Beat poetry evolved during the 1940's in both New York City and on the west coast, although San Francisco became the heart of the movement in the early 1950's. The end of World War II left poets like Allen Gingsberg, Gary SNyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gregory Corso questioning maintream politics and culture. These poets would become known as the Beat generation, a group of writers interested in changing consciousness and defying conventional writing. The Beats were also closely interwined with poets of the San Francisco Renaissance movement, such as Kenneth Rexroth and Robert Duncan. The battle against social conformity and literary tradition was central to the work of the Beats. Among this group of poets, hallucinogenic drugs were used