BeatNiks+and+the+Beat+Generation

**__BeatNiks__**
The term __Beatnik__ came from the 1950 American group known for writting, poetry, music. Their culture included experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, eastern religion, Also rejected materialism.The members of the Beat Generation quickly developed a reputation as new Bohemian hendonists. celebrated noncomformity and spontaneous activity. This group of writers used art to express their emotions. Also, the Beatniks refused to recall their peice of work as poetry, because they believed that poetry was brought to the people. Their work, however, brought the people to their work. (**Courtright**) __**(William S. Burrough)-**__was born in St. Louis, Mo. into a successful business family. His mother, Laura Lee, was a direct descendant of Robert E. Lee, his grandfather the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. The Burroughs Corporation ultimately merged with the Sperry Corporation to create Unisys. By the time of Burroughs's birth, his father Mortimer had already sold his stock in the company. "As a boy," he later recalled, "I was much plagued by nightmares. I remember a nurse telling me that opium gives you sweet dreams, and I resolved that I would smoke opium when I grew up
 * __(Allen Ginsberg____)-__**He was born in Newark, New Jersey the son of a high school teacher and poet, Louis Ginsberg, and Naomi Levy Ginsberg. His early experience included dissent: his mother was a member of the Communist Party and sometimes took her sons along to the local meetings**.** Ginsberg's poetry with its exhilarating openness of subject and form and visionary qualities owes much to a tradition stretching back through Walt Whitman to William Blake. Added to this are influences from his Jewish background, the rhythms of jazz, his sexual orientation and his deep engagement with Zen Buddhism.


 * __(Jack Kerouac)-__**was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the third child of working-class French-Canadian emigres His father, Leo, owned a print shop - he died of stomach cancer in 1946. Kerouac learned English as a second language, and first the French-Canadian dialect //joual.// When he was four, his beloved older brother Gerard died. Kerouac believed that Gerard followed him as a guardian angel. Kerouac went to parochial school where he was educated by Jesuits. In high school he was a star athlete. In 1939 he entered Columbia University on a football scholarship, but soon dropped out. He joined the navy and was discharged during World War II on psychiatric grounds. Kerouac served as a merchant seaman and roamed United States and Mexico. During this period he wrote the unpublished //The Sea Is My Brother.//

Allen Ginsberg's //Howl// - William S. Burrough's //Naked Lady -// Jack Kerouac's //On the road -// Where the major works performed by the Beat writting. Both Howl and Naked Lady of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to liberalize what could be published in the United States.The language and topics of beat writing pushed the boundaries of acceptability in the conformist 1950s: they often openly discussed drug use, sexuality (in particular homosexuality) and criminal behavior without condemnation. The first "Beat" work to gain nationwide attention, was //Howl ,// the graphic sexual language led to an obcenity-trial, which only increased its fame.(Amanda W)