In 1947, while his Liberty Ship was docked at La Pallice port in La Rochelle, Carl Solomon deserted and went to Paris, where he witnessed a performance by Artaud at an exhibition in the Galerie Pierre. Two years later, he met Allen Ginsberg and Gerd Stern in a New York psychiatric hospital. Ginsberg was committed to avoid prison, Solomon after a failed attempt at lobotomy inspired by his fascination with Antonin Artaud, and Stern to escape poverty. The three men, united by their passion for subversive literature (Dostoevsky, Rimbaud, Artaud, the Surrealists), formed a close-knit trio. Solomon, obsessed with Artaud, passed on his cult following to the others, while Stern supplied the group with marijuana. Their exchanges—readings, imitations of Artaud, provocations—fed into Ginsberg’s future work, Howl, dedicated to Solomon. Once released, they went their separate ways: Solomon published an account of his experience (Report from the Asylum) and worked in publishing, Ginsberg oscillated between attempts at normality and immersion in the nascent counterculture, and Stern traveled to South America before joining the beatnik scene, while keeping his distance from Kerouac. Their friendship, born in the asylum, marked the beginning of a literary generation that fused madness, rebellion, and creativity.