Herbert Huncke

Herbert Huncke (January 9, 1915 – August 8, 1996) was a naturally gifted storyteller who fascinated William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, when they met him in Times Square in the mid-1940s. He introduced Burroughs to heroin and worked on Burroughs’ short-lived pot farm in Texas. He was a master of slang, picked up from his experiences as a sex worker on 42nd Street, working as a maritime sailor, and as an incarcerated prisoner.  Many people credit Huncke’s use of the word “beat” as the inspiration for naming the Beat Generation. He spent a considerable part of his life in and out of jails, and his range of experience lent depth to his narrative voice. His autobiography, “Guilty of Everything”, was recorded, transcribed, and published in 1990. Herbert Huncke spent his last years in the Chelsea Hotel, his rent paid by Jerry Garcia, whom he never met.