America's Beat Generation Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1950s

The Beat generation was a group of young (mainly) men, who had seen the end of the Second World War and the first use of the atomic bomb in anger. Although the war had ended, the world had moved straight into the Cold War with the underlying threat of more nuclear disaster, so the 1950s created a need for rebellion in young men. They rejected the traditional standards of both the American 'way of life' and mainstream poetry, with spontaneity being key.

Britain had a similar rebellious group, dubbed 'the angry young men', which included Harold Pinter and John Osborne, who also rejected the status quo, expressing their dissatisfaction in plays and novels.

Answer: San Francisco

Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac met while both were studying at Columbia University in New York in the 1940s. Burroughs, some years older than the other two, was living in New York and involved in petty crime and drug use. Greenwich Village became the area of choice for the Beat generation, an expression coined by Kerouac. Ginsberg moved to San Francisco in 1954 and the city became the new centre of the movement.

It was also where his most famous work, 'Howl and Other Poems', was published in 1956.

Answer: William Blake

Ginsberg claimed that Blake appeared to him twice. On the first occasion, in 1945, Ginsberg 'saw' Blake read his poem 'Ah, Sun-flower' to him and the poet appeared again in 1948 while Ginsberg was reading 'The Sick Rose'. Ginsberg claimed it as being 'the deepest spiritual experience' of his life, often read 'Ah, Sun-flower' during performances and wrote poetry about sunflowers himself. Blake himself claimed to be inspired by visions with his poems being channelled through him rather than being his own creation.

Of the other options, Chaucer lived in the fourteenth century, Owen was a World War I poet and Keats lived from 1795 to 1821.

Answer: Naked Lunch

William Lee is the name adopted by William Burroughs in the book, based on his own experiences and written in the form of what Burroughs named 'routines'. The 'routines', or vignettes, can be read in any order and are 'snapshots' of episodes in the life of the main character, who also goes by various other names in the book. The publication date of 1959 refers to an edition published in France by Olympia Press, who used the title 'The Naked Lunch'. It was not published in the USA until 1962. The explicit descriptions of Lee's drug use and sex, including homosexual sex, in America, Mexico and an 'out of this world' place called the interzone caused huge controversy.

Of the works listed, only 'Naked Lunch' is by Burroughs - the rest are by Kerouac.

Answer: Mexico

In lives filled with controversy, this might be the most controversial event of all. Burroughs was dependent on drugs and was arrested on suspicion of arranging a shipment of marijuana - an offence which could have led to imprisonment. He moved to Mexico City, out of reach of US justice, where Joan and her two children, the younger one having been fathered by Burroughs, joined him. Life there was shambolic - Burroughs was regularly unfaithful, often with men.

In September 1951, Joan was shot dead aged only twenty-eight.

The only facts that are certain are that she was shot in the head and the gun was owned by Burroughs. He changed his explanation of events several times, but the version which has passed into folklore is that Joan had balanced a glass on her head which Burroughs had shot at in an effort to imitate William Tell with inevitable and tragic results.

Answer: Carlo Marx

Published in 1957, the book is based on various journeys made by Kerouac and his associates, who are given new names in the novel. Kerouac himself is known as Sal Paradise, Neal Cassady is Dean Moriarty, Burroughs is Old Bull Lee (Lee being his mother's maiden name) and Ginsberg is called Carlo Marx.

The name may be based on Karl Marx and chosen to reflect the group's anti-capitalism ideals. The novel met with a mixed response initially, but came to be considered a seminal work of American literature with artists such as Bob Dylan and Van Morrison citing it as inspiration for their own writings.

Answer: Burroughs

The first William Seward Burroughs was born in 1857 and invented a calculating machined used in financial institutions, such as banks. The company bearing his name became part of Unisys in 1986. His second son, Mortimer, was the father of the Beat poet who was given the name of his grandfather, who had died sixteen years before his birth.

The name was passed on to Burroughs' own son, with Joan Vollmer, born in 1947. William Seward Burroughs III fathered no acknowledged children and died young due to liver problems brought about by alcoholism.

Answer: City Lights

The bookstore, still going strong at the time of writing (2020) was established in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, himself a poet, and Peter D. Martin. Ginsberg read his poem 'Howl' at the Six Gallery, Ferlinghetti was there to hear it, and contacted Ginsberg asking to publish it. Ginsberg extended his original poem, added some more of his work and the book was published in 1955 as 'Howl and Other Poems', with William Carlos Williams providing an introduction. In 1957, copies of the book were seized and City Lights prosecuted for publishing obscene material due to its sexual content. The case was dismissed by the California State Superior Court which ruled that the work met the test of 'redeeming social importance'.

Penguin won a similar case in the UK, brought in 1960, over the publication of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', written by D H Lawrence in 1928 but not previously available in Britain without being heavily censored.

Answer: Burroughs

Burroughs was the oldest member of the main group, the longest lived and the last (just) to die. He was born in February 1914 and died in August 1997. Ginsberg also died in 1997, in April, at the age of 70. Neal Cassady moved from the Beat poets to the 'Merry Pranksters', a group surrounding author Ken Kesey and part of the psychedelic era fuelled by LSD.

He died in 1968 at the age of 41 having spent a cold night outdoors, with the cause of death unclear but possibly being at least partly due to exposure. Kerouac died in 1969, at the age of 47, from a haemorrhage attributed to cirrhosis caused by years of heavy drinking.

Answer: Madness

If 'On the Road' is the best known novel of the Beat generation then 'Howl' is likely to be the poem most people will have heard of. 'Madness' is the word used by Ginsberg although the alcohol, drugs and promiscuous lifestyle would all have contributed to the madness.

As in Kerouac's novel, the poem has numerous references to other members of the group and mentions incidents that happened in their lives. Other parts are inspired by hallucinations, in particular that of a monster seen by Ginsberg and named Moloch in the poem.

The poem is dedicated to Carl Solomon, who is explicitly named in Part III, although Solomon himself has said that this part of the poem is 'garbled history'.