Axe Murderer]]'' (1993, movie)
*''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, movie)
*''American Saint'' (2001, movie)
*''[[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, movie)
*''[[William S. Burroughs: A Man Within]]'' (2010, documentary)
*''[[Magic Trip]]'' (2011, documentary)
*''[[Big Sur (film)|Big Sur]]'' (2012, movie)
*''[[Corso: The Last Beat]]'' (2012, documentary)
*''[[On the Road (2012 film)|On the Road]]'' (2012, movie)
*''[http://www.thebeathotelmovie.com/ The Beat Hotel]'' (2012, documentary)
*''[[Kill Your Darlings (2013 film)|Kill Your Darlings]]'' (2013, movie)
*''[[Christopher Felver|Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder]]'' (2013, documentary)
*''[[Inside Llewyn Davis]]'' (2013, movie)
*''[[Queer (film)|William S. Burroughs' Queer]]'' (2024, movie)
{{Div col end}}

==See also==
* [[Beatnik]]
* ''[[Beat Scene]]''
* [[Beatdom|''Beatdom'' Literary Journal]]
* ''[[European Beat Studies Network (EBSN)]]''
* [[Literary Kicks]]
* ''[[San Francisco Oracle]]''
* [[Leonard Cohen]]
* [[Christopher Felver]]
* [[Silent Generation]]
* [[Generation gap]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* [[Ann Charters|Charters, Ann]] (ed.) (1992) ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-670-83885-3}} (hc); {{ISBN|0-14-015102-8}} (pbk). The [http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780142437537,00.html?sym=TAB table of contents is online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222171406/http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780142437537,00.html?sym=TAB |date=December 22, 2008 }}.
* [[Ann Charters|Charters, Ann]] (ed.) (2001) ''Beat Down to Your Soul: What Was the Beat Generation?'' NY: Penguin, 2001. {{ISBN|0-14-100151-8}}
* Knight, Arthur Winfield. Ed. ''The Beat Vision'' (1987) Paragon House. {{ISBN|0-913729-40-X}}; {{ISBN|0-913729-41-8}} (pbk)
* Knight, Brenda. ''Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists, and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution''. {{ISBN|1-57324-138-5}}
* McClure, Michael. ''Scratching the Beat Surface: Essays on New Vision from Blake to Kerouac''. Penguin, 1994. {{ISBN|0-14-023252-4}}
* Miles, Barry (2001). ''Ginsberg: A Biography''. London: Virgin Publishing Ltd., paperback, 628 pages, {{ISBN|0-7535-0486-3}}
* [[Ted Morgan (writer)|Morgan, Ted]] (1983) ''Literary Outlaw The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs.'' {{ISBN|0-380-70882-5}}, first printing, trade paperback edition Avon, NY, NY
* Phillips, Lisa. ''Beat Culture and the New America 1950–1965'' was published by the Whitney Museum of American Art in accordance with an exhibition in 1995/1996. {{ISBN|0-87427-098-7}} softcover. {{ISBN|2-08-013613-5}} hardcover (Flammarion)
* Raskin, Jonah. ''American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and the Making of the Beat Generation''. University of California Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-520-24015-4}}
* 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

==Further reading==
===Books===
*[[Larry Beckett|Beckett, Larry]], ''Beat Poetry''. Edinburgh: Beatdom Books. 2012. {{ISBN|9780956952530}}.
*Campbell, James. ''This Is the Beat Generation: New York–San Francisco-Paris''. LA: University of California Press. 2001. {{ISBN|0-520-23033-7}}.
*[[Raj Chandarlapaty|Chandarlapaty, Raj]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=bzOXDwAAQBAJ ''Seeing the Beat Generation'']. [[Jefferson, North Carolina|Jefferson, NC]]: [[McFarland & Company]], 2019. {{ISBN|978-1476675756}}
* Collins, Ronald & Skover, David. ''Mania: The Story of the Outraged & Outrageous Lives that Launched a Cultural Revolution'' (Top-Five Books, March 2013)
*Cook, Bruce ''The Beat Generation: The tumultuous '50s movement and its impact on today''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. {{ISBN|0-684-12371-1}}.
*Gifford, Barry and Lawrence Lee'' Jack's Book An Oral Biography Of Jack Kerouac'', New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-312-43942-3}}
*Gorski, Hedwig. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120328094817/http://www.ake.hacettepe.edu.tr/Install/JASTFiles/jast27.pdf] Robert Creeley 1982 TV Interview with Hedwig Gorski transcript included in special Robert Creeley Issue, Journal of American Studies of Turkey (JAST), No. 27, Spring 2008.
*Grace, Nancy ''Jack Kerouac and the Literary Imagination'', New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. {{ISBN|1-4039-6850-0}}
*Hemmer, Kurt (ed.). ''Encyclopedia of Beat Literature''. Facts on File, 2006. {{ISBN|0-8160-4297-7}}
*Hrebeniak, Michael. ''Action Writing: Jack Kerouac's Wild Form'', Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2006.
*Johnson, Ronna C. and [[Nancy McCampbell Grace|Nancy Grace]]. ''Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation''. Rutgers, 2002. {{ISBN|0-813-53064-4}}
*Knight, Brenda. ''Women of the Beat Generation; The Writers, Artists, and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution''. Conari Press, 1996. {{ISBN|1573240613}} {{ISBN|978-1573240611}}
*Lawlor, William, ''Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact'', Santa Barbara: Bloomsbury Academic, 2005 ISBN 9781851094004
*McDarrah, Fred W., and Gloria S. McDarrah. ''Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village'' Schirmer Books (September 1996) {{ISBN|0-8256-7160-4}}
*McNally, Dennis. ''Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America''. NY: DeCapo, 2003. {{ISBN|0-306-81222-3}}
*Miles, Barry. ''The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs & Corso in Paris, 1957–1963''. NY: Grove Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8021-3817-9}}
*Peabody, Richard. ''A Different Beat: Writing by Women of the Beat Generation''. Serpent's Tail, 1997. {{ISBN|1852424311}} / {{ISBN|978-1852424312}}
*Sargeant, Jack. ''[[Naked Lens: Beat Cinema]]''. NY: Soft Skull, 2009 (third edition)
*Sanders, Ed. ''Tales of Beatnik Glory'' (second edition, 1990) {{ISBN|0-8065-1172-9}}
*Theado, Matt (ed.). ''The Beats: A Literary Reference''. NY: Carrol & Graff, 2002. {{ISBN|0-7867-1099-3}}
*[[Steven Watson (author)|Watson, Steven]]. ''The Birth of the Beat Generation: Visionaries, Rebels, and Hipsters, 1944–1960''. NY: Pantheon, 1998. {{ISBN|0-375-70153-2}}

===Archival resources===
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf200001v2/ Gregory Corso Papers, 1981–1990] (1.5 linear feet) are housed at the [[Stanford University Libraries]]
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf5p3004sf/ Lawrence Ferlinghetti Papers, 1919–2003] (circa 28 linear feet) are housed at the [[Bancroft Library]], [[University of California, Berkeley]]
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3199n6sr/ Photographs from the Lawrence Ferlinghetti Papers, circa 1935-circa 1990] (circa 345 photographs) are housed at the [[University of California at Berkeley]] [[Bancroft Library]].
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf5c6004hb/ Allen Ginsberg Papers, 1937–1994] (circa 1,000 linear feet) are housed at [[Stanford University Libraries]]
* [http://www.nypl.org/ead/479 Jack Kerouac Papers, 1920–1977, bulk (1935–1969)] (22.5 linear feet) are housed at the [[New York Public Library]] [[Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature]].
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079081 Finding aid to Beat poets and poetry collection at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Beat Generation}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040207145948/http://emptymirrorbooks.com/beats.html Biographies of Beat Generation writers, artists, & poets]
*[http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Beat Beat Poetry, Broadsides and Little Magazines Digital Collection: Utah State University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180605102420/http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Beat |date=June 5, 2018 }}

{{Schools of poetry}}
{{Allen Ginsberg}}
{{Jack Kerouac| state=collapsed}}
{{William S. Burroughs}}
{{United States topics}}
{{Youth empowerment}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beat Generation}}
[[Category:Beat Generation| ]]
[[Category:1940s neologisms]]
[[Category:20th-century American literature]]
[[Category:American literary movements]]
[[Category:Counterculture communities]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1940s]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1950s]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Cultural generations]]
[[Category:Culture of Columbia University]]
[[Category:History of Columbia University]]
[[Category:Literary circles]]
[[Category:North Beach, San Francisco]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]