Louis Ginsberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1895-10-01)October 1, 1895 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | July 6, 1976(1976-07-06) (aged 80) |
| Occupation | English teacher, poet |
| Alma mater | Rutgers University |
| Spouses | Naomi Ginsberg Edith Ginsberg |
| Children | 2, includingAllen Ginsberg |
Louis Ginsberg (1895–1976)[1][2] was an Americanpoet and father of poetAllen Ginsberg.
Louis Ginsberg was born inNewark, New Jersey, on October 1, 1895, to Pincus Ginsberg and Rebecca Schectman Ginsberg.[3] His siblings included Abraham (Abe), Rose, Clara, and Hannah (Honey). Louis was stimulated to write poetry by Margaret Coult, a high school teacher who had him read Milton'sL'Allegro orIl Penseroso, and write a poem like it. He retired from Central High School in 1961, although he began to teach grammar and composition at thePaterson, New Jersey, extension of Rutgers University until 1976. Louis and Naomi had two sons, Eugene Brooks Ginsberg[4][5][6] in 1921 andAllen Ginsberg in 1926, both of whom became poets.[7] Their marriage ended in divorce due to Naomi's institutionalization for mental illness. Her illness was the focal point for Allen's poem "Kaddish", in which he wrote: "and Louis needing a poor divorce, he wants to get married soon".[8] Louis married Edith Cohen[9][10] in 1950 with whom he spent the rest of his life. Louis died on July 6, 1976,[11][12][13] and his son Allen, who learned to rhyme from his father,[14] wrote the rhyming poem,Father Death Blues for him on July 8, 1976, over Lake Michigan.
Portraits of the Ginsberg family were taken by photographerRichard Avedon and exhibited at theGagosian Gallery[15] and theIsrael Museum.[16]
Louis' poems appeared inThe Nation,The New Republic,The New York Times,Munsey's Magazine,The Forum,The Philadelphia Inquirer,The Masses, theNew York Evening Post,Argosy, theNewark Evening News and other periodicals, as well as inModern American Poetry: A Critical Anthology, Third Revised Edition (1925) andModern British Poetry, both edited byLouis Untermeyer. Louis' first book of poetry,The Attic of the Past and other Lyrics,[17] was privately published. He subsidized the publishing ofThe Everlasting Minute in 1937. In 1970, William Morrow and Company publishedMorning in Spring, his third book and the first book that he did not have to subsidize.Allen Ginsberg wrote the introduction to this book. Louis' last book,Our Times, was never published on its own. Michael Fournier collected and edited his poems, including those that would have been inOur Times.[18]
A lost poem by Ginsberg, entitled "Microscope", was found in a copy of the seventeenth edition ofSimon Henry Gage's bookThe Microscope in the Rare and Manuscript Collections atCornell University.[19][20]
Ginsberg publishedpuns in theNewark Star Ledger under the heading "Keep an O'Pun Mind". He often asked and answered, "Is life worth living? It depends on the liver." His collection of puns was never published, but can be found in Box 2, Folder 9, in the Louis Ginsberg Papers atStanford University.[21] Louis Ginsberg, who died of liver and spleen cancer, told his son Allen, "I never thought my pun would come back to bite me."
The letters written between Ginsberg and his son Allen were edited by Michael Schumacher and published asFamily Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and Son.[22]
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