And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

Hippos predated by more than a decade the works that brought them lasting literary fame—On the Road in 1957 for Kerouac and Naked Lunch in 1959 for William S. Burroughs. Those books, along with Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems in 1956, are the flagship works of the Beat Generation and it seems unlikely that anyone reading this book will be entirely unaware of them.

The Paris Review

It was the loneliest beer I ever had

Let’s go to the Museum of Modern Art and spend a few hours there

There was a woman entering the lobby carrying two shopping bags, and she was having difficulty opening the door. I watched her until she got the door opened, then I went back upstairs.

See? This is the way you do at sea, just lie down in your bunk and read

They tell us it’s in Hoboken and she shifts to Brooklyn. When we get to Brooklyn, she’ll be in Manhattan. Nothing but chaos everywhere. Let’s have a glass of beer.”

and Janie wanted to go home, although I wanted to stay and drink up the whole place

and Janie wanted to go home, although I wanted to stay and drink up the whole place

I began to get a feeling familiar to me from my bartending days of being the only sane man in a nut-house. It doesn’t make you feel superior but depressed and scared, because there is nobody you can contact. Right then I decided to go home