Book excerpt: In the late 50s after an unsuccessful stint in college, Larry Fink dropped out and began an odyssey of hitchhiking through America. Striking out that great Beat mecca, New York City, Fink settled down on Minetta Lane with a chap who fancied himself a poet. Larry was quick to hit McDougal Street where he met Turk, Mary, Bobbie, Motha, Ambrose, Randy and Mike Stanley, and not to mention Hugh Romney (aka Wavy Gravy) and LeRoi Jones and so many more - they soon left New York to cross America for Mexico - in search of the freedoms of the road.