The Herbert Huncke Reader [Hardcover]

Herbert Huncke (Author), Benjamin G. Schafer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

Herbert Huncke's most enduring contribution to the Beat Generation was not his use of drugs or his easy attitude toward the law. What most captivated the Beats was his extraordinary ability to relate his life story in pared-down, unaffected prose. It 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 it 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The Evening Sun Turned Crimson, excerpts from his autobiography, Guilty of Everything, and a wide selection from his unpublished letters and diaries.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Petty thief, drug addict, and Times Square hustler, Huncke (Guilty of Everything, LJ 4/1/90) led the writers of the Beat Generation from the rarefied halls of Columbia University to an exciting world of sex, drugs, and crime. He appears as a character in several Beat works including Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Allen Ginsberg's Howl, and William Burroughs's Junkie. Huncke lacked in formal education but was nonetheless charming and articulate, a gifted storyteller. Encouraged by Ginsberg and others, he published several books, including Huncke's Journal (1965) and The Evening Sun Turned Crimson (1980). This posthumously published collection reprints these two titles, long unavailable, and includes excerpts from Huncke's autobiography, as well as previously unpublished stories and letters. Highly recommended for all literature collections.?William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Herbert Huncke was the original Beat. 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 ability to relate his life story in pared-down, unaffected prose inspired them to create a new type of literature.

Herbert Huncke was born in 1915, in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He died in New York City on August 8, 1996. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068815266X
• ISBN-13: 978-0688152666
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should take notice, December 16, 2002

By 

Daniel Roberts (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Herbert Huncke Reader (Paperback)

There are few authors I feel everyone should read but no matter who you are Herbert Huncke should be read. He is one of the best storytellers/writers I have had the privilege of reading. His stories of sex, streets, drugs, life and friends bring a humanity to what may be considered by many obscure, degenerate, or just plain disgusting, but Hunckes stories I believe are non of these. They are filled with love, beauty, pain and always truth. He takes the reader into a world they dont always want to enter but when the story is finished we are glad we made the journey and had someone like Huncke by our side as a companion.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The true beat, June 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Herbert Huncke Reader (Paperback)

Herbert Huncke was the true beat. As WS Burroughs wrote, in The Herbert Huncke Reader, "Huncke had adventures and misadventures that were not available to middle-class, comparatively wealthy college people like...me....Huncke had extraordinary experiences that were quite genuine." The sad true is that Huncke was the type that Burroughs wrote about, but didn't like much. He was real. Burroughs was living on trust-fund money for decades (remember that the $200 a month WSB received from family in the 1950s was equal to thousands of dollars a month now-not a bad way to live). Huncke lived the life that others wrote about, but never live. While Burroughs ate steak and drank fine booze, Huncke was still wandering around Times Square. Read the original beat. He makes the other `beat' writers seem like the middle-class dilatants that many of them were. Huncke never fought for the fame, the fortune, and the boys. He was just a "junkie on the prow." This book is truly hip.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and demented urban fairy tales, October 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Herbert Huncke Reader (Paperback)

Herbert Huncke's off-the-grid desperado lifestyle caused him much discomfort over the years, but the rest of us can only benefit from the writings of a man who rode the rails with the yeggs and, grifters of another era. I once asked Huncke if the Salvation Army stations made you pray before you got food in the old days. "No man, the Sallys were great. They fed your ass, gave you a cot and some clean clothes to replace the rags you walked in with. The Sallys were nothin' but good." If you're seeking inside information on the lean years from a primary source, you can skip Professor Flotsky's long-winded textbooks and go right to The Man.The Huncke reader is more of the same; straight talk from a guy who's fallen, dusted himself off, and climbed right back on the rods for another ride to Wherever.