As an update to my previous comment here is a detailed article I found on Brautigan's complex relationship with the more famous beat poets: https://www.beatdom.

As an update to my previous comment here is a detailed article I found on Brautigan's complex relationship with the more famous beat poets: https://www.beatdom.com/ginsberg-brautigan/ https://www.beatdom.com/ginsberg-brautigan/ In short, he was there in SF doing poetry readings at the same place and time as Ginsberg, Snyder, etc. -and they were regulars at parties he hosted, but it sounds like he felt socially rejected, bullied, and looked down upon by most of the beat social group, and actively refused both the labels beat and hippie. Still, I agree the label fits both in the ideas in his work, and the time and place in which he wrote them.