The following is a chronology of events related to the Beat Generation. It was hard to compile this in a way that was neither too broad nor too narrow. Should I have included Beat-related individuals, for example? And what the heck even was the Beat Generation? Its boundaries have never been satisfactorily defined. Also, what events are relevant for inclusion here? I have tried to list notable births, deaths, events, and publications, but of course much has been excluded. Also, as with so much of Beat history, finding a simple date can be a headache. When did the Six Gallery reading occur? When was Herbert Huncke really born? Such questions can be answered, but many sources get them wrong. No doubt one or two dates below are wrong… Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send an e-mail if you see something that needs added or corrected.
“D.U.” means that the exact date is unknown.
1905
22 December – Kenneth Rexroth is born
1912
10 September – William Everson is born
1914
5 February – William S. Burroughs is born
1915
9 January – Herbert Huncke is born
1916
19 January – Brion Gysin is born
16 July – Harold Norse is born
1919
7 January – Robert Duncan is born
24 March – Lawrence Ferlinghetti is born
1921
22 April – Henri Cru is born
6 November – Bill Cannastra is born (I have also seen December, 1922)
1922
23 January – Alan Ansen is born
12 March – Jack Kerouac is born
20 September – Edie Parker is born
1923
4 February – Joan Vollmer is born
28 April – Carolyn Cassady (née Robinson) is born
20 October – Philip Whalen is born
1925
1 March – Lucian Carr is born
18 April – Bob Kaufman is born
1926
8 February – Neal Cassady is born
12 March – John Clellon Holmes is born
21 May – Robert Creeley is born
2 June – Gerard Kerouac (Jack’s older brother) dies, aged 9
3 June – Allen Ginsberg is born
16 August – Lew Welch is born
1927
23 October – Philip Lamantia is born
D.U. – William S. Burroughs, about 13, reads Jack Black’s “You Can’t Win”
1928
30 March – Carl Solomon is born
4 July – Ted Joans is born
1929
6 November – Jack Micheline is born
D.U. William S. Burroughs, about 15, published his first essay
1930
26 March – Gregory Corso is born
8 May – Gary Snyder is born
17 November – David Amram is born
1931
D.U. Joan Haverty is born
1932
14 January – Lenore Kandel is born
20 October – Michael McClure is born
1933
8 July – Peter Orlovsky is born
31 July – Elise Cowen is born
D.U. Jack Kerouac, around 11, begins writing fiction
1934
22 February – Ray Bremser is born
6 August – Diane di Prima is born
7 October – LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) is born
19 November – Joanne Kyger is born
1935
27 September – Joyce Johnson (née Glassman) is born
1943
18 December – Allen Ginsberg meets William S. Burroughs for the first time
1944
14 August – Lucian Carr kills David Kammerer
22 August – Jack Kerouac marries Edie Parker
6 October – Lucian Carr is sentenced to two years for killing David Kammerer
D.U. December – Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs collaborate on And the Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks
1945
16 March – Allen Ginsberg is suspended from Columbia University
2 April – Ann Waldman is born
D.U. late in the year – Allen Ginsberg uses “beat” in a poem, the first known written use after Herbert Huncke introduces the word to the group who would later be known as “the Beat Generation”
1946
D.U. January – Herbert Huncke gives William S. Burroughs heroin for the first time
D.U. December – Neal Cassady arrives in New York and meets Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
1947
12 September – Allen Ginsberg sails for Africa with the Merchant Marine, the first of many foreign voyages
1948
1 April – Neal Cassady marries Carolyn Robinson
D.U. July – Allen Ginsberg has a “vision” of William Blake
10 December – Jack Kerouac uses the term “beat generation” to John Clellon Holmes
1949
21 April – Allen Ginsberg is arrested after Herbert Huncke stores stolen goods at his apartment
29 June – Allen Ginsberg enters Columbia Psychiatric Institute, where he meets Carl Solomon
1950
1 March – The Town and the City (Jack Kerouac’s first novel) is published
D.U. March – Allen Ginsberg meets Gregory Corso
12 October – Bill Cannastra dies in a drunken subway accident
17 November – Jack Kerouac marries Joan Haverty
27 December – Jack Kerouac receives “the Joan Anderson Letter” from Neal Cassady
1951
D.U. April – Jack Kerouac writes a draft of On the Road on a scroll of paper
6 September – Joan Vollmer dies
25 October – Jack Kerouac invents “spontaneous prose”
1952
20 January – John Hoffman dies in Mexico (Philip Lamantia later reads his work at the 6 Gallery reading)
16 November – John Clellon Holmes publishes “This is the Beat Generation” in the New York Times Magazine
1953
D.U. Junkie is published
D.U. June – City Lights is founded by Peter Martin (Lawrence Ferlinghetti soon buys in)
D.U. December – William S. Burroughs moves to Tangier
19 December – Allen Ginsberg sets out on his first major foreign voyage through Cuba and Mexico, where he would make great poetic leaps
1954
20 August – Carolyn Cassady finds her husband Neal in bed with Allen Ginsberg; she takes him to San Francisco and he settles for a while in North Beach, near City Lights
31 October – Six poets/painters found the Six (or “6”) Gallery on Fillmore Street in San Francisco
28 December – Allen Ginsberg meets Peter Orlovsky at painter Robert LaVigne’s home
1955
20 January – Robert Duncan and Michael McClure appear in Faust Foutu, a performance that inspires Allen Ginsberg and others
D.U. April – Kerouac publishes “Jazz of the Beat Generation” in New World Writing 7
10 August – City Lights publishes the first of its Pocket Poets series, Pictures of the Gone World
D.U. August – Allen Ginsberg writes much of “Howl Part I” in San Francisco (find out when he might have written it here)
1 September – Allen Ginsberg moves into his Milvia Street cottage in Berkeley
8 September – Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder meet for the first time
23 September – Jack Kerouac (with Allen Ginsberg) meets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen for the first time
7 October – Six Gallery reading (most books list the date as 13 October but that is incorrect)
8 October – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in the wee hours, telegrams Allen Ginsberg asking for the manuscript for “Howl”
31 October – Natalie Jackson dies by suicide
27 December – Carl Solomon gives his permission for Allen Ginsberg to publish “Howl”
1956
D.U. January – Jack Kerouac writes Visions of Gerard
13-14 February – Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg read at Reed College, Portland. During one of these events (it is unclear which), they are recorded, making this the first known recording of “Howl Part I.”
18 March – The Six Gallery reading is recreated at Town Hall Theater with a larger audience, this time including Ann Charters, and professional audio recording. This is the first full recording of “Howl.”
6 May – Gary Snyder moves to Japan
9 June – Naomi Ginsberg (Allen’s mother) dies
25 June – Jack Kerouac begins fire lookout training
5 July – Jack Kerouac begins working as fire lookout on Desolation Peak
2 September – Richard Eberhart article, “West Coast Rhythms” published in the New York Times
6 September – Jack Kerouac leaves Desolation Peak
1 October – Howl and Other Poems is published by City Lights
30 October – Allen Ginsberg strips naked at a reading in Los Angeles in front of Anais Nin
D.U. Black Mountain College shuts down
1957
15 February – Jack Kerouac goes to Tangier
10 March – Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky go to Tangier
25 March – 520 copies of Howl seized by customs
3 June – Shig Murao arrested for selling Howl
11 June – Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky leave Tangier to begin their European voyage
8 August – Howl and Other Poems goes on trial
5 September – On the Road is published
3 October – Judge Clayton W. Horn deems “Howl” not obscene
15 October – Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky settle in at the Beat Hotel in Paris
26 November – Kerouac begins work on The Dharma Bums. It takes him less than 2 weeks to complete a draft.
30 November – The Six Gallery closes with a chaotic party
D.U. November – Allen Ginsberg begins work on “Kaddish” whilst in Paris
1958
D.U. January – William S. Burroughs moves into the Beat Hotel
2 February – Allen Ginsberg arrives in England for the first time, where he records “Howl” for the BBC
2 April – Herb Caen coins the term “beatnik” in the San Francisco Examiner
8 April – Neal Cassady is arrested and later sentenced to two years in San Quentin
17 July – Allen Ginsberg returns to the U.S. after 16 months of travel
13 October – Hettie Cohen and LeRoi Jones are married
16 November – Jack Kerouac appears on The Steve Allen Show
D.U. November – Allen Ginsberg writes most of the rest of “Kaddish”
1959
D.U. March – Big Table 1, featuring Naked Lunch excerpts, is impounded for obscenity
9 May – Beatitude #1 is published
1 October – William S. Burroughs begins his cut-up experiments
1960
14 January – Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti fly to South America, where Ginsberg travels alone for 6 months
D.U. May – Jack Kerouac visits Big Sur, which he would later write about in a novel of the same name
29 May – New American Poetry 1945-1960, edited by Donald Allen, is published
5 July – Judge Hoffman overturns ban on Big Table
D.U. June – Allen Ginsberg tries yage 8 times
26 November – Timothy Leary gives Allen Ginsberg psilocybin
1961
D.U. February – Floating Bear #1 is published, edited by Diane di Prima and Amiri Baraka
23 March – Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky set off on a round-the-world trip
1962
1 February – Elise Cowen dies by suicide
15 February – Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky arrive in India, where they soon meet Gary Snyder and Joanne Kyger
D.U. August – William S. Burroughs attends the International Writers’ Conference in Scotland
11 September – Big Sur is published
1964
14 June – Neal Cassady joins Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on their cross-country journey
12-24 July – The Berkeley Poetry Conference features many Beat-related writers
27 August – the last meeting of Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac
1965
18 February – Allen Ginsberg is deported from Cuba
1May – Allen Ginsberg is crowned King of May in Prague
7 May – Allen Ginsberg is deported from Czechoslovakia
9 May – Allen Ginsberg meets John Lennon
3 June – Allen Ginsberg meets the Beatles on his birthday
11 June – Beat poetry reading at the Albert Hall, London
1966
7 July – Naked Lunch is ruled not obscene
9 July – Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso read in Spoleto; Ginsberg is arrested after the reading
15-17 November – Arrests made over the selling of Lenore Kandel’s The Love Book
1967
14 January – The Human Be-In features various Beat-related writers
1968
4 February – Neal Cassady dies
1969
21 October – Jack Kerouac dies
1970
10 January – Charles Olson dies
1971
23 May – Lew Welch disappears, leaving behind a suicide note
1973
14 October – Gabrielle Kerouac dies and control of the Kerouac estate passes to the Sampas family after her will is forged
1975
May – Gary Snyder wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Turtle Island
1984
14 October – Allen Ginsberg arrives in China with Gary Snyder
1988
D.U. Beat Scene is founded by Kevin Ring
1997
5 April – Allen Ginsberg dies
2 August – William S. Burroughs dies
20 December – Denise Levertov dies
2001
17 January – Gregory Corso dies
2007
1 August – Beatdom #1 is published
2008
1 April – Philip Lamantia and John Hoffman are published together by City Lights (Lamantia read his late friend’s poems at the Six Gallery reading in 1955)
2009
24 July – Gabrielle Kerouac’s will ruled a forgery, proving the Sampas family illegally gained control of the Jack Kerouac estate
2013
20 September – Carolyn Cassady dies
2020
4 May – Michael McClure dies
31 July – ruth weiss dies
31 August – The Joan Anderson Letter is finally published
25 October – Diane di Prima dies
2021
22 February – Lawrence Ferlinghetti dies
