Best known for his poem "Howl", Ginsberg denounced what he saw as the destructive forces ofcapitalism andconformity in the United States.[3][4] San Francisco police and US Customs seized copies of "Howl" in 1956 and a subsequent obscenity trial in 1957 attracted widespread publicity due to the poem's language and descriptions of heterosexual and homosexual sex at a time whensodomy laws made male homosexual acts a crime in every state.[5][6] The poem reflected Ginsberg's own sexuality and his relationships with a number of men, includingPeter Orlovsky, his lifelong partner.[7] Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that "Howl" was not obscene, asking: "Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemisms?".[8]
In 1945, he joined theMerchant Marine to earn money to continue his education at Columbia.[23] While at Columbia, Ginsberg contributed to theColumbia Review literary journal, theJester humor magazine, won the Woodberry Poetry Prize, served as president of thePhilolexian Society (literary and debate group), and joinedBoar's Head Society (poetry society).[22][24]He was a resident ofHartley Hall, where other Beat Generation poets such asJack Kerouac andHerbert Gold also lived.[25][26] Ginsberg has stated that he considered his required freshman seminar in Great Books, taught byLionel Trilling, to be his favorite Columbia course. In 1948, he graduated from Columbia with a B.A in English and American Literature.[27]
According toThe Poetry Foundation, Ginsberg spent several months in a mental institution after he pleaded insanity during a hearing. He was allegedly being prosecuted for harboring stolen goods in his dorm room. It was noted that the stolen property was not his, but belonged to an acquaintance.[28] Ginsberg also took part in public readings at the EpiscopalSt. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, which would later hold a memorial service for him after his death.[29][30]
Ginsberg referred to his parents in a 1985 interview as "old-fashioned delicatessen philosophers".[18] His mother was also an active member of theCommunist Party and took Ginsberg and his brother Eugene to party meetings. Ginsberg later said that his mother "made up bedtime stories that all went something like: 'The good king rode forth from his castle, saw the suffering workers and healed them.'"[20] Of his father Ginsberg said: "My father would go around the house either recitingEmily Dickinson andLongfellow under his breath or attackingT. S. Eliot for ruining poetry with his 'obscurantism.' I grew suspicious of both sides."[18]
Ginsberg's mother, Naomi Ginsberg, hadschizophrenia which often manifested asparanoiddelusions,disordered thinking and multiplesuicide attempts.[31] She would claim, for example, that the president had implanted listening devices in their home and that her mother-in-law was trying to kill her.[32][33] Her suspicion of those around her caused Naomi to draw closer to Allen as a child, who she called her "little pet".[34] She also tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists and was soon taken toGreystone, a mental hospital; she would spend much of Ginsberg's youth in mental hospitals.[35][36] His experiences with his mother and her mental illness, including accompanying her on a visit to her therapist, were a major inspiration for his two major works, "Howl" and his long autobiographical poem "Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg (1894–1956)".[37]
Ginsberg received a letter from his mother after her death responding to a copy of "Howl" he had sent her. It admonished Ginsberg to be good and stay away from drugs; she says, "The key is in the window, the key is in the sunlight at the window—I have the key—Get married Allen don't take drugs—the key is in the bars, in the sunlight in the window."[38] In a letter she wrote to Ginsberg's brother Eugene, she said, "God's informers come to my bed, and God himself I saw in the sky. The sunshine showed too, a key on the side of the window for me to get out. The yellow of the sunshine, also showed the key on the side of the window."[39] These letters and the absence of a facility to recitekaddish inspired Ginsberg to write "Kaddish", which makes references to many details from Naomi's life, Ginsberg's experiences with her, and the letter, including the lines "the key is in the light" and "the key is in the window."[40]
In Ginsberg's first year at Columbia he met fellow undergraduateLucien Carr, who introduced him to a number of future Beat writers, includingJack Kerouac,William S. Burroughs, andJohn Clellon Holmes. They bonded, because they saw in one another an excitement about the potential of American youth, a potential that existed outside the strict conformist confines of post–World War II,McCarthy-era America.[41] Ginsberg and Carr talked excitedly about a "New Vision" (a phrase adapted from Yeats' "A Vision"), for literature and America. Carr also introduced Ginsberg toNeal Cassady, for whom Ginsberg had a long infatuation.[42] In the first chapter of his 1957 novelOn the Road Kerouac described the meeting between Ginsberg and Cassady.[43] Kerouac saw them as the dark (Ginsberg) and light (Cassady) side of their "New Vision", a perception stemming partly from Ginsberg's association with communism, of which Kerouac had become increasingly distrustful. Though Ginsberg was never a member of the Communist Party, Kerouac named him "Carlo Marx" inOn the Road. This was a source of strain in their relationship.[22]
Also, in New York, Ginsberg metGregory Corso in the Pony Stable Bar. Corso, recently released from prison, was supported by the Pony Stable patrons and was writing poetry there the night of their meeting. Ginsberg claims he was immediately attracted to Corso, who was straight, but understood homosexuality after three years in prison. Ginsberg was even more struck by reading Corso's poems, realizing Corso was "spiritually gifted." Ginsberg introduced Corso to the rest of his inner circle. In their first meeting at the Pony Stable, Corso showed Ginsberg a poem about a woman who lived across the street from him and sunbathed naked in the window. Amazingly, the woman happened to be Ginsberg's girlfriend that he was living with during one of his forays into heterosexuality. Ginsberg took Corso over to their apartment. There the woman proposed sex with Corso, who was still very young and fled in fear. Ginsberg introduced Corso to Kerouac and Burroughs and they began to travel together. Ginsberg and Corso remained lifelong friends and collaborators.[44][additional citation(s) needed]
Shortly after this period in Ginsberg's life, he became romantically involved withElise Nada Cowen after meeting her through Alex Greer, a philosophy professor atBarnard College whom she had dated for a while during the burgeoning Beat generation's period of development. As a Barnard student, Elise Cowen extensively read the poetry ofEzra Pound andT. S. Eliot, when she metJoyce Johnson and Leo Skir, among other Beat players.[citation needed] As Cowen had felt a strong attraction to darker poetry most of the time, Beat poetry seemed to provide an allure to what suggests a shadowy side of her persona. While at Barnard, Cowen earned the nickname "Beat Alice" as she had joined a small group of anti-establishment artists and visionaries known to outsiders as beatniks, and one of her first acquaintances at the college was the beat poet Joyce Johnson who later portrayed Cowen in her books, including "Minor Characters" andCome and Join the Dance, which expressed the two women's experiences in the Barnard and Columbia Beat community.[citation needed] Through his association with Elise Cowen, Ginsberg discovered that they shared a mutual friend,Carl Solomon, to whom he later dedicated his most famous poem "Howl." This poem is considered an autobiography of Ginsberg up to 1955, and a brief history of the Beat Generation through its references to his relationship to other Beat artists of that time.[citation needed]
In 1948, in an apartment inEast Harlem, Ginsberg experienced anauditory hallucination while masturbating and reading the poetry ofWilliam Blake,[45] which he later referred to as his "Blake vision". Ginsberg claimed to have heard the voice of God—also described as the "voice of theAncient of Days"—or of Blake himself reading "Ah! Sun-flower", "The Sick Rose" and "The Little Girl Lost". The experience lasted several days, with him believing that he had witnessed the interconnectedness of the universe; Ginsberg recounted that after looking at latticework on thefire escape of the apartment and then at the sky, he intuited that one had been crafted by human beings, while the other had been crafted by itself.[46] He explained that this hallucination was not inspired by drug use, but said he sought to recapture the feeling of interconnectedness later with various drugs.[22] Later, in 1955, he referenced his "Blake vision" in his poem "Sunflower Sutra", saying "—I rushed up enchanted—it was my first sunflower, memories of Blake—my visions—".[47]
In 1954, in San Francisco, Ginsberg metPeter Orlovsky (1933–2010), with whom he fell in love and who remained his lifelong partner.[22] Selections from theircorrespondence have been published.[49]
Also in San Francisco, Ginsberg met members of theSan Francisco Renaissance (James Broughton, Robert Duncan, Madeline Gleason and Kenneth Rexroth) and other poets who would later be associated with the Beat Generation in a broader sense. Ginsberg's mentorWilliam Carlos Williams wrote an introductory letter to San Francisco Renaissance figureheadKenneth Rexroth, who then introduced Ginsberg into the San Francisco poetry scene.[50] There, Ginsberg also met three budding poets andZen enthusiasts who had become friends atReed College:Gary Snyder,Philip Whalen, andLew Welch. In 1959, along with poets John Kelly,Bob Kaufman,A. D. Winans, and William Margolis, Ginsberg was one of the founders of theBeatitude poetry magazine.
Wally Hedrick—a painter and co-founder of theSix Gallery—approached Ginsberg in mid-1955 and asked him to organize a poetry reading at theSix Gallery. At first, Ginsberg refused, but once he had written a rough draft of "Howl," he changed his "fucking mind," as he put it.[41] Ginsberg advertised the event as "Six Poets at the Six Gallery." One of the most important events in Beat mythos, known simply as "TheSix Gallery reading" took place on October 7, 1955.[51] The event, in essence, brought together the East and West Coast factions of theBeat Generation. Of more personal significance to Ginsberg, the reading that night included the first public presentation of "Howl," a poem that brought worldwide fame to Ginsberg and to many of the poets associated with him. An account of that night can be found in Kerouac's novelThe Dharma Bums, describing how change was collected from audience members to buy jugs of wine, and Ginsberg reading passionately, drunken, with arms outstretched.
First edition cover of Ginsberg's landmark poetry collection,Howl and Other Poems(1956)
Ginsberg's principal work, "Howl", is well known for its opening line: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked [...]." "Howl" was considered scandalous at the time of its publication, because of the rawness of its language. Shortly after its 1956 publication by San Francisco'sCity Lights Bookstore, it was banned for obscenity. The ban became acause célèbre among defenders of theFirst Amendment, and was later lifted, after Judge Clayton W. Horn declared the poem to possess redeeming artistic value.[22] Ginsberg andShig Murao, the City Lights manager who was jailed for selling "Howl", became lifelong friends.[52]
Ginsberg claimed at one point that all of his work was an extended biography (like Kerouac'sDuluoz Legend). "Howl" is not only a biography of Ginsberg's experiences before 1955, but also a history of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg also later claimed that at the core of "Howl" were his unresolved emotions about his schizophrenic mother. Though"Kaddish" deals more explicitly with his mother, "Howl" in many ways is driven by the same emotions. "Howl" chronicles the development of many important friendships throughout Ginsberg's life. He begins the poem with "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness", which sets the stage for Ginsberg to describe Cassady and Solomon, immortalizing them into American literature.[41] This madness was the "angry fix" that society needed to function—madness was its disease. In the poem, Ginsberg focused on "Carl Solomon! I'm with you in Rockland", and, thus, turned Solomon into an archetypal figure searching for freedom from his "straightjacket". Though references in most of his poetry reveal much about his biography, his relationship to other members of the Beat Generation, and his own political views, "Howl," his most famous poem, is still perhaps the best place to start.[citation needed]
In 1957, Ginsberg surprised the literary world by abandoning San Francisco. After a spell inMorocco, he and Peter Orlovsky joined Gregory Corso in Paris. Corso introduced them to a shabby lodging house above a bar at 9rue Gît-le-Cœur that was to become known as theBeat Hotel. They were soon joined by Burroughs and others. It was a productive, creative time for all of them. There, Ginsberg began his epic poem "Kaddish", Corso composedBomb andMarriage, and Burroughs (with help from Ginsberg and Corso) put togetherNaked Lunch from previous writings. This period was documented by the photographerHarold Chapman, who moved in at about the same time, and took pictures constantly of the residents of the "hotel" until it closed in 1963. During 1962–1963, Ginsberg and Orlovsky travelled extensively across India, living half a year at a time inCalcutta (now Kolkata) andBenares (Varanasi). On his road to India he stayed two months in Athens ( August 29, 1961 – October 31, 1961) where he visited various sites such asDelphi,Mycines,Crete, and then continued his journey to Israel, Kenya and finally India.[53] Also during this time, he formed friendships with some of the prominent youngBengali poets of the time includingShakti Chattopadhyay andSunil Gangopadhyay. Ginsberg had several political connections in India; most notablyPupul Jayakar who helped him extend his stay in India when the authorities were eager to expel him.
In May 1965, Ginsberg arrived in London, and offered to read anywhere for free.[54] Shortly after his arrival, he gave a reading atBetter Books, which was described byJeff Nuttall as "the first healing wind on a very parched collective mind."[54]Tom McGrath wrote: "This could well turn out to have been a very significant moment in the history of England—or at least in the history of English Poetry."[55]
Peter Whitehead documented the event on film and released it asWholly Communion. A book featuring images from the film and some of the poems that were performed was also published under the same title by Lorrimer in the UK and Grove Press in US.
Ginsberg with his partner, poetPeter Orlovsky. Photo taken in 1978
Though the term "Beat" is most accurately applied to Ginsberg and his closest friends (Corso, Orlovsky, Kerouac, Burroughs, etc.), the term "Beat Generation" has become associated with many of the other poets Ginsberg met and became friends with in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A key feature of this term seems to be a friendship with Ginsberg. Friendship with Kerouac or Burroughs might also apply, but both writers later strove to disassociate themselves from the name "Beat Generation." Part of their dissatisfaction with the term came from the mistaken identification of Ginsberg as the leader. Ginsberg never claimed to be the leader of a movement. He claimed that many of the writers with whom he had become friends in this period shared many of the same intentions and themes. Some of these friends include:David Amram,Bob Kaufman;Diane di Prima;Jim Cohn; poets associated with theBlack Mountain College such asCharles Olson,Robert Creeley, andDenise Levertov; poets associated with theNew York School such asFrank O'Hara andKenneth Koch. LeRoi Jones before he becameAmiri Baraka, who, after reading "Howl", wrote a letter to Ginsberg on a sheet of toilet paper. Baraka's independent publishing house Totem Press published Ginsberg's early work.[58][additional citation(s) needed] Through a party organized by Baraka, Ginsberg was introduced toLangston Hughes whileOrnette Coleman played saxophone.[59]
In 1950, Kerouac began studying Buddhism[62] and shared what he learned fromDwight Goddard'sBuddhist Bible with Ginsberg.[62] Ginsberg first heard about theFour Noble Truths and such sutras as theDiamond Sutra at this time.[62] Ginsberg's endorsement helped establish the Krishna movement within New York'sbohemian culture.[63]
Ginsberg's spiritual journey began early on with his spontaneous visions, and continued with an early trip to India withGary Snyder.[62] Snyder had previously spent time inKyoto to study at the First Zen Institute atDaitoku-ji Monastery.[62] At one point, Snyder chanted thePrajnaparamita, which in Ginsberg's words "blew my mind."[62] His interest piqued, Ginsberg traveled to meetthe Dalai Lama as well as theKarmapa at Rumtek Monastery.[62] Continuing on his journey, Ginsberg metDudjom Rinpoche inKalimpong, who taught him: "If you see something horrible, don't cling to it, and if you see something beautiful, don't cling to it."[62]
Ginsberg was also involved withKrishnaism. He had started incorporating chanting theHare Krishna mantra into his religious practice in the mid-1960s. After learning thatA. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of theHare Krishna movement in the Western world had rented a store front in New York, he befriended him, visiting him often and suggesting publishers for his books, and a fruitful relationship began. This relationship is documented bySatsvarupa dasa Goswami in his biographical accountSrila Prabhupada Lilamrta. Ginsberg donated money, materials, and his reputation to help the Swami establish the first temple, and toured with him to promote his cause.[65]
Despite disagreeing with many of Bhaktivedanta Swami'srequired prohibitions, Ginsberg often sang the Hare Krishna mantra publicly as part of his philosophy[66] and declared that it brought a state of ecstasy.[67] He was glad that Bhaktivedanta Swami, an authenticswami from India, was now trying to spread the chanting in America. Along with othercounterculture ideologists likeTimothy Leary,Gary Snyder, andAlan Watts, Ginsberg hoped to incorporate Bhaktivedanta Swami and his chanting into the hippie movement, and agreed to take part in the Mantra-Rock Dance concert and to introduce the swami to the Haight-Ashbury hippie community.[66][68][nb 1]
On January 17, 1967, Ginsberg helped plan and organize a reception for Bhaktivedanta Swami atSan Francisco International Airport, where fifty to a hundred hippies greeted the Swami, chanting Hare Krishna in the airport lounge with flowers in hands.[69][nb 2] To further support and promote Bhaktivedanta Swami's message and chanting in San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg agreed to attend theMantra-Rock Dance, a musical event held in 1967 at theAvalon Ballroom by the San FranciscoHare Krishna temple. It featured some leading rock bands of the time:Big Brother and the Holding Company withJanis Joplin, theGrateful Dead, andMoby Grape, who performed there along with the Hare Krishna founderBhaktivedanta Swami and donated proceeds to the Krishna temple. Ginsberg introduced Bhaktivedanta Swami to some three thousand hippies in the audience and led the chanting of theHare Krishna mantra.[70][71][72]
TheMantra-Rock Dance promotional poster featuring Allen Ginsberg along with leading rock bands.
Music and chanting were both important parts of Ginsberg's live delivery during poetry readings.[73] He often accompanied himself on aharmonium, and was often accompanied by a guitarist. It is believed that the Hindi and Buddhist poetNagarjun had introduced Ginsberg to the harmonium in Banaras. According toMalay Roy Choudhury, Ginsberg refined his practice while learning from his relatives, including his cousin Savitri Banerjee.[74] When Ginsberg asked if he could sing a song in praise of LordKrishna onWilliam F. Buckley, Jr.'s TV showFiring Line on September 3, 1968, Buckley acceded and the poet chanted slowly as he played dolefully on a harmonium. According toRichard Brookhiser, an associate of Buckley's, the host commented that it was "the most unharried Krishna I've ever heard."[75]
At the 1967Human Be-In in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and the 1970 Black Panther rally at Yale campus Allen chanted "Om" repeatedly over a sound system for hours on end.[76]
Ginsberg further brought mantras into the world of rock and roll when he recited theHeart Sutra in the song "Ghetto Defendant". The song appears on the 1982 albumCombat Rock by British first wave punk bandThe Clash.
Ginsberg came in touch with theHungryalist poets ofBengal, especially Malay Roy Choudhury, who introduced Ginsberg to the three fish with one head of Indian emperorJalaluddin Mohammad Akbar. The three fish symbolised coexistence of all thought, philosophy, and religion.[77]
In spite of Ginsberg's attraction to Eastern religions, the journalistJane Kramer argues that he, like Whitman, adhered to an "American brand of mysticism" that was "rooted in humanism and in a romantic and visionary ideal of harmony among men."[78]
The Allen Ginsberg Estate and Jewel Heart International partnered to present "Transforming Minds: Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche and Friends", a gallery and online exhibition of images ofGelek Rimpoche by Allen Ginsberg, a student with whom he had an "indissoluble bond," in 2021 atTibet House US in New York City.[79][80] Fifty negatives from Ginsberg's Stanford University photo archive celebrated "the unique relationship between Allen and Rimpoche." The selection of never-before presented images, featuring great Tibetan masters including the Dalai Lama, Tibetologists, and students were "guided by Allen's extensive notes on the contact sheets and images he'd circled with the intention to print."[81]
In 1960, he was treated for atropical disease, and it is speculated that he contractedhepatitis from an unsterilized needle administered by a doctor, which played a role in his death 37 years later.[82]
Ginsberg was a lifelong smoker, and though he tried to quit for health and religious reasons, his busy schedule in later life made it difficult, and he always returned to smoking.
In the 1970s, Ginsberg had two minor strokes which were first diagnosed asBell's palsy, which gave him significant paralysis and stroke-like drooping of the muscles in one side of his face. Later in life, he also had constant minor ailments such ashigh blood pressure. Many of these symptoms were related to stress, but he never slowed down his schedule.[83]
In 1986, Ginsberg was awarded the Golden Wreath by theStruga Poetry Evenings International Festival in Macedonia, the second American poet to be so awarded sinceW. H. Auden. At Struga, Ginsberg met with the other Golden Wreath winners,Bulat Okudzhava andAndrei Voznesensky.
In 1989, Ginsberg appeared inRosa von Praunheim's award-winning filmSilence = Death about the fight of gay artists in New York City for AIDS-education and the rights of HIV infected people.[84]
Ginsberg continued to help his friends as much as he could: he gave money toHerbert Huncke out of his own pocket, regularly supplied neighborArthur Russell with an extension cord to power his home recording setup,[85][86] and housed a broke, drug-addictedHarry Smith.
With the exception of a special guest appearance at theNYU PoetrySlam on February 20, 1997, Ginsberg gave what is thought to be his last reading at TheBooksmith in San Francisco on December 16, 1996.
After returning home from the hospital for the last time, where he had been unsuccessfully treated forcongestive heart failure, Ginsberg continued making phone calls to say goodbye to nearly everyone in his address book. Some of the phone calls were sad and interrupted by crying, and others were joyous and optimistic.[87] Ginsberg continued to write through his final illness, with his last poem, "Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)", written on March 30.[88]
He died on April 5, 1997, surrounded by family and friends in hisEast Village loft in Manhattan, succumbing toliver cancer via complications ofhepatitis at the age of 70.[19]Gregory Corso,Roy Lichtenstein,Patti Smith and others came by to pay their respects.[89] He was cremated, and his ashes were buried in his family plot in Gomel Chesed Cemetery in Newark.[90] He was survived by Orlovsky.
Ginsberg's willingness to talk about taboo subjects made him a controversial figure during the conservative 1950s, and a significant figure in the 1960s. In the mid-1950s, no reputable publishing company would even consider publishingHowl. At the time, such "sex talk" employed inHowl was considered by some to be vulgar or even a form of pornography, and could be prosecuted under law.[41] Ginsberg used phrases such as "cocksucker", "fucked in the ass", and "cunt" as part of the poem's depiction of different aspects of American culture. Numerous books that discussed sex were banned at the time, includingLady Chatterley's Lover.[41] The sex that Ginsberg described did not portray the sex between heterosexual married couples, or even longtime lovers. Instead, Ginsberg portrayedcasual sex.[41] For example, inHowl, Ginsberg praises the man "who sweetened the snatches of a million girls." Ginsberg used gritty descriptions and explicit sexual language, pointing out the man "who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup." In his poetry, Ginsberg also discussed the then-taboo topic of homosexuality. The explicit sexual language that filledHowl eventually led to an important trial onFirst Amendment issues. Ginsberg's publisher was brought up on charges for publishing pornography, and the outcome led to a judge going on record dismissing charges, because the poem carried "redeeming social importance,"[96] thus setting an important legal precedent. Ginsberg continued to broach controversial subjects throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. From 1970 to 1996, Ginsberg had a long-term affiliation withPEN American Center with efforts to defend free expression. When explaining how he approached controversial topics, he often pointed toHerbert Huncke: he said that when he first got to know Huncke in the 1940s, Ginsberg saw that he was sick from his heroin addiction, but at the time heroin was a taboo subject and Huncke was left with nowhere to go for help.[97]
Ginsberg talked openly about his connections with communism and his admiration for past communist heroes and the labor movement at a time when theRed Scare andMcCarthyism were still raging. He admiredFidel Castro and many other Marxist figures from the 20th century.[103][104] Ginsberg was a member of theFair Play for Cuba Committee.[105] In "America" (1956), Ginsberg writes: "America, I used to be a communist when I was a kid I'm not sorry". BiographerJonah Raskin has claimed that, despite his often stark opposition to communist orthodoxy, Ginsberg held "his ownidiosyncratic version of communism."[106] On the other hand, whenDonald Manes, a New York City politician, publicly accused Ginsberg of being a member of theCommunist Party, Ginsberg objected: "I am not, as a matter of fact, a member of the Communist party, nor am I dedicated to the overthrow of the U.S. government or any government by violence ... I must say that I see little difference between the armed and violent governments both Communist and Capitalist that I have observed".[107]
Ginsberg travelled to several communist countries to promote free speech. He claimed that communist countries, such as China, welcomed him because they thought he was an enemy of capitalism, but often turned against him when they saw him as a troublemaker. For example, in 1965 Ginsberg was deported fromCuba for publicly protesting the persecution of homosexuals.[108] The Cubans sent him toCzechoslovakia, where one week after being named theKrál majálesu ("King of May",[109] a students' festivity, celebrating spring and student life), Ginsberg was arrested for alleged drug use and public drunkenness, and the security agencyStB confiscated several of his writings, which they considered to be lewd and morally dangerous. Ginsberg was then deported from Czechoslovakia on May 7, 1965,[108][110] by order of the StB.[111]Václav Havel points to Ginsberg as an important inspiration.[112]
One contribution that is often considered his most significant and most controversial was his openness about homosexuality. Ginsberg was an early proponent of freedom for gay people. In 1943, he discovered within himself "mountains of homosexuality." He expressed this desire openly and graphically in his poetry.[113] He also struck a note for gay marriage by listingPeter Orlovsky, his lifelong companion, as his spouse in hisWho's Who entry. Subsequent gay writers saw his frank talk about homosexuality as an opening to speak more openly and honestly about something often before only hinted at or spoken of in metaphor.[97]
In writing about sexuality in graphic detail and in his frequent use of language seen as indecent, he challenged—and ultimately changed—obscenity laws.[citation needed] He was a staunch supporter of others whose expression challenged obscenity laws (William S. Burroughs andLenny Bruce, for example).[citation needed]
Ginsberg was a supporter and member of theNorth American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), apedophilia andpederasty advocacy organization in the United States that works to abolish age of consent laws and legalize sexual relations between adults and children.[114][citation needed] Saying that he joined the organization "in defense of free speech",[115] Ginsberg stated: "Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics, witchhunting for profit, humorlessness, vanity, anger and ignorance ... I'm a member of NAMBLA because I love boys too—everybody does, who has a little humanity".[116] In 1994, Ginsberg appeared in a documentary on NAMBLA calledChicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys (playing on the gay male slang term 'chickenhawk'), in which he read a "graphic ode to youth".[114] He read his poem "Sweet Boy, Gimme Yr Ass" from the bookMind Breaths,[117] a collection of poems he called a "pederast rhapsody" that features graphic depictions of sex with boys.[118]
In her 2002 bookHeartbreak,Andrea Dworkin claimed Ginsberg had ulterior motives for allying with NAMBLA:
In 1982, newspapers reported in huge headlines that the Supreme Court had ruled child pornography illegal. I was thrilled. I knew Allen would not be. I did think he was a civil libertarian. But, in fact, he was a pedophile. He did not belong to the North American Man/Boy Love Association out of some mad, abstract conviction that its voice had to be heard. He meant it. I take this from what Allen said directly to me, not from some inference I made. He was exceptionally aggressive about his right to fuck children and his constant pursuit of underage boys.[119]
In reference to his onetime friend Dworkin,[120] Ginsberg stated:
I've known Andrea since she was a student. I had a conversation with her when I said I've had many young affairs, [with those who were] 16, 17, or 18. I said, 'What are you going to do, send me to jail?' And she said, 'You should be shot.' The problem is, she was molested when she was young, and she hasn't recovered from the trauma, and she's taking it out on ordinary lovers.[121]
Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, andJohn C. Lilly in 1991
Ginsberg talked often about drug use. He organized the New York City chapter of LeMar (Legalize Marijuana).[122] Throughout the 1960s he took an active role in the demystification ofLSD, and, withTimothy Leary, worked to promote its common use. He remained for many decades an advocate ofmarijuana legalization, and, at the same time, warned his audiences against the hazards of tobacco in hisPut Down Your Cigarette Rag (Don't Smoke): "Don't Smoke Don't Smoke Nicotine Nicotine No / No don't smoke the official Dope Smoke Dope Dope."[123]
Ginsberg worked closely withAlfred W. McCoy[124] on the latter's bookThe Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, which claimed that theCIA was knowingly involved in the production of heroin in theGolden Triangle ofBurma, Thailand, and Laos.[125] In addition to working with McCoy, Ginsberg personally confrontedRichard Helms, the director of the CIA in the 1970s, about the matter, but Helms denied that the CIA had anything to do with selling illegal drugs.[124][126] Ginsberg wrote many essays and articles, researching and compiling evidence of the CIA's alleged involvement in drug trafficking, but it took ten years, and the publication of McCoy's book in 1972, before anyone took him seriously.[124] In 1978, Ginsberg received a note from the chief editor ofThe New York Times, apologizing for not having taken his allegations seriously.[127] The political subject is dealt with in his song/poem "CIA Dope calypso". TheUnited States Department of State responded to McCoy's initial allegations stating that they were "unable to find any evidence to substantiate them, much less proof."[128] Subsequent investigations by theInspector General of the CIA,[129]United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs,[130] and United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a.k.a. theChurch Committee,[131] also found the charges to be unsubstantiated.
Most of Ginsberg's very early poetry was written in formal rhyme and meter like that of his father, and of his idolWilliam Blake. His admiration for the writing ofJack Kerouac inspired him to take poetry more seriously. In 1955, upon the advice of a psychiatrist, Ginsberg dropped out of the working world to devote his entire life to poetry.[132] Soon after, he wroteHowl, the poem that brought him and hisBeat Generation contemporaries to national attention and allowed him to live as a professional poet for the rest of his life. Later in life, Ginsberg entered academia, teaching poetry as Distinguished Professor of English atBrooklyn College from 1986 until his death.[133]
Ginsberg claimed throughout his life that his biggest inspiration was Kerouac's concept of "spontaneous prose." He believed literature should come from the soul without conscious restrictions. Ginsberg was much more prone to revise than Kerouac. For example, when Kerouac saw the first draft ofHowl, he disliked the fact that Ginsberg had made editorial changes in pencil (transposing "negro" and "angry" in the first line, for example). Kerouac only wrote out his concepts of spontaneous prose at Ginsberg's insistence because Ginsberg wanted to learn how to apply the technique to his poetry.[22]
The inspiration forHowl was Ginsberg's friend,Carl Solomon, andHowl is dedicated to him. Solomon was aDada andSurrealism enthusiast (he introduced Ginsberg toArtaud) who had bouts of clinical depression. Solomon wanted to commit suicide, but he thought a form of suicide appropriate to dadaism would be to go to a mental institution and demand alobotomy. The institution refused, giving him many forms oftherapy, includingelectroshock therapy. Much of the final section of the first part ofHowl is a description of this.
Ginsberg used Solomon as an example of all those ground down by the machine of "Moloch." Moloch, to whom the second section is addressed, is aLevantine god to whom children were sacrificed. Ginsberg may have gotten the name from theKenneth Rexroth poem "Thou Shalt Not Kill," a poem about the death of one of Ginsberg's heroes,Dylan Thomas. Moloch is mentioned a few times in theTorah and references to Ginsberg's Jewish background are frequent in his work. Ginsberg said the image of Moloch was inspired bypeyote visions he had of the Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco which appeared to him as a skull; he took it as a symbol of the city (not specifically San Francisco, but all cities).[134] Ginsberg later acknowledged in various publications and interviews that behind the visions of the Francis Drake Hotel were memories of the Moloch ofFritz Lang's filmMetropolis (1927) and of the woodcut novels ofLynd Ward.[135] Moloch has subsequently been interpreted as any system of control, including the conformist society of post-World War II America, focused on material gain, which Ginsberg frequently blamed for the destruction of all those outside of societal norms.[22]
He also made sure to emphasize that Moloch is a part of humanity in multiple aspects, in that the decision todefy socially created systems of control—and therefore go against Moloch—is a form of self-destruction. Many of the characters Ginsberg references inHowl, such as Neal Cassady and Herbert Huncke, destroyed themselves through excessive substance abuse or a generally wild lifestyle. The personal aspects ofHowl are perhaps as important as the political aspects. Carl Solomon, the prime example of a "best mind" destroyed by defying society, is associated with Ginsberg's schizophrenic mother: the line "with mother finally fucked" comes after a long section about Carl Solomon, and in Part III, Ginsberg says: "I'm with you in Rockland where you imitate the shade of my mother." Ginsberg later admitted that the drive to writeHowl was fueled by sympathy for his ailing mother, an issue which he was not yet ready to deal with directly. He dealt with it directly with 1959'sKaddish,[22] which had its first public reading at aCatholic Worker Friday Night meeting, possibly due to its associations withThomas Merton.[136]
Ginsberg's poetry was strongly influenced byModernism (most importantly the American style of Modernism pioneered by William Carlos Williams),Romanticism (specifically William Blake andJohn Keats), the beat and cadence ofjazz (specifically that ofbop musicians such asCharlie Parker), and hisKagyu Buddhist practice and Jewish background. He considered himself to have inherited the visionary poetic mantle handed down from the English poet and artistWilliam Blake, the American poetWalt Whitman and the Spanish poetFederico García Lorca. The power of Ginsberg's verse, its searching, probing focus, its long and lilting lines, as well as itsNew World exuberance, all echo the continuity of inspiration that he claimed.[22][97][112]
He corresponded withWilliam Carlos Williams, who was then in the middle of writing his epic poemPaterson about the industrial city near his home. After attending a reading by Williams, Ginsberg sent the older poet several of his poems and wrote an introductory letter. Most of these early poems were rhymed and metered and included archaic pronouns like "thee." Williams disliked the poems and told Ginsberg, "In this mode perfection is basic, and these poems are not perfect."[22][97][112]
Though he disliked these early poems, Williams loved the exuberance in Ginsberg's letter. He included the letter in a later part ofPaterson. He encouraged Ginsberg not to emulate the old masters, but to speak with his own voice and the voice of the common American. From Williams, Ginsberg learned to focus on strong visual images, in line with Williams' own motto: "No ideas but in things." Studying Williams' style led to a tremendous shift from the early formalist work to a loose, colloquialfree verse style. Early breakthrough poems includeBricklayer's Lunch Hour andDream Record.[22][112]
Ginsberg also made an intense study ofhaiku and the paintings ofPaul Cézanne, from which he adapted a concept important to his work, which he called theEyeball Kick. He noticed in viewing Cézanne's paintings that when the eye moved from one color to a contrasting color, the eye wouldspasm, or "kick." Likewise, he discovered that the contrast of two seeming opposites was a common feature in haiku. Ginsberg used this technique in his poetry, putting together two starkly dissimilar images: something weak with something strong, an artifact of high culture with an artifact of low culture, something holy with something unholy. The example Ginsberg most often used was "hydrogen jukebox" (which later became the title of asong cycle composed byPhilip Glass with lyrics drawn from Ginsberg's poems). Another example is Ginsberg's observation on Bob Dylan during Dylan's hectic and intense 1966 electric-guitar tour, fueled by a cocktail of amphetamines,[137] opiates,[138] alcohol,[139] and psychedelics,[140] as aDexedrine Clown. The phrases "eyeball kick" and "hydrogen jukebox" both show up inHowl, as well as a direct quote from Cézanne: "Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus".[97]
Allen Ginsberg also found inspiration in music. He frequently included music in his poetry, invariably composing his tunes on an old Indian harmonium, which he often played during his readings.[141] He wrote and recorded music to accompanyWilliam Blake'sSongs of Innocence andSongs of Experience. He also recorded a handful of other albums. To create music forHowl andWichita Vortex Sutra, he worked with the minimalist composer,Philip Glass.
In 1981, Ginsberg recorded a song called "Birdbrain." He was backed by the Gluons, and the track was released as a single.[144] In 1996, he recorded a song co-written withPaul McCartney and Philip Glass, "The Ballad of the Skeletons",[145] which reached number 8 on theTriple J Hottest 100 for that year.
From the study of his idols and mentors and the inspiration of his friends—not to mention his own experiments—Ginsberg developed an individualistic style that's easily identified as Ginsbergian.[146] Ginsberg stated that Whitman's long line was a dynamic technique few other poets had ventured to develop further, and Whitman is also often compared to Ginsberg because their poetry sexualized aspects of the male form.[22][97][112]
Many of Ginsberg's early long line experiments contain some sort ofanaphora, repetition of a "fixed base" (for example "who" inHowl, "America" inAmerica) and this has become a recognizable feature of Ginsberg's style.[147] He said later this was a crutch because he lacked confidence; he did not yet trust "free flight."[148] In the 1960s, after employing it in some sections ofKaddish ("caw" for example) he, for the most part, abandoned the anaphoric form. "Latter-Day Beat" Bob Dylan is known for using anaphora, as in "Tangled Up in Blue" where the phrase, returned to at the end of every verse, takes the place of a chorus.[97][112]
Several of his earlier experiments with methods for formatting poems as a whole became regular aspects of his style in later poems. In the original draft ofHowl, each line is in a "stepped triadic" format reminiscent ofWilliam Carlos Williams.[149] He abandoned the "stepped triadic" when he developed his long line although the stepped lines showed up later, most significantly in the travelogues ofThe Fall of America.[citation needed]Howl andKaddish, arguably his two most important poems, are both organized as an inverted pyramid, with larger sections leading to smaller sections. InAmerica, he also experimented with a mix of longer and shorter lines.[97][112]
Ginsberg's mature style made use of many specific, highly developed techniques, which he expressed in the "poetic slogans" he used in his Naropa teaching. Prominent among these was the inclusion of his unedited mental associations so as to reveal the mind at work ("First thought, best thought." "Mind is shapely, thought is shapely.") He preferred expression through carefully observed physical details rather than abstract statements ("Show, don't tell." "No ideas but in things.")[150] In these he carried on and developed traditions of modernism in writing that are also found in Kerouac and Whitman.
InHowl and in his other poetry, Ginsberg drew inspiration from theepic,free verse style of the 19th-century American poetWalt Whitman.[151] Both wrote passionately about the promise (and betrayal) of American democracy, the central importance of erotic experience, and the spiritual quest for the truth of everyday existence.J. D. McClatchy, editor of theYale Review, called Ginsberg "the best-known American poet of his generation, as much a social force as a literary phenomenon." McClatchy added that Ginsberg, like Whitman, "was a bard in the old manner—outsized, darkly prophetic, part exuberance, part prayer, part rant. His work is finally a history of our era's psyche, with all its contradictory urges." McClatchy's barbed eulogies define the essential difference between Ginsberg ("a beat poet whose writing was [...] journalism raised by combining the recycling genius with a generous mimic-empathy, to strike audience-accessible chords; always lyrical and sometimes truly poetic") and Kerouac ("a poet of singular brilliance, the brightest luminary of a 'beat generation' he came to symbolise in popular culture [...] [though] in reality he far surpassed his contemporaries [...] Kerouac is an originating genius, exploring then answering—likeRimbaud a century earlier, by necessity more than by choice—the demands of authentic self-expression as applied to the evolving quicksilver mind of America's only literary virtuoso [...]").[18]
In 1986, Ginsberg was awarded the Golden Wreath by theStruga Poetry Evenings International Festival in Macedonia, the second American poet to be so awarded sinceW. H. Auden. At Struga, Ginsberg met with the other Golden Wreath winners,Bulat Okudzhava andAndrei Voznesensky.
In 1989, Ginsberg appeared inRosa von Praunheim's award-winning filmSilence = Death about the fight of gay artists in New York City for AIDS-education and the rights of HIV infected people.[84]
^(from the "Houseboat Summit" panel discussion,Sausalito CA. February 1967)(Cohen 1991, p. 182): Ginsberg: So what do you think of Swami Bhaktivedanta pleading for the acceptance of Krishna in every direction? Snyder: Why, it's a lovely positive thing to say Krishna. It's a beautiful mythology and it's a beautiful practice. Leary: Should be encouraged. Ginsberg: He feels it's the one uniting thing. He feels a monopolistic unitary thing about it. Watts: I'll tell you why I think he feels it. The mantras, the images of Krishna have in this culture no foul association [...] [W]hen somebody comes in from the Orient with a new religion which hasn't got any of [horrible] associations in our minds, all the words are new, all the rites are new, and yet, somehow it has feeling in it, and we can get with that, you see, and we can dig that!
^Addressing speculations that he was Allen Ginsberg's guru, Bhaktivedanta Swami answered a direct question in a public program, "Are you Allen Ginsberg's guru?" by saying, "I am nobody's guru. I am everybody's servant. Actually I am not even a servant; a servant of God is no ordinary thing." (Greene 2007, p. 85;Goswami 2011, pp. 196–97)
^Ginsberg, Allen,Deliberate Prose, the foreword by Edward Sanders, p. xxi.
^Vendler, Helen (January 13, 1986), "Books: A Lifelong Poem Including History",The New Yorker, p. 81.
^abcdIn 1993, Ginsberg visited the University of Maine at Orono for a conference, to pay homage to the 90-year-old greatCarl Rakosi and to read poems as well."National Book Awards – 1974".National Book Foundation. Retrieved April 7, 2012 (with acceptance speech by Ginsberg and essay by John Murillo from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog).
^Morgan, Bill (2010).The Typewriter Is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation. Simon and Schuster. p. 34.ISBN978-1-4165-9242-6.
^Ginsberg, Allen (1984)."A Blake Experience". In Hyde, Lewis (ed.).On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg (2002 ed.). United States: The University of Michigan Press. p. 123.ISBN978-0-472-09353-3.
^abSchumacher, Michael (January 27, 2002). "Allen Ginsberg Project".
^Straight Hearts' Delight: Love Poems and Selected Letters, by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, edited by Winston Leyland. Gay Sunshine Press, 1980,ISBN0-917342-65-8.
^"Amiri Baraka papers, 1945–2015".www.columbia.edu. Archived fromthe original on March 19, 2022. RetrievedOctober 10, 2020.Baraka's Totem Press: published early works by Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and other Beat and Downtown experimental writers.
^Wills, D. (2007). Wills, D. (ed.)."Buddhism and the Beats".Beatdom. Vol. 1. Dundee: Mauling Press. pp. 9–13. Archived fromthe original on May 1, 2010. RetrievedMarch 4, 2012.
^Joplin, Laura (1992).Love, Janis. New York: Villard Books. p. 182.ISBN0-679-41605-6.
^Chowka, Peter Barry, "This is Allen Ginsberg?Archived April 8, 2019, at theWayback Machine" (Interview),New Age Journal, April 1976. "I had knownSwami Bhaktivedanta and was somewhat guided by him [...] spiritual friend. I practiced the Hare Krishna chant, practiced it with him, sometimes in mass auditoriums and parks in the Lower East Side of New York. Actually, I'd been chanting it since '63, after coming back from India. I began chanting it, in Vancouver at a great poetry conference, for the first time in '63, with Duncan and Olson and everybody around, and then continued. When Bhaktivedanta arrived on the Lower East Side in '66 it was reinforcement for me, like 'the reinforcements had arrived' from India."
^Klausner, Linda T. (April 22, 2011), "American Beat Yogi: An Exploration of the Hindu and Indian Cultural Themes in Allen Ginsberg", Masters Thesis: Literature, Culture, and MediaLund University.
^Konigsberg, Eric (February 29, 2008), "Buckley's Urbane Debating Club:Firing Line Set a Standard For Political Discourse on TV",The New York Times, Metro Section, p. B1.
^Mitford, Jessica (1969)The Trial of Dr. Spock, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., Michael Ferber, Mitchell Goodman, and Marcus Raskin [1st ed.]. New York: Knopf, p. 255.
^"Writers and Editors War Tax Protest",New York Post. January 30, 1968.
^"A Call to War Tax Resistance",The Cycle, May 14, 1970, p. 7.
^"Heroin, U.S. tie probed".Boca Raton News. Vol. 17, no. 218. Boca Raton, Florida. United Press International. October 1, 1972. p. 9B. RetrievedDecember 5, 2015.
^Ginsberg, Allen, and Hyde, Lewis.On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984. Print.
^Ginsberg, Allen (1995).Howl: Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography. Barry Miles (Ed.). Harper Perennial.ISBN0-06-092611-2. pp. 131, 132, 139–140.
Raskin, Jonah (2004).American Scream: Allen Ginsberg'sHowl and the Making of the Beat Generation. Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN0-520-24015-4.
Schumacher, Michael (ed.).Family Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and Son. Bloomsbury (2002), paperback, 448 pages,ISBN1-58234-216-4
Morgan, Bill (ed.),I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career: The Selected Correspondence of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, 1955–1997. San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 2015.
Schumacher, Michael.Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.
Trigilio, Tony.Allen Ginsberg's Buddhist Poetics, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007.ISBN0-8093-2755-4
Trigilio, Tony."Strange Prophecies Anew": Rereading Apocalypse in Blake, H.D., and Ginsberg. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000.ISBN0-8386-3854-6.
Tytell, John.Naked Angels: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1976.ISBN1-56663-683-3
Warner, Simon (ed.).Howl for Now: A 50th anniversary celebration of Allen Ginsberg's epic protest poem. West Yorkshire, UK: Route (2005), paperback, 144 pages,ISBN1-901927-25-3
.jpg)
.jpg)
