Both Howl and Naked Lunch were the focus of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to liberalize publishing in the United States.
Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959), and Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) are among the best known examples of Beat literature. The central elements of Beat culture are the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generationers in the 1950s. The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era.
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