Like several people who have more money than I do, The Beat Generation had two homes, one in New York and one on the San Francisco Bay. The Beat movement originated in New York City, but San Francisco's West Coast ways helped to mellow the hard-edged New York Beats -- they came away converted to Buddhism and aware of nature. San Francisco benefited from the association as well: the thriving acid-flavored San Francisco music scene of the 1960's originated with Ken Kesey's merry Beat-inspired escapades.
San Francisco first shows up in Beat history as one of several mystical destinations for Sal Paradise, Jack Kerouac's altar ego in 'On The Road.' He heads for 'Frisco' (I was later told that people in San Francisco do not actually call the city 'Frisco'), imagining scenes from the books of Jack London and Adam Saroyan, hoping to find ecstatic freedom from the spiritual oppressiveness of his own East Coast. He doesn't fully find it there, or anywhere else (except in a few isolated, unplanned moments that leave him more disconcerted than enlightened).
All of Kerouac's friends were wandering over to the Bay Area, though. Neal Cassady settled down in San Jose, on the South Bay, and worked there as a brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Visiting him, New Jersey native Allen Ginsberg made an important connection by showing up at Kenneth Rexroth's door with a letter of introduction from William Carlos Williams. Rexroth had already gathered together a vibrant community of San Francisco area poets and writers, which included Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and two poets from Reed College in Oregon, Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen. In October 1955, several of these poets joined to present a now legendary poetry reading at the Six Gallery at Union and Fillmore. This period became known as the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, and is also generally thought of as the kickoff point for the Beat Movement in literature.
San Francisco first shows up in Beat history as one of several mystical destinations for Sal Paradise, Jack Kerouac's altar ego in 'On The Road.' He heads for 'Frisco' (I was later told that people in San Francisco do not actually call the city 'Frisco'), imagining scenes from the books of Jack London and Adam Saroyan, hoping to find ecstatic freedom from the spiritual oppressiveness of his own East Coast. He doesn't fully find it there, or anywhere else (except in a few isolated, unplanned moments that leave him more disconcerted than enlightened).
All of Kerouac's friends were wandering over to the Bay Area, though. Neal Cassady settled down in San Jose, on the South Bay, and worked there as a brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Visiting him, New Jersey native Allen Ginsberg made an important connection by showing up at Kenneth Rexroth's door with a letter of introduction from William Carlos Williams. Rexroth had already gathered together a vibrant community of San Francisco area poets and writers, which included Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and two poets from Reed College in Oregon, Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen. In October 1955, several of these poets joined to present a now legendary poetry reading at the Six Gallery at Union and Fillmore. This period became known as the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, and is also generally thought of as the kickoff point for the Beat Movement in literature.