"It's the beat to keep."

The Harry Ransom Center at UT recently opened its exhibition of "On the Road with the Beats," which celebrates the influential work of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. The varied meanings of the term beat are evident in Kerouac's "San Francisco Scene," which appears on the spoken word CD The Beat Generation and in Kerouac: A Biography (pg. 272):

He's wailing beer caps of bottles and jamming at the cash register, and everything is going to the beat. It's the beat generation. It's beat. It's the beat to keep. It's the beat of the heart. It's being beat and down in the world, and like old time lowdown, and like in ancient civilizations, the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to the beat.

So, are you a Beatnik? Check out a few of our many books about the Beat Generation and then take the Beatnik Questionnaire! Here are just a few to get you started:

The Beats: From Kerouac to Kesey: An Illustrated Journey through the Beat Generation

Encyclopedia of Beat Literature

Naked Angels: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs

Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation

Beat Down to Your Soul: What Was the Beat Generation?

Paradise Outlaws: Remembering the Beats