The term ‘beat’, in this restricted sense, is generally believed to have been devised by Jack Kerouac (1922—1969). It bears connotations of down-beat, off-beat, drop-out and beatitude and denotes a group of American writers (especially poets) who became prominent in the 1950s. They are particularly associated with San Francisco, USA, and their generally accepted father-figures were Kenneth Rexroth, Henry Miller and William Burroughs. The Beat writers, highly influenced by jazz, Zen Buddhism and American Indian and Mexican cults, living a Bohemian life-style associated with drugs and ‘free’-sex, developed their own slang and a highly idiosyncratic style. Their convictions and attitudes were unconventional, provocative, anti-intellectual, antihierarchical and anti-middle-class (the ‘squares’).