The Beats autobiographical impulse is still influential

Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady were early Beats

Works like Ginsberg’s "Howl" and Kerouac’s "On the Road" redefined literature, inspiring countercultural movements for several decades.

Beats emphasized the importance of 'spontaneous prose'

Beat writer Jack Kerouac believed literature should aim to be more like jazz, using improvisation to burrow down to the root of the subconscious. In this video from the University of Pennsylvania’s Modern and Contemporary Poetry course, Professor Al Filreis directs a conversation of Kerouac’s manifesto, “Essential of Spontaneous Prose.”

Read the Beats' poetry

The Beats were alike in their willingness to experiment and transgress, though the movement’s writers were distinct artists with varying styles. This collection showcases the breadth of the Beat Generation’s work, with authorized texts from Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane di Prima, Richard Brautigan and others.

The 21st-century novel is increasingly autofictional

Although autofiction, a literary genre blending autobiography and fiction, has been around for millennia, it has become a popular mode in the 21st century. This extensive study of the genre—which analyzes works by Megan Boyle, Tao Lin, and others—argues that the form has become more prevalent because it mirrors the defining technology of the times: social media.

The Beat movement started in San Francisco, but quickly moved beyond it

This documentary features interviews with Beat writers Diane di Prima and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reflecting on their arrival in San Francisco and the explosion of Beat culture in the city and beyond. “It’s not a generation,” di Prima says, reading one of her verses, “it’s a state of mind.”

A lost Jack Kerouac story was discovered in the belongings of a gunned-down mob boss

The unpublished "The Holy, Beat, and Crazy Next Thing" was found in the belongings of Paul Castellano, who was murdered in 1985. It's unclear why Castellano had it, though an heir says it was originally in the collection of a "noted San Francisco-based poet...who received it directly from the author."

Sartre admired American novelist William Faulkner

In addition to writing philosophy and fiction, Jean-Paul Sartre was also a literary critic. His 1939 essay on Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" focused on the way the American novelist commented on time, favorably comparing him to Marcel Proust. Ultimately, Sartre argues Faulkner's "despair" about a "closed future" is a result of the "social conditions of our present life." Ever the existentialist, though, Sartre suggests this reality is something that should inspire rather than depress.

The Vintage Contemporaries imprint defined the voice of 1980s and 1990s American fiction

The carefully curated line of fiction featured some of the brightest stars in late-20th-century American literature, including Jay McInerney, Cormac McCarthy, and Don DeLillo, and featured eye-catching covers that looked like nothing else on bookshelves.

‘The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby’ mapped a major transition

The hilarious 1963 story offered insight into how Americans were shifting away from elite interests to “low culture” by focusing on customized cars and their teen enthusiasts in Southern California. Wolfe pokes fun at the trend while also recognizing young people’s post-war desire for freedom, individualism and creativity.

One journalist argued New Journalism writers prioritized ego over public service

Michael J. Arlen wrote a critique of the then-fashionable and popular form for The Atlantic in 1972, warning about the risk of emphasizing a writer’s perspective over facts. While Arlen applauded the innovation of the style, he believed focusing on voice and perspective could be irresponsible.

Exploring the work of Frances Burney, one of Jane Austen's main influences

Jane Austen is often credited with pioneering the narrative technique of "free indirect discourse," in which a narrator embodies a character's style without using the first-person perspective. But this essay argues Burney is the real innovator and that Austen, a fan of Burney's, continued using the technique to more acclaim.

Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska' was influenced by writer Flannery O'Connor

Springsteen became obsessed with the "Southern gothic" writer when he began working on the songs for "Nebraska," inspired by O'Connor's tragic characters and grotesque imagery.

'The Stranger' remains a popular novel for teenagers

Camus' book's themes—alienation, transgression, and existentialism—continue to resonate with adolescent reader. That's also true of other popular teenage touchstones, like Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four," and Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar," which are still widely read—and assigned by high school teachers. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The oft-cited roots of the true crime genre

The 1966 book "In Cold Blood" by American author Truman Capote is often considered the beginning of true crime as it's known today. The story details the real-life murders of a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas, using techniques that, at the time, were relegated to fictional tales. Before it was a book, the narrative was published by The New Yorker in 1965 as a four-part series. 

Ghosts can work as powerful literary devices

Noteworthy American novels like Toni Morrison’s "Beloved" tell us how spirits help deliver information and greater truths unknown to the characters. Wondering about our souls is common in literature, and the phantoms in these tales offer a unique way of contemplating the complicated experience of being human.

James Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces' was marketed as memoir but revealed as fiction

The addiction book became a huge success after being added to Oprah Winfrey's book club. After it was revealed to be fiction in 2005, Oprah invited Frey on her show and criticized him for deceiving her and his readers.

Existentialism has been used as a therapeutic tool

Psychologists became interested in existentialism in the 1940s, with two Swiss psychiatrists—Ludwig Binswanger and Medard Boss—particularly taken with Martin Heidegger’s “Being and Time.” The existential approach to therapy emphasized a patient’s personhood and experiences, using them to help that patient face their problems head-on.

Picasso was a major influence on Jean-Michel Basquiat

Both Picasso and Basquiat are major figures of 20th-century art, with distinctive styles that flew in the face of the formalized standards of their respective times. Below is one of Basquiat's portraits of Picasso, who influenced the younger artist’s approach to form, from 1984.

Some call Beard the original 'foodie'

James Beard came of age when home cooking revolved around canned and frozen ingredients. Likewise, West Coast cuisine wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Beard’s appreciation of fresh, seasonal ingredients and regional influences provided a foundation for today’s movement toward local, farm-to-table cooking and the foodies who seek it out.

Why 2 literary writers think you should read Colleen Hoover

The "It Ends With Us" author is one of the most successful contemporary writers in American literature; she's also one of the most derided. Elizabeth Kaye Cook and Melanie Jennings argue that the criticism is mostly unfounded and that literary types should embrace more commercial authors like Hoover.

Broadway's songwriters began experimenting in the 1920s

Broadway’s early decades were heavily influenced by opera and vaudeville, but songwriters in the 1920s began exploring more narrative-based songwriting and psychologically complex characters. That trend would continue in the following decades, though it would evolve in even more nuanced ways.

Romanticism continues to influence culture

The breadth and impact of Romanticism and its emphasis on individualism, embracing emotion, and the power of nature outlived the formal boundaries of the movement’s popularity and continue to linger in the public consciousness.

In 1999, King survived a near-fatal car accident

In 1999, a distracted driver hit writer Stephen King as he walked on the side of the road near his house in Maine. He recounts the event in his famous memoir, "On Writing." This interview with Katie Couric took place five months after the accident and shows King in a fragile state, wondering about the long-term effects on his mind. When Couric asks if he'll try to work the incident into his work, he smiles. "Sooner or later," he says, "everything goes in."

What's behind the cassette renaissance

Cassettes fell out of fashion in the late 1990s as the popularity of compact discs ascended. But in the streaming era, tapes are having a moment thanks to changing audio preferences, the desire for tangible objects, and a healthy dose of nostalgia. This article explores the recent resurgence, asking whether it's the future of music consumption or just another passing trend.

Kendrick Lamar's breakthrough concept album was inspired by real events

The rapper's 2012 album "good kid, m.A.A.d city" follows a young, impressionable protagonist who unwittingly becomes associated with a series of crimes. As this episode of the "Disgraceland" podcast explains, Lamar's album may be nonlinear and impressionistic, but it's based on autobiographical elements.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.