Originating in the 1950s and primarily centered in select communities of California, such as North Beach and Venice West, and New York City’s Greenwich Village, the Beat Generation essentially constituted a countercultural movement in opposition to the traditional, established culture of mid-twentieth-century America. Extending in scope beyond the world of art, literature, painting, and music, the Beat movement included a wide variety of social expression. Adherents of the Beat Generation originally coined the term “beat” to signify their weariness with society in general, but also used the word in a spiritual sense, the beatific inspiration that many of them found in music and religion, including Buddhism, Zen, and other Eastern philosophies. Often using their lifestyle as a means through which to convey their alienation from contemporary society, the Beats expressed their defiance of convention through experiments...