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Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Herbert Huncke, and William Burroughs meet and form the beginnings of the Beat style. Kerouac and Ginsberg were both students at Columbia University. -
A Timeline of the American Beat Literary Movement
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The new era of Beat Poets begin spending time in NYC's Greenwich Village. Washington Square Park becomes a focal place where poets, musicians, and artists come to present, work, and be inspired. -
The Beat Scene begins to slowly move cross country towards the west coast during 1946 and 1947 with Kerouac and Neil Cassidy traveling to Denver and Burroughs moving to Texas. The Beat Poets had become part and parcel with American Jazz musicians of the era and had adopted their drug, alcohol, and caffeine lifestyle as their own. -
Jack Kerouac named the movement as the Beat Generation alluding to his generation's discontent with the expectations and status quo of mainstream America post WWII. This was later expanded and corroborated by Allen Ginsberg and others. -
Allen Ginsberg was arrested and committed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital Psyche Ward for suffering a severe mental collapse. -
Gregory Corso meets Allen Ginsberg in Greenwich Village after the former was released from prison and the latter from a mental hospital. -
Jack Kerouac completes the first draft of On the Road. Kerouac typed the draft on a single roll of tracing paper. William Burroughs accidently shoots and kills his wife Joan. -
City Lights Bookstore founded by Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin, begins publishing City Lights Magazine. Burroughs' novel Junkie is published by Ace Books. Kerouac writes Maggie Cassidy and The Subterraneans in NYC. There Kerouac reunites with Burroughs and Ginsberg who are editing their correspondence as The Yage Letters. -
Allen Ginsberg moves to San Francisco and works with the Bay Area Poets. The North Beach cafe and bar scene becomes inundated with Beat writers such as Peter Orlovsky, Jack Spicer, Richard Brautigan, Bob Kaufman, and John Weiner. The Black Mountains College begin experimenting with projective verse and improvisation. -
Allen Ginsberg begins to organize popular poetry readings in the San Francisco area helping to popularize the Beat Movement and reads Howl publicly. Ferlinghetti with City Lights begins to publish a larger array of Beat poets. Kerouac completes Mexico City Blues. The concepts of Zen and Buddhism gain traction amongst the Beats. -
Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems is released. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, and Orlovsky travel to Mexico together. Kerouac is simultaneously writing Visions of Gerard, Desolation Angels, and The Dharma Bums. William Carlos Williams publishes Of Asphodel. -
Norman Mailer writes The White Negro essay on hipsters and Beats. U.S Customs seize Howl. Kerouac's On the Road is published and becomes a best seller. Kerouac visits Tangiers to help Burroughs complete Naked Lunch. The Evergreen Review publishes a pro-Beat piece. -
Ferlinghetti's Coney Island of the Mind is published. Gregory Corso releases Gasoline. LeRoi and Hettie Jones begin to publish Yugen. Neal Cassidy serves two years in jail for dealing marijuana. -
Beattitude Magazine published. Articles on The Beats appear in Time and Life magazines. Burroughs' Naked Lunch is published. Extensive amounts of Beat poetry and prose are published. Ginsberg begins work on Kaddish. Lawrence Lipton publishes The Holy Barbarians - an unbiased analysis of the Beat Generation and its inhabitants. -
By 1960 the serious Beats had begun to be usurped by their Beatnik caricatures. While the Beat Generation and Movement had an incredible affect on the United States it also paved the way for the Hippie Movement which overshadowed it over the next decade.