Bob Kaufman drew his inspiration mainly from jazz music and was often referred to as "the jazz poet." He joined the Renaissance movement and was an integral part of that scene, though Kaufman preferred to recite his poems aloud from memory in cafes and bars. Only at his wife's insistence did he write his poems for publication. Kaufman often had run-ins with the police; in one instance they tore from the window of the Co-Existence Bagel Shop one of his poems that told of how Hitler "moved to San Francisco, became an ordinary policeman, devoted himself to stamping out the Beatniks." Kaufman helped found the short-lived, but influential magazine, Beatitude. The Abomunist Manifesto is his first published book of poetry.