The Beat Generation

William Seward Burroughs II ( - ; ) was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.

Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life. A primary member of the Beat Generation, he was an avant-garde author who affected popular culture as well as literature. In 1975, he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 - April 5, 1997) was an American poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" (1956), in which he celebrates fellow members of the Beat Generation and critiques what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States.

Jack Kerouac (; March 12, 1922 - October 21, 1969) was an American novelist and poet. Alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation, and a literary iconoclast.http://books.google.com/books?id=PNRHQ96szrsC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=kerouac+iconoclast+literary&source=bl&ots=vAaUkb3MRu&sig=jTp_7Y-Ty25vUwdoXe-ChfGNZ2U&hl=en&ei=g7wbS57gNpT0sQOjkYX6Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCgQ6AEwCTgo#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Kerouac is held as an important writer both for his spontaneous style and for his content which consistently dealt with such topics as jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. His writings have inspired several prominent writers, including Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, Lester Bangs, Will Clarke, Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, Haruki Murakami, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and writers of the New Journalism.

Though his works were largely shunned as "slapdash", "grossly sentimental",http://www.beatdom.com/jack_kerouacs_visions_of_gerard.htm and "immoral"http://www.answers.com/topic/on-the-road-novel-7 in the socially conservative 1950s, and as bafflingly conservative in the liberal 1960s,http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=18-08-014-c Kerouac did manage to acquire underground celebrity status and was, for a time, labeled as a progenitor of the Hippie movement.http://books.google.com/books?id=F5QXB-1D8kgC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=kerouac+progenitor+hippie&source=bl&ots=GYCnOk1IGI&sig=5HXeMT3EqOvycT_0w2pT010ai9Y&hl=en&ei=w7gbS7jGJ5L-sgPDtOj8BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=kerouac%20progenitor%20hippie&f=false Out of touch with mainstream America and never having gotten over the death of his brother, Kerouac lost his battle to alcoholism and died at the age of 47 in 1969.

Since his death, and thanks in large part to the efforts of editor Ann Charters, Kerouac's literary prestige has steadily grown over the years, with several previously unpublished works surfacing, and all of his books being in print today, among them: On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody and ''Big Sur.