Herbert Huncke

Herbert Huncke (January 9, 1915 – August 8, 1996) was a rare blend of sub-culture icon, writer, homosexual pioneer (he participated in Alfred Kinsey's studies), drug addict, common criminal, friend and enemy to America's most important social movements of the 20th century. He lived a remarkable, and yet all-too-human, life spending decades incarcerated and decades more writing and contributing to the Beat Generation among other artistic endeavours.

New York City & Times Square

Huncke arrived in New York City in 1939. He was dropped off at 103rd and Broadway, and he asked the person from whom he had hitched a ride how to find 42nd Street. "You walk straight down Broadway", he was told, "and you will find 42nd Street". Huncke, always a good dresser, bought a boutonniere for his jacket and headed for 42nd Street. For the next ten years Huncke was a 42nd Street regular and became known as the "Mayor of 42nd Street".

Related Topics:
Broadway - 42nd Street

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At this point, Huncke's regular haunts were 42nd Street and Times Square, where he associated with people of all kinds including prostitutes (both male and female) and sailors. During World War II, Huncke shipped out to sea as a merchant marine to ports in South America, Africa and Europe. He landed on the beach of Normandy three days after the invasion.

Related Topics:
Times Square - Prostitute - World War II - Merchant marine - South America - Africa - Europe - Normandy - Invasion

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Aboard ships, Huncke would kick his drug habit or keep it up with morphine syrettes supplied by the ship medic. When he returned to New York, he returned to 42nd Street, and it was after one of these trips where he met then-unknown writer William S. Burroughs, who was selling a sawed-off shotgun and a box of morphine syrettes. Huncke took an immediate dislike to Burroughs and thought he was "heat," slang for undercover police or FBI. Assured that Burroughs was all right, Huncke bought the morphine and, at Burroughs' request, immediately gave him an injection.

Related Topics:
Morphine - Syrettes - William S. Burroughs - Shotgun - FBI

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thus began a long career of drug use by Burroughs, and Huncke became a lead character in William Burrough's first pulp novel, written under the pseudonyme Bill Lee, JUNKIE: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Huncke was a bisexual hustler, drug user, thief and burglar. His autobiography, titled Guilty of Everything, was lived in the 1940s and 1960s but published in the 1990s. He was a non-violent man and an exceptionally good story teller.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the late 1940s, Huncke was recruited to be a subject in Alfred Kinsey's research on the sexual habits of the American male. He was interviewed by Kinsey, and recruited fellow addicts and friends to participate. Huncke was a writer, unpublished, since his days in Chicago and oscillated toward literary types and musicians. In the music world, Huncke visited all the jazz clubs and associated with Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon (with whom he was once busted on 42nd Street for breaking into a parked car). When he first met Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, they were interested in writing and also unpublished. They were inspired by his stories of 42nd Street life, criminal life, street slang and Huncke's vast experience with drugs.

Related Topics:
Billie Holiday - Charlie Parker - Dexter Gordon - Allen Ginsberg - Jack Kerouac - William Burroughs

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is through Huncke that Burroughs was first exposed to jive talk and morphine, elements that would become central to Burroughs' writing. Huncke appears in Junky, William Burroughs? first novel published under the pen name William Lee in 1952. Huncke was a close friend of Joan Adams Vollmer Burroughs, William's common-law wife, as he shared a fondness for amphetamines with her. In the late 1940s Huncke was invited to Texas to grow marijuana on the Burroughs farm.

Related Topics:
Jive - Morphine - Amphetamine - Texas - Marijuana

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Huncke told them stories of life on 42nd Street, his life on the road prior to New York City and, obligingly, turned them on to drugs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although it was his passion for thievery, heroin use and the outlaw lifestyle which fueled his daily activities, ultimately, when he was caught, he never ratted out his friends. In the late 1940s, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Melody and "Detroit Redhead" flipped a car in Queens, New York, while trying to run down a motorcycle cop. Although Huncke was not at the scene of the crime, he was picked-up in Manhattan because he lived with Ginsberg, and Huncke received the heavy prison sentence.

Related Topics:
Heroin - Queens, New York - Manhattan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Someone had to do the bit." Huncke said years later.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~