- Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926. His father was a teacher who dabbled in poetry. His mother was a Marxist who suffered from schizophrenia. She spent most of her childhood in mental institutions.
- In high school, he was influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman. He had some poems published in the local newspaper. He attended Columbia University where he met other literary types like Jack Kerouac.
- In 1948, he had a vision while reading the poetry of William Blake. This was later called the “Blake vision”. He claimed he heard the voice of God. He spent many years doing drugs like LSD to hear the voice again.
- In the mid-1950s, he met a painter’s model named Peter Orlovsky. The had a sexual relationship that lasted until Allen’s death over 40 years later.
- In 1954, he began writing his famous epic poem “Howl”. He wrote it under the influence of peyote (a hallucinogenic drug). It is pretty rambling and semi-autobiographical. He mentions several of his poet friends in it. He also writes about a demon he calls “Moloch” who is a dragon who eats children It criticized American society for its conformity, materialism, and violence. The poem is a tribute to the “insane” artists, writers, and hipsters that he called friends. It is most infamous for its description of casual sex of both the homosexual and heterosexual varieties. Here is the famous opening:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection
to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
- In 1957, “Howl” was published to great fanfare. The publisher was immediately arrested for obscenity. Copies of the book were seized. The book was banned in parts of the country. Eventually a judge determined that it had “redeeming social importance” and allowed its publication under Freedom of Speech.
- Ginsberg became a bridge between the Beat movement and the hippies. In 1967, he attended the Human Be-in in San Francisco. He approved of the celebration of psychedelic drugs. He was friends with Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson, and Bob Dylan.
- Ginsberg protested against the Vietnam War. He refused to pay taxes as a form of protest. He later protested against the war on drugs. He also is famous for opposing militarism, capitalism, sexual repression, and conformity.
https://factsking.com/historical-people/allen-ginsberg-facts/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl_(poem)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg
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