Beat Generation
Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York. The name arose in a conversation with writer John Clellon Holmes. Kerouac allows that it was Huncke, a street hustler, who originally used the phrase "beat", in an earlier discussion with him. The adjective "beat" could colloquially mean "tired" or "beaten down" within the African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image "beat to his socks", but Kerouac appropriated the image and altered the meaning to include the connotations "upbeat", "beatific", and the musical association of being "on the beat", and "the Beat to keep" from the "Beat Generation" poem.
Ed Piskor
In 2009 Piskor collaborated with Pekar on the graphic book "The Beats: A Graphic History". The book was published in the UK by Souvenir Press Ltd and drew plaudits from Studs Terkel: “"The Beats" is as fresh and pertinent as the latest scholarly history, only far more entertaining.” "The Beats" tells the story of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and John Clellon Holmes who became known as The Beat Generation. This cultural revolution is seen through the eyes of the movement's key figures and its minor characters including Diane di Prima, Carolyn Cassady, Philip Lamantia, and others. The startlingly original graphic non-fiction work was highly praised in "Vanity Fair": “Editor Paul Buhle’s graphic history "The Beats" — with riffs from cats such as Harvey Pekar and Trina Robbins — burns like a Roman candle.”