Herbert Huncke was born on January 9th, 1915 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. Early in his life, he discovered the underworld of the city and educated himself in the ways of a small-time thief and rogue. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs came to like Huncke very easily, though Ginsberg had some problems with Huncke keeping stolen goods and drugs in his New York apartment. As quoted from the LitKicks homepage: "This phase ended in a dramatic police bust on Utopia Parkway in Bayside, Queens, during which Ginsberg frantically phoned Huncke and told him to "clean out the place" before the cops got there. Ginsberg arrived at his apartment moments ahead of the cops to find that Huncke had taken him literally. He'd tidied up and swept the floor, but the stolen goods were not moved. Ginsberg might not have been amused at the time, but there's a certain Zen purity to this kind of thing that makes it clear why Burroughs, Ginsberg and Kerouac all liked Huncke so much." Huncke died on August 8th, 1996 in a New York City hospital.
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