The Beat Generation

The 1950s counterculture of the road, bebop, Buddhism, and spontaneous prose that cracked Cold War conformity.

Specifications & Metrics

era

c. 1948 – 1965

region

New York, San Francisco, and the American road

key figures

Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Gary Snyder

exemplar

On the Road (1957); Howl (1956)

introduced

1948

Core Principles & Analysis

• Kerouac coined 'Beat' in 1948, playing on beaten-down and beatific.
• Ginsberg's Howl survived a 1957 obscenity trial that freed American publishing.
• Its Buddhist turn, led by Snyder and Kerouac, opened American letters to Asian thought.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Beat Generation