Neurotica magazine, edited and published by Jay Landesman between 1948 and 1951, brought together some of the best and most original minds of the time - the minds which historians would later call the Beat generation. Neurotica was the breeding ground for the ideas and style that were to set Kerouac on the road and Ginsberg howling.

But Neurotica was much more than just the Bible of the Beats. It brought together an unholy alliance of existentialists, surrealists, radical sociologists, psychoanalysts, playwrights and musicians to create the first 'underground' critique of American life. Brilliant and Bizarre, Neurotica reflected its creators perfectly and anticipated today's highbrow interest in mass culture.

In its always razor-sharp analysis of pupular culture, Neurotica published the early warnings of Marshall McLuhan, G. Legman, Anatole Broyard, Carl Solomon, Chandler Brossard, John Clellon Holmes, Lawrence Durrell, Larry Rivers, Leonard Bernstein, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others.

When Henry Luce, founder and publisher of Time, Life and Fortune, wanted to add a psychological magazine to his stable, he seriously considered buying Neurotica and sent his intellectual ally, Noel Bush, to negotiate directly with Jay Landesman. Negotiations broke down due to a conflict of interests. Luce wanted money and a mass-market magazine but Jay wanted to keep it small but dangerous. It remained fiercely independent.