THE RELEVANT QUEER: Allen Ginsberg, Beat Generation Writer and Poet

“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.”

TRQ: Allen Ginsberg, Born June 3, 1926

Beat Generation writer and poet Allen Ginsberg, best known for his 1956 poem “Howl,” was born on June 3, 1926. A counterculture pacifist, Ginsberg is closely associated with writers and artists William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. He joined the sexual revolution, fought for gay rights, endorsed LSD and the marijuana drug culture, and joined the North American Man/Boy Love Association “in defense of free speech.” Above all, Ginsberg produced a critically celebrated body of work influenced by William Blake, Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams. 

Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey. His father, Louis Ginsberg, was also a poet who taught English. His mother Naomi was a Russian Marxist who spent time in a mental hospital after suffering from paranoid delusions. 

As a teen at Eastside High School, Ginsberg discovered the poetry of Walt Whitman and started writing political letters to The New York Times. After graduating in 1943, he first attended Montclair State College and then Columbia University. 

At Columbia, Ginsberg met Lucien Carr. They shared an excitement for a nonconformist “New Vision.” Carr introduced Ginsberg to William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Controversial, confrontational and unconventional, they bonded creatively and sexually and emerged as the Beat Movement’s key figures. 

The anti-mainstream, nonconformist Beats culture around Columbia took on a more dangerous, even criminal edge. Starting at around this time, Ginsberg began his long celebration of psychedelic and mind-altering drugs. In 1944 Columbia suspended Ginsberg for a year for his association with Carr, who was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for the death of David Kammerer. 

In 1949 writer and hustler Herbert Huncke moved into Ginsberg’s apartment, where he stored stolen goods. Huncke was jailed while Ginsberg spent time in a psychiatric institution after pleading psychological disability. 

After earning his bachelor’s degree, Ginsberg worked at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue for five years before relocating to San Francisco to spend more time writing. The city had a considerable literary circle that included Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snider and Michael McClure. 

Ginsberg lived near Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s bookstore and publishing house, City Lights and soon met members of the San Francisco Renaissance. This association of writers would become part of the Beat Generation. In 1954, Ginsberg met poet and actor Peter Orlovsky. The two fell in love and were partners for over 30 years. 

Ginsberg wrote and published “Howl” in San Francisco. After an introduction arranged by William Carlos Williams, Rexroth arranged for Ginsberg to read the poem that vividly celebrated gay eroticism. Ferlinghetti published Howl! And Other Poems in 1956, and it was immediately banned. Ginsberg faced obscenity charges, but they were dropped once a judge found the poem to have redeeming social and artistic value. 

As a landmark case against censorship, “Howl” gained popularity and notoriety. Ginsberg was now a celebrity and toured the world reading his poetry. Part of his work involved trying to define the Beat movement. 

“Whitman long ago complained that unless the material power of America were leavened by some kind of spiritual infusion, we would wind up among the ‘fabled damned.’ We’re approaching that state as far as I can see. Only way out is individuals taking responsibility and saying what they actually feel. That’s what we as a group have been trying to do.” 

— Allen Ginsberg, 1957, in a letter to his father 

The wild Beatnik lifestyle eventually started to take its toll. Neal Cassady died of a drug overdose in 1968. Alcoholism killed Kerouac in 1969. 

However, over the next several decades, Ginsberg would continue earning critical acclaim and institutional respect. He won the National Book Award in 1973 and helped start the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics of the Naropa Institute. One of the last living Beat writers, he won the Robert Frost Medal in 1986, and an American Book Award in 1990. 

On April 5, 1997, Ginsberg died of liver cancer in his East Village apartment in Manhattan at age 70. Orlovsky survived him. At his funeral, Patti Smith and Roy Lichtenstein were among the many artists in attendance. William Burroughs died only 4 months later. 

In 2014 the Rainbow Honor Walk inducted Ginsberg as an inaugural honoree to the walk of fame in San Francisco’s Castro neighbourhood. 

 

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore. 

 

Sources: 

Allen Ginsberg

Britannica

Independent

NYC LGBT Sites

NY Times