Muse and mentor to Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac—who said of him, "Huncke is the greatest storyteller I know, an absolute genius at it"— Herbert Huncke steps out of the shadow of his more famous peers in this absorbing and tender biography by Hilary Holladay. In this richly-layered portrait, the unsung bard of the streets emerges in all his tattered glory: his painful childhood and adolescent rebellion, run-ins with the law, adventures at sea and riding the rails, and later life in his beloved New York City where he became a legendary denizen and guide to the new bohemians eager to learn from the wily master.