Times Square and Herbert Huncke

The term 'beat' didn't originate from jazz rhythms or Buddhist enlightenment, but from the mouth of Herbert Huncke, a small-time thief and drug addict who haunted Times Square's seedy underbelly. Huncke used 'beat' to describe being down and out, exhausted by life's struggles. Through Burroughs, who was fascinated by criminal psychology, Huncke became the Beats' connection to New York's underworld of hustlers, addicts, and petty criminals.

• Huncke coined 'beat' meaning down and out

• Times Square was center of underground culture

• Burroughs studied criminal psychology through Huncke

• Group romanticized outsider criminal lifestyle