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American Hipster: A Life of Herbert Huncke, The Times Square Hustler Who Inspired the Beat Movement
American Hipster: The Life of Herbert Huncke, The Times Square Hustler Who Inspired the Beat Movement tells the tale of a New York sex worker and heroin addict whose unrepentant deviance caught the imagination of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. Teetering between exhaustion and existential despair, Huncke (rhymes with “junky”) often said, “I’m beat, man.” His line gave Kerouac the label for a down-at-the-heels generation seeking spiritual sustenance as well as “kicks” in post-war America.
Recognizable portraits of Huncke appear in Junky (1953), Burroughs's acerbic account of his own heroin addiction; “Howl” (1956), the long, sexually explicit poem that launched Ginsberg’s career; and On the Road (1957), Kerouac’s best-selling novel that immortalized the Beat Generation. But it wasn’t just Huncke the character that fascinated these writers: they loved his stories. Kerouac called him a “genius” of a storyteller and “a perfect writer.” His famous friends helped Huncke find publishers for his stories.
Biographies of Kerouac and the others pay glancing tribute to Huncke’s role in shaping the Beat Movement, yet no one until now has told his entire life story. American Hipster explores Huncke’s youthful escapades in Chicago; his complicated alliances with the Beat writers and with sex researcher Alfred Kinsey; and his adventures on the road, at sea, and in prison. It also covers his tumultuous relationship with his partner Louis Cartwright, whose 1994 murder remains unsolved, and his idiosyncratic career as an author and pop-culture icon.
Written by Hilary Holladay, a professor of American literature, the book offers a new way of looking at the whole Beat Movement. It draws on Holladay’s interviews with Huncke's friends and associates, including representatives of the literary estates of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Huncke; her examination of Huncke’s unpublished correspondence and journals at Columbia University; and her longtime study of the Beat Movement.
Recognizable portraits of Huncke appear in Junky (1953), Burroughs's acerbic account of his own heroin addiction; “Howl” (1956), the long, sexually explicit poem that launched Ginsberg’s career; and On the Road (1957), Kerouac’s best-selling novel that immortalized the Beat Generation. But it wasn’t just Huncke the character that fascinated these writers: they loved his stories. Kerouac called him a “genius” of a storyteller and “a perfect writer.” His famous friends helped Huncke find publishers for his stories.
Biographies of Kerouac and the others pay glancing tribute to Huncke’s role in shaping the Beat Movement, yet no one until now has told his entire life story. American Hipster explores Huncke’s youthful escapades in Chicago; his complicated alliances with the Beat writers and with sex researcher Alfred Kinsey; and his adventures on the road, at sea, and in prison. It also covers his tumultuous relationship with his partner Louis Cartwright, whose 1994 murder remains unsolved, and his idiosyncratic career as an author and pop-culture icon.
Written by Hilary Holladay, a professor of American literature, the book offers a new way of looking at the whole Beat Movement. It draws on Holladay’s interviews with Huncke's friends and associates, including representatives of the literary estates of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Huncke; her examination of Huncke’s unpublished correspondence and journals at Columbia University; and her longtime study of the Beat Movement.
340 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 2012
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About the author
Hilary Holladay
15 books19 followersHilary Holladay is a novelist and biographer whose heart belongs to poetry. For many years she taught American literature, including the literature of the Beat Movement, at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell; more recently she has taught at James Madison University and the University of Virginia. Her current favorite poet is Denise Levertov.
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July 29, 2014
Очень бережная и даже трепетная биография человека, без которого бы не случилось битников. И это не преувеличение, потому что значение Херберта Ханке, больше известного под именами десятка персонажей у Керуака, Барроуза и Джона Клеллона Хоумза, переоценить трудно. У битников, как известно был битый ангел — Нил Кэссади, — но был и битый призрак: вор, жулик, полинаркоман-рецидивист, бисексуал и великий артист разговорного жанра. Ну и писатель, конечно. Это и был Ханке, который ввел молодежь (Гинзберга, Керуака и Барроуза) в мир альтернативной низовой культуры. Не было в ХХ века другого человека, который вдохновил бы собой целую литературу в одно рыло.
Пить, курить, ебаться и пользоваться наркотиками наш герой начал примерно одновременно — лет в восемь. Разговаривать — гораздо раньше. Дожил до 81. Убили его не наркотики — он просто устал, судя по всему. Достоинства при этом не потерял. Один из плюсов этой биографии — она и не пытается лишить Ханке достоинства, хотя сделать это довольно просто, учитывая количество неоднозначных фактов в его жизни.
А другие плюсы вот: зарождение битого поколения показано в контексте — до и после. Поначалу это увлекательное путешествие по неизвестным или малохоженным районам американской перпендикулярной культуры — например, художественно-анархистская тусовка Чикаго в конце 20-х годов, связь позднейшего андерграунда не только с маргинально-уголовной, но и с карнавально-фриковой субкультурой. Клочки паззла собираются в цельную картинку. Ханке был истинным битником и эпитомальным хипстером (да, нам объясняют, что это такое — известные ныне писатели к этому отношения не имеют, они тогда если не пешком под стол ходили, то гуляли по 42-й улице, как на экскурсии, а не жили там; про нынешнюю молодежь даже говорить не стоит. Норман Мейлер понятие хипстерства проституировал) — и было это в конце 20-х — 30-х годах, а не тогда, когда мы все привыкли думать.
Напомню, что действие практически всех главных бит-романов происходит сразу после 2-й мировой — в середине и второй половине 1940-х. Подлинный расцвет битничества пришелся на 30-е, времена Великой депрессии, и большинство тех городских бродяг, сезонников, уличных бомжей, воров и грабителей, кто имеет полное право называться битниками и хипстерами, остались невоспетыми и неупомянутыми — Ханке тут исключение. Удивительная параллель здесь в том, что единственным подлинным битником в русской литературе, наверное, может считаться Веничка Ерофеев. Потому что его определяет то же самое - он живет за краем квадратного мира из тяги к внутренней свободе. Пьет из стремления к трансцендентности. Далее может последовать монолог произвольной длины на тему "Жить недолго, но ярко и оставить по себе симпатичный труп", но не станем - к тому же Ханке этот тезис своею жизнью опроверг.
Потому что после череды исторических встреч насельника улиц Ханке и творческой молодежи в 40-х годах нам рассказывают, о том, как умерло «движение», как его пытались оживить, как из этого, конечно же, ничего не получилось, невзирая на шум вокруг и не выходящие из печати книжки. И это самая грустная часть истории — жизнь после. А дело просто в том, что молодость прошла, только и всего.
Пить, курить, ебаться и пользоваться наркотиками наш герой начал примерно одновременно — лет в восемь. Разговаривать — гораздо раньше. Дожил до 81. Убили его не наркотики — он просто устал, судя по всему. Достоинства при этом не потерял. Один из плюсов этой биографии — она и не пытается лишить Ханке достоинства, хотя сделать это довольно просто, учитывая количество неоднозначных фактов в его жизни.
А другие плюсы вот: зарождение битого поколения показано в контексте — до и после. Поначалу это увлекательное путешествие по неизвестным или малохоженным районам американской перпендикулярной культуры — например, художественно-анархистская тусовка Чикаго в конце 20-х годов, связь позднейшего андерграунда не только с маргинально-уголовной, но и с карнавально-фриковой субкультурой. Клочки паззла собираются в цельную картинку. Ханке был истинным битником и эпитомальным хипстером (да, нам объясняют, что это такое — известные ныне писатели к этому отношения не имеют, они тогда если не пешком под стол ходили, то гуляли по 42-й улице, как на экскурсии, а не жили там; про нынешнюю молодежь даже говорить не стоит. Норман Мейлер понятие хипстерства проституировал) — и было это в конце 20-х — 30-х годах, а не тогда, когда мы все привыкли думать.
Напомню, что действие практически всех главных бит-романов происходит сразу после 2-й мировой — в середине и второй половине 1940-х. Подлинный расцвет битничества пришелся на 30-е, времена Великой депрессии, и большинство тех городских бродяг, сезонников, уличных бомжей, воров и грабителей, кто имеет полное право называться битниками и хипстерами, остались невоспетыми и неупомянутыми — Ханке тут исключение. Удивительная параллель здесь в том, что единственным подлинным битником в русской литературе, наверное, может считаться Веничка Ерофеев. Потому что его определяет то же самое - он живет за краем квадратного мира из тяги к внутренней свободе. Пьет из стремления к трансцендентности. Далее может последовать монолог произвольной длины на тему "Жить недолго, но ярко и оставить по себе симпатичный труп", но не станем - к тому же Ханке этот тезис своею жизнью опроверг.
Потому что после череды исторических встреч насельника улиц Ханке и творческой молодежи в 40-х годах нам рассказывают, о том, как умерло «движение», как его пытались оживить, как из этого, конечно же, ничего не получилось, невзирая на шум вокруг и не выходящие из печати книжки. И это самая грустная часть истории — жизнь после. А дело просто в том, что молодость прошла, только и всего.
January 19, 2025
If the word 'beat' were to be used to define someone by their lifestyle, by how poor and downtrodden they were, always on the brink of starvation and despair, then Herbert Huncke would be THE person who embodies all of this. He was the beat before the whole Beat Generation phenomenon exploded into the American media of the late 50s and in the consciousness of the growing counterculture.
As Hollady points out in this page-turning fascinating biography of Herbert Huncke, and the first and only full biography on the man, Huncke's role among all the other Beats appears to have been one more of inspiration, a character who populates the novels of John Clellon Holmes' early overlooked masterpiece, Go, Kerouac's best-selling On the Road (Huncke is the 'Elmer Hassel' character of that novel that Dean and Sal are constantly looking for on Times Square), and he is the guy with blood in his shoes in Ginsberg's Howl. As his biographer points out, they all knew that Huncke was the real deal, the genuine beat. Like Burroughs, Huncke came from an upper-middle class background but unlike Burroughs, Huncke became the 'black sheep' of the family. At some point, he loses all contact with his family and it was sad how he was never able to repair the relationship with his father, someone whom he admired to some degree, even though their principles and values were at opposite ends of the spectrum.
American Hipster takes us from Huncke's early beginnings growing up in Chicago, shows he developed an interest in drugs and people living on the fringes of society from a young age, how he travels to NYC and starts hustling. For me, Huncke will always be an urban writer and shadowy but beautiful figure of the urban half-light. He is a fascinating blend of dark and light, of hope and despair, of criminal activity and nobility. And I think it is these qualities that many of his fellow Beats and younger people in the 1990s, when the Beats enjoyed a brief renaissance, were drawn to.
Many people who knew him such as Janine Pommy-Vega and his literary executor Jerome Poynton speak very highly of him, this man who suffered from self-loathing, conflicted by his feelings of being a 'parasite' always living off the mercy of others. While this is indeed true, Huncke, as the biographer points out, always gave back (through his stories, kindness and generosity) as much as he took.
Before I 'cuss and discuss' what I didn't like about this book, let me summarize its merits. As mentioned above, it's the first and only full biography we have on Huncke. And Holladay appears to have really done her homework, researching Huncke's books and letters in archives, and interviewing people who knew him. The book gives a great trajectory to his life, and she adopts a relatively neutral stance, where she praises Huncke's writing where necessary and condemns his behavior where it should be condemned. In other words, I did not feel she give us an impartial biography of the man, and that is important.
Now, to the cons (and 'con' is a key word here). There were three things I didn't like about this book - one was a relatively minor gripe, the other, a major one that personally makes me a little mad (but nothing to do with Huncke directly), and the third one is a methodological flaw in my opinion.
First of all, I don't like her use of the term "Beat Movement" throughout. This term implies that it was a conscious movement shared by writers like Ginsberg, Huncke, Burroughs and Kerouac. I think the term 'Beat Generation' is more appropriate because they were all peers more or less, who inspired each other but a movement implies they were all consciously trying to break through and initiate some kind of chance, like the Surrealists. Personally, I don't think they were, except for maybe Ginsberg. Ginsberg WAS the whole 'Beat Movement': its number 1 PR man. I think Jack Micheline might have said that once - that the Beat Generation was Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg learned from Pound before him that coining a term for a group of writers, and 'Beat Generation' acts like the 'Lost Generation' before them, is a great PR move, a good way to promote their work. In this sense, Ginsberg was very smart and the best promoter of the Beats. Kerouac just wanted to be remembered as a great writer, and wanted to dissociate from the 'Beat' label especially after the media began turning it into a completely different image, a disfigured and inaccurate one, from what it was at the beginning. Burroughs was a fatalist and very different from the others. Just as talented (if not more) in his own way, but he always had his parents' financial support, meaning he was hardly 'Beat' in the original sense of the word.
The second and bigger beef I have with this book is in the section about the Jack Kerouac conference in Boulder. Many famous Beat writers and people associated with the Beats such as Robert Creeley attended that conference. One very big name was missing from the list - Jack Kerouac's own daughter, Jan Kerouac. There is a certain faction of scholars and profiteers who are trying, I feel, to write Jan Kerouac, out of the history. It's a type of Beat revisionism if you will.
I don't know if Huncke and Jan Kerouac knew each other, but not only was Jan the only child of the 'King of the Beats' (Jack Kerouac himself), she also lead a very beat and downtrodden life. And considering how some of Herbert's closest friends were female Beats like Janine Pommy-Vega and Elise Cowen (who suffered a tragic fate), I wouldn't be surprised if Huncke and Jan would have gotten a long, like a roof on fire. I know that Jack Micheline and Jan Kerouac got along at the conference. That is one HUGE omission, which I hope will be rectified in future editions of the book.
The third and final issue I have with this book is that even though it is well-researched, she is relying on the testimony (in interviews and in writing) of a self-confessed conman. Now, do you see the inherent problem here? The 64 million dollar question is: Just how reliable are the words of a conman? To what extent is this truthful? And at what point (just like in Kerouac's own novels), does it become romantic fictionalized autobiography? To some degree she rectifies this problem by interviewing people he knew but the main source of her information appears to be Huncke himself, which to me represents a problem. Therefore, in some sense, this book is more of a 'portrait' than a 'biography', which does not detract from its enjoyment to the reader, but we must remember, while we are reading, that some of the things Huncke says should be taken with a grain of salt.
The above beefs aside, this is a very enjoyable and well-researched biography on a complex man: Herbert Huncke. He was a thief, hustler, heroin junkie and freeloader, but he was also a fantastic storyteller, sometimes excellent descriptive writer and kind friend to those who knew him. He comes across as a character who has just walked out of a Jean Genet or Dostoevsky novel. Absolutely fascinating person, who would regale you with stories of yore, and in the morning, steal your typewriter to pawn for junk. Rest in peace Herbert Huncke. Your legend will go on.
As Hollady points out in this page-turning fascinating biography of Herbert Huncke, and the first and only full biography on the man, Huncke's role among all the other Beats appears to have been one more of inspiration, a character who populates the novels of John Clellon Holmes' early overlooked masterpiece, Go, Kerouac's best-selling On the Road (Huncke is the 'Elmer Hassel' character of that novel that Dean and Sal are constantly looking for on Times Square), and he is the guy with blood in his shoes in Ginsberg's Howl. As his biographer points out, they all knew that Huncke was the real deal, the genuine beat. Like Burroughs, Huncke came from an upper-middle class background but unlike Burroughs, Huncke became the 'black sheep' of the family. At some point, he loses all contact with his family and it was sad how he was never able to repair the relationship with his father, someone whom he admired to some degree, even though their principles and values were at opposite ends of the spectrum.
American Hipster takes us from Huncke's early beginnings growing up in Chicago, shows he developed an interest in drugs and people living on the fringes of society from a young age, how he travels to NYC and starts hustling. For me, Huncke will always be an urban writer and shadowy but beautiful figure of the urban half-light. He is a fascinating blend of dark and light, of hope and despair, of criminal activity and nobility. And I think it is these qualities that many of his fellow Beats and younger people in the 1990s, when the Beats enjoyed a brief renaissance, were drawn to.
Many people who knew him such as Janine Pommy-Vega and his literary executor Jerome Poynton speak very highly of him, this man who suffered from self-loathing, conflicted by his feelings of being a 'parasite' always living off the mercy of others. While this is indeed true, Huncke, as the biographer points out, always gave back (through his stories, kindness and generosity) as much as he took.
Before I 'cuss and discuss' what I didn't like about this book, let me summarize its merits. As mentioned above, it's the first and only full biography we have on Huncke. And Holladay appears to have really done her homework, researching Huncke's books and letters in archives, and interviewing people who knew him. The book gives a great trajectory to his life, and she adopts a relatively neutral stance, where she praises Huncke's writing where necessary and condemns his behavior where it should be condemned. In other words, I did not feel she give us an impartial biography of the man, and that is important.
Now, to the cons (and 'con' is a key word here). There were three things I didn't like about this book - one was a relatively minor gripe, the other, a major one that personally makes me a little mad (but nothing to do with Huncke directly), and the third one is a methodological flaw in my opinion.
First of all, I don't like her use of the term "Beat Movement" throughout. This term implies that it was a conscious movement shared by writers like Ginsberg, Huncke, Burroughs and Kerouac. I think the term 'Beat Generation' is more appropriate because they were all peers more or less, who inspired each other but a movement implies they were all consciously trying to break through and initiate some kind of chance, like the Surrealists. Personally, I don't think they were, except for maybe Ginsberg. Ginsberg WAS the whole 'Beat Movement': its number 1 PR man. I think Jack Micheline might have said that once - that the Beat Generation was Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg learned from Pound before him that coining a term for a group of writers, and 'Beat Generation' acts like the 'Lost Generation' before them, is a great PR move, a good way to promote their work. In this sense, Ginsberg was very smart and the best promoter of the Beats. Kerouac just wanted to be remembered as a great writer, and wanted to dissociate from the 'Beat' label especially after the media began turning it into a completely different image, a disfigured and inaccurate one, from what it was at the beginning. Burroughs was a fatalist and very different from the others. Just as talented (if not more) in his own way, but he always had his parents' financial support, meaning he was hardly 'Beat' in the original sense of the word.
The second and bigger beef I have with this book is in the section about the Jack Kerouac conference in Boulder. Many famous Beat writers and people associated with the Beats such as Robert Creeley attended that conference. One very big name was missing from the list - Jack Kerouac's own daughter, Jan Kerouac. There is a certain faction of scholars and profiteers who are trying, I feel, to write Jan Kerouac, out of the history. It's a type of Beat revisionism if you will.
I don't know if Huncke and Jan Kerouac knew each other, but not only was Jan the only child of the 'King of the Beats' (Jack Kerouac himself), she also lead a very beat and downtrodden life. And considering how some of Herbert's closest friends were female Beats like Janine Pommy-Vega and Elise Cowen (who suffered a tragic fate), I wouldn't be surprised if Huncke and Jan would have gotten a long, like a roof on fire. I know that Jack Micheline and Jan Kerouac got along at the conference. That is one HUGE omission, which I hope will be rectified in future editions of the book.
The third and final issue I have with this book is that even though it is well-researched, she is relying on the testimony (in interviews and in writing) of a self-confessed conman. Now, do you see the inherent problem here? The 64 million dollar question is: Just how reliable are the words of a conman? To what extent is this truthful? And at what point (just like in Kerouac's own novels), does it become romantic fictionalized autobiography? To some degree she rectifies this problem by interviewing people he knew but the main source of her information appears to be Huncke himself, which to me represents a problem. Therefore, in some sense, this book is more of a 'portrait' than a 'biography', which does not detract from its enjoyment to the reader, but we must remember, while we are reading, that some of the things Huncke says should be taken with a grain of salt.
The above beefs aside, this is a very enjoyable and well-researched biography on a complex man: Herbert Huncke. He was a thief, hustler, heroin junkie and freeloader, but he was also a fantastic storyteller, sometimes excellent descriptive writer and kind friend to those who knew him. He comes across as a character who has just walked out of a Jean Genet or Dostoevsky novel. Absolutely fascinating person, who would regale you with stories of yore, and in the morning, steal your typewriter to pawn for junk. Rest in peace Herbert Huncke. Your legend will go on.
August 9, 2013
Huncke was the true inspiration to the beat movement, having a direct influence on Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs. He was also the wordbook for the origination of the beatnik glossary. However his beatness was purely centered around being down and out, weathered and torn, as a result of his 24/7 pursuit of a fix, with the more spiritual literary connotations coming later with the rise of Ginsberg and Kerouac. What I found particularly illuminating is that the origins of the beat movement actually start in Chicago, centered around Towertown, Chicago's bohemia in the early twentieth century and forerunner to Greenwich Village. Living until age 82, he endured much longer than many of the other beats, ultimately dying in hospital where he was often found asleep with a straw in one hand and a dusty bag on his chest.
February 13, 2015
Absolutely perfect book about an absolutely beautiful man. My favorite piece:
"I would like [that] my seed be blown to some inaccessible mountain crag - and there become a sturdy bush or tree - to cling there tenuously thru wind - rain - storm - and seasons - living in my aerie - visited only by an occasional venturesome mountain beast or perhaps cast shade upon a visiting snake or hold the weightlessness of a high-flying bird. That is my prayer. I love earth and would spend the next few centuries there above the tumult of the cities and away from people.
I am afraid God won’t grant that wish - since I been of such weak stuff here. Why trust my roots to a wind-swept mountain - I’d undoubtedly lack the stamina to push down deep enough to really hold - and the first good wind would pull me loose - and I would end up bleached and dead behind some boulder in some gully far below…”
~ Herbert Huncke, When I Die - 1960
"I would like [that] my seed be blown to some inaccessible mountain crag - and there become a sturdy bush or tree - to cling there tenuously thru wind - rain - storm - and seasons - living in my aerie - visited only by an occasional venturesome mountain beast or perhaps cast shade upon a visiting snake or hold the weightlessness of a high-flying bird. That is my prayer. I love earth and would spend the next few centuries there above the tumult of the cities and away from people.
I am afraid God won’t grant that wish - since I been of such weak stuff here. Why trust my roots to a wind-swept mountain - I’d undoubtedly lack the stamina to push down deep enough to really hold - and the first good wind would pull me loose - and I would end up bleached and dead behind some boulder in some gully far below…”
~ Herbert Huncke, When I Die - 1960
October 23, 2016
Well written, well researched, an (extremely) sympathetic portrait of 'the original beat'. Think "An American Genet', with a smile more enigmatic than the Mona Lisa's. He seared his way into the minds of many who met him and was a muse for a great many writers, including Burroughs, Ginsberg ('who walked all night with their shoes full of blood on the snowbank docks') and Kerouac, among others. Roommate and houseguest of many, who apparently didn't mind terribly when their typewriter suddenly went missing He is immortalized in their books under many names. In the book, he comes off as a sinister cuddle bunny if you can wrap your mind around that. Excerpts of his own prose were electrically vivid, so much so that his works will be among my next reads.
August 4, 2019
This is an interesting read. This is the man who "inspired the Beat Movement", but is pretty much a detestable person. He steals from his friends, is heavily addicted to drugs, and basically just lives off of others. It's cool that he coined the term "beat" and that he was an impressive storyteller. It's cool he shows up in so many literary books of the Beats. It's cool he was part of the history of the Kinsey research on sex. But he basically is just a leech. Right 'till the end of his life.
In Jack Kerouac's works, he is Junkey in "The Town and the City", and Elmer Hassel in "On The Road". In "Go" by John Clellon Holmes, he is Albert Anche. For Allen Ginsberg, he is the man with shoes full of blood in "Howl". So, Huncke is a big piece of the Beat movement. But a sad, sad piece too.
In Jack Kerouac's works, he is Junkey in "The Town and the City", and Elmer Hassel in "On The Road". In "Go" by John Clellon Holmes, he is Albert Anche. For Allen Ginsberg, he is the man with shoes full of blood in "Howl". So, Huncke is a big piece of the Beat movement. But a sad, sad piece too.
August 2, 2020
Written in a smooth, straightforward style. A tad repetitive, but Holladay knows her stuff. I loved the sense of time and place. Hunke was interesting - a liar and thief as a lifelong addict, but also an endearing friend to so many people of all ages. He was the original inspiration and embodiments of the Beat's imagination - the rebel for Kerouac, the addict for Boroughs, the crazy for Cassidy, and the deranged inspiration for Ginsberg. But Hunke was also a writer - lyrical and empathetic.
August 3, 2016
Before I began this book, I knew nothing about Herbert Huncke. I was aware of and have read some of the Beats--Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs--but have never paid terribly close attention to them. Suddenly, with this biography, I'm intrigued. Huncke was something of a minor planet in this solar system of writers, but still a remarkable figure. This book tells a fascinating story.
March 9, 2015
Fascinating book and really fleshes out the life of a character that just flashes in an out of Beat Novels. Recommended for anyone interested in the backstory of the Beats and that era.
September 20, 2022
A thorough biography of Huncke. The title says it all, so his credentials are well established, and I don't need to enumerate them here. What I liked about it was that it finally filled in the picture for me - the 'last Beat' in my consciousness', I guess, as I have read extensively about the others. For years I knew only one photo of him, in a Times Square booth, all low-key and lo-tech and all the more enigmatic for it.
As with Cassady, I remain more interested in the man than in his writing. Huncke's own work, squeezed out here and there in between junk and hustles and the increasing problems of both in his old age, doesn't grab me so much now. I'm sure my 20 or 30-year-old self would have gone for it.
A very honest portrait of a man who was honest with himself first, even when he was (often very cynically) duping others into buying his aura of the beatific. A great book. I recommend it not only to fans of thew Beats but to anybody interested in America's twentieth century in terms of its city life and social history.
As with Cassady, I remain more interested in the man than in his writing. Huncke's own work, squeezed out here and there in between junk and hustles and the increasing problems of both in his old age, doesn't grab me so much now. I'm sure my 20 or 30-year-old self would have gone for it.
A very honest portrait of a man who was honest with himself first, even when he was (often very cynically) duping others into buying his aura of the beatific. A great book. I recommend it not only to fans of thew Beats but to anybody interested in America's twentieth century in terms of its city life and social history.
April 1, 2017
Well, now I have to read all my Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs again while considering the impact of Huncke on their lives and writing. This book was a giveaway from my local bookstore, a do-not-sell galley stacked on a table under the word "FREE." Two years ago, I claimed it as my own. This week I finally got around to reading it. It's good.
Hillary Holladay has done her research here, limning the dawn of the beat generation, but taking it a step or two further than most chroniclers, putting Herbert Huncke smack in the muse slot. Without him, Kerouac wouldn't have used the word "Beat," Ginsberg wouldn't have become corrupted enough to write "Howl."
Huncke lived a long life for a junky. An addict for most of his life, he was a cheat and a thief, a con man that ripped off friends. He'd brazenly steal his writer friends' typewriters and leave them the pawn tickets so the could reclaim them. He swiped rare books and sold them, leached of their goodwill, shot up drugs in their bathrooms. But the kept indulging him. Why? He was charming and he could tell a good story.
Huncke found himself written into all his friends' books. But he wasn't content to sit back and just bask in reflected glory. Junky or not he had literary aspirations of his own. And, according to Holladay, his stories rang truer than those of the beats. Where they observed, he lived. And the prose he wrote --smooth, rhythmic, flowing-- reflected this. He was nothing but honest in his work, the scrim of fiction thin and translucent so we could see what might be the real Huncke through it.
Holladay's book is a great guide for a systematic re-read of the Beats. Now, onto that task.
Hillary Holladay has done her research here, limning the dawn of the beat generation, but taking it a step or two further than most chroniclers, putting Herbert Huncke smack in the muse slot. Without him, Kerouac wouldn't have used the word "Beat," Ginsberg wouldn't have become corrupted enough to write "Howl."
Huncke lived a long life for a junky. An addict for most of his life, he was a cheat and a thief, a con man that ripped off friends. He'd brazenly steal his writer friends' typewriters and leave them the pawn tickets so the could reclaim them. He swiped rare books and sold them, leached of their goodwill, shot up drugs in their bathrooms. But the kept indulging him. Why? He was charming and he could tell a good story.
Huncke found himself written into all his friends' books. But he wasn't content to sit back and just bask in reflected glory. Junky or not he had literary aspirations of his own. And, according to Holladay, his stories rang truer than those of the beats. Where they observed, he lived. And the prose he wrote --smooth, rhythmic, flowing-- reflected this. He was nothing but honest in his work, the scrim of fiction thin and translucent so we could see what might be the real Huncke through it.
Holladay's book is a great guide for a systematic re-read of the Beats. Now, onto that task.
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