Oral history interview with Herbert Huncke, 1980

Biographical Note

Herbert Huncke was born in 1915 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was around thirteen years old, and he stopped attending school soon after. Huncke used heroin for the first time in 1929, and experimented with many drugs throughout his life including heroin, speed, morphine, opium. He moved from Chicago to New York in 1938, and took up residence on 42nd Street, a hub of activity at the time. His first arrest occurred when he was seventeen, and he spent a total of twelve years in jail throughout his life including in Green Haven Correctional Facility, Manhattan House of Detention, Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and Clinton Correctional Facility. During World War II, Huncke sailed as a United States Merchant Marine, and thereafter, returned to New York. He was involved in burglary, prostitution, and the sale of drugs, specifically selling morphine, Dilaudid, and pantopon perscriptions received from doctors. Huncke detoxed from drugs multiple times at both Bernstein (or Pavilion Beth Israel Hospital) and Lexington Kentucky. In the 1960s, Huncke lived in San Francisco, and returned to New York in 1969 and enrolled in a methadone program. He travelled to India, the Middle East, and Europe in 1972. Huncke is the published author of multiple books, and is considered to be a part of the Beat Generation. Huncke was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived. The name "Henry" was used as a pseudonym for him for the project

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Herbert Huncke discusses his life with special attention towards his drug use. He talks about both the glamorization and vilification of drugs in the public eye, including the impact of Harry J. Anslinger, first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, on the public perception of drug use. He describes the opium scenes in New York and Chicago, and what a typical opium gathering looked like. He also delves into the conditions in the various prisons he was incarcerated in, including Green Haven Correctional Facility, Manhattan House of Detention, Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and Clinton Correctional Facility. He discusses the different methods of stealing he was engaged in in New York, including stealing suitcases from cars, cash from the registers in supermarkets, and prescription pads from doctors. He also comments on his friendship with many Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. He compares the prices, quality, and prevalence of heroin in New York before and after World War II, as well as trends in the age and ethnic composition of the addict population then and now. Huncke also describes two distinct periods of "panic" when drugs became scarce in New York City, mentioning one in the late 1930s and one in the early 1960s

Subjects

• Anslinger, H. J. (Harry Jacob), 1892-1975.
• Beat Generation (Group of writers)
• Courtwright, David T., 1952- interviewer.
• Crime--New York (State)--New York
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Drug control--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug dealers--United States.
• Drugs--Prescribing.
• Drug traffic--United States--History--20th century.
• Huncke, Herbert--Interviews.
• Imprisonment--United States.
• Interviews.
• Joseph, Herman, 1931- interviewer.
• Opium abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Oral histories (literary works)

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright