Often overlooked as a minor player on the fringes of the Beat Generation and largely dismissed by others as a scam artist, junkie, and hustler, Herbert Huncke was in fact a significant writer who served as a mentor and inspiration to such legendary figures as Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac.

In this biography, Hilary Holladay has given this unsung poet of the streets his due, both in terms of his own literary merit and the major role he played in influencing the Beats and many others. Detailing Huncke's colorful life—from his childhood in a Wyoming rancher's household and his family's move to Chicago to his rebellion as a 12-year-old runaway and run-ins with the law—Holladay traces his journeys that subsequently took him to Manhattan, where he became a guide to the city's underbelly for impressionable adventurers seeking the pulse of the city's palpitating literary, artistic, and musical heart.

2014 Lambda Literary Award finalist