About the Beat Writers, Poets and Beat Generation Research (Essay Sample)

About the Beat Writers, Poets and the Beat Generation
Patrick M. Makau
East Africa University
The beat generation can be traced to the post second world war period as writers began to form a sense of self definition upon the discovery of this very famous word; beat. The beat generation comprised of a group of the earliest writers who had assembled together for the purpose of forming a feeling of self-definition among themselves.
Hustlers and Jazz musicians began to use the word ‘beat’ after the World War II. The word was a slang term meaning ‘down and out’, or simply ‘poor and exhausted’. It was during this period that Mezz Mezzrow, a jazz musician, combined the word ‘beat’ with other words such as ‘beat-up’ or ‘dead beat’ which he wrote in his book; Really the Blues. Herbert Huncke, a Times Square hustler, brought to the attention of William Burroughs, a writer, the use of the word ‘beat’ in 1944. From Burroughs, the word ‘beat’ was consequently passed on to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg.
It can therefore be said that the term ‘beat’ was coined in the late 1940’s by Jack Kerouac and was eventually popularized by himself and other writers such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsburg who were at the time beginning to gain prominence. The beat generation used the term to give them a definitive tag for their personal as well as social positions, and perspectives (Mayeer 1).
The anti-authoritarian politics as well as the insurgent thinking of the beat legacy bears great influence in stores where such literature can be found. Beat poetry, on the other hand, is a post war concept which evolved around the late 1940’s around New York City and the West Coast, and San Francisco eventually became the center of the movement in the 1950’s. The movement is in essence an aftermath of a war. By the end of the Second World War, poets like Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Gorso and Lawrence Ferlinghetti began to question mainstream culture and politics and they later became the beat generation. The beat generation comprised of young writers and poets who were determined to change consciousness and to defy conventional writing. At that time, the beats became closely intertwined with the renaissance movement poets of San Francisco such as Robert Duncan and Kenneth Rexroth (Kelog 1).
The beats were dedicated to the battle against conformity and as such literary tradition was key to their work. The beat poets used hallucinogenic drugs to achieve higher consciousness. The poets also used meditation and Eastern religion to achieve higher consciousness and Buddhism became very important to most of the beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder who intensely studied Buddhism. Much of their works borrow heavily from the morals and principles that the poets learned from this religion.
The beat poets are represented by ‘Howl and Other Poems’ which was the first book from the beats written by Allen Ginsberg. This book was published in 1956 by City Lights press which belonged to Lawrence Farlinghetti (Mayer 2)
The beat poets gained national attention and recognition after a case in which Ginsberg had been charged for obscenities after he publi...