The Herbert Huncke Reader — Herbert E. Huncke

Herbert Huncke was the original Beat. A hustler, carny, addict, petty thief, street philosopher, and chronicler of the demimonde, he was the archetype on which a generation modeled itself. In the 1940s, Huncke befriended the young William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, guiding them through New York's underground and introducing them to a world of volatile experience they had never imagined. His extraordinary ability to relate his life story in pared-down, unaffected prose inspired them to create a new type of literature, free of constraint and self-consciousness.

Huncke's work is a vital part of Beat literature, but until now has remained relatively unknown. The Herbert Huncke Reader includes the full texts of Huncke's long out-of-print classics; Huncke's Journal and The Evening Sun Turned Crimson; excerpts from his autobiography, Guilty of Everything; and a wide selection from his unpublished letters and diaries.