20 Facts About Beat Generation

Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era.

The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity.

Origins of the Beat Generation can be traced to Columbia University and the meeting of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Carr, Hal Chase and others.

Beat Generation 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.

Beat Generation fell in love with Peter Orlovsky at the end of 1954 and began writing Howl.

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Beat Generation waited, then dumped the body in the Hudson River, later seeking advice from Burroughs, who suggested he turn himself in.

Beat Generation then went to Kerouac, who helped him dispose of the weapon.

Beat Generation wrote a collaboration novel with Burroughs, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, concerning the murder.

Beat Generation titled it Off the Road, and it was published in 1990.

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.

Some Beat Generation writers were openly gay or bisexual, including two of the most prominent.

Original members of the Beat Generation used a number of different drugs, including alcohol, marijuana, benzedrine, morphine, and later psychedelic drugs such as peyote, Ayahuasca, and LSD.

Writers of the Beat Generation were heavily influenced by Jazz artists like Billie Holiday and the stories told through Jazz music.

Second-generation Beat Ted Joans was named "the only Afro-American Surrealist" by Breton.

The Beatles spelled their name with an "a" partly as a Beat Generation reference, and John Lennon was a fan of Jack Kerouac.

Singer-songwriter Tom Waits, a Beat Generation fan, wrote "Jack and Neal" about Kerouac and Cassady, and recorded "On the Road" with Primus.

Beat Generation later collaborated with Burroughs on the theatrical work The Black Rider.

Musician Mark Sandman, who was the bass guitarist, lead vocalist and a former member of the alternative jazz rock band Morphine, was interested in the Beat Generation and wrote a song called "Kerouac" as a tribute to Jack Kerouac and his personal philosophy and way of life.

Beat Generation was met with scrutiny and assigned many stereotypes.

Beat Generation's 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.