Travel Reference
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anyone'sbenefit. He'll getyouthedrugsyouwant,andmaybeyou'llprofitfrom
them. That was Huncke's mixture—he showed Kerouac and Ginsberg the other
side—but also he had charm.
JAMES RASIN
OnedayIstoppedinatararebookroomcalledHoratio,andthatwaswhenIfirst
met Huncke and Gregory Corso. We stayed up late drinking, and Huncke spent
the night in my apartment.
When I woke up the next morning, I said, “I'm going out to go get some cof-
fee and a bagel. Do you want me to get you something?”
“Youjustmetmeyesterdayandyou'regoingtoleavemealoneinyourapart-
ment?” he asked. “Don't you know who I am?”
Once Huncke stole a record player from Allen Ginsberg's place. According to biographer
Ted Morgan, Huncke apologized to Ginsberg but warned him not to squeal. Squealing
would brand Ginsberg as a “sucker,” and no one respected a sucker.
Huncke's attitude was that if you wanted to be his friend, you had to get used to being
ripped off once in a while. If you couldn't deal with that, then—no hard feelings—you
shouldn't be his friend.
“Such was Huncke,” writes Morgan, “Advising his victims on the correct reaction to
his stealing while hoping to remain on friendly terms with them.”
41
TIM SULLIVAN
Herbert was a very poor guy. He didn't have any money. When he published
Guilty of Everything,
they gave him a boxful of his books. Whenever he needed
some money, he would come to me and sell me a couple of his books.
“Okay, Herbert,” I said. “I'll give you twenty dollars. Give me a couple of
books.”
“I'll give you one book for twenty bucks,” he would answer. He would start
to haggle over my donations to him!
“No,” I said, “give me two books for ten dollars each and autograph them for
me.”
I would give the topics as gifts to my friends. He would always leave my
place with about twenty dollars. But he always gave me something in return—it
was always a swap. He would never ask for an out-and-out donation. All this
when he was in his early eighties!
JAMES RASIN
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