Snyder was involved with the early days of the counterculture movement. One day while sitting at the dentist he read a Beat magazine. "It was the first time I had seen the term Beat Generation. What I liked was the writing, or coarse, and the energy that was in it, the evocation of the people."" (Snyder relationship with JK) when he was first approached by Allen Ginsberg while working in the backyard of his home. Ginsberg invited Snyder, along with many other influential members of the counterculture (such as McClure, Whalen, Ginsberg, and Kerouac) to read his poetry in a San Francisco club. This is considered by many to be the beginning of the "Beat Generation-. .
The Beat Generation was a group of writers and freethinkers who felt they were finally free of the stronghold on poets by universities and the writing industry that was "draining the imaginative life out of some many intellectuals of the world- (Snyder, Place in Space). Although this merging generation was educated, they often stayed clear of academic, business, and government carreers. They found it to be "better to live simply, be poor, and have time to wander and write (Snyder, Place in Space)- rather than hold nine-to-five jobs. They often used marijuana and cheap wine to fuel their creative energy in writing and other forms of art.
Many articles and papers were written about the immorality of the beat generation. Society often rejected their ideas on drug use, sexuality, as well as tagging a delinquency image on the individuals participating in this emerging culture. Once Snyder responded to being called irresponsible by saying, "the irresponsible people in the world are the generals and politicians who test nuclear bombs; the antisocial, violent, and childish people running the government- (Snyder, Place in Space).
Snyder and the Beat Generation spent much time thinking and discussing the nature of the human individual.
