Happy Birthday, Allen Ginsberg, Beat Poet

Born on June 3, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, to two members of the New York literary counterculture, Allen Ginsberg grew up among “progressive political perspectives.” His mother, Naomi, suffered from mental health problems. Ginsberg biographer Barry Miles wrote, “Naomi’s illness gave Allen an enormous empathy and tolerance for madness, neurosis, and psychosis.” As Ginsberg grew up, he favored the writings of Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe.

He attended Columbia University to learn how to become a labor lawyer, but his interests soon gravitated toward literature and poetry instead. Faculty members like Mark Van Doren and Lionel Trilling tried to help him develop his career, but Allen preferred the influences of his friends and “his experiences of the seedier sides of New York nightlife.” Disciplinary problems resulted in his suspension from the school his sophomore year, but he eventually received his degree.

Ginsberg helped to found the “Beat” generation of poetry with a group of colleagues including Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. They sought inspiration from jazz music, and they believed drug use could enlighten their writing. According to the PBS American Masters Web site, many critics disagreed with the “irresponsible” nature of their lifestyles. Followers of the Beat movement favored a more open discussion of society than had previously occurred before. Two of Ginsberg’s most notable works from this era are “Howl” and “Kaddish.”

“Howl” celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006. The first edition of the work was released in 1956. Its opening lines, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” still resonate with readers today. Explore the poem in greater depth by listening to an NPR story that features quotes from Ginsberg to help explain the poem.

Ginsberg worked in a variety of media. Certainly, he was a poet, but he was also a musician, photographer and visual artist. You can view some of his “doodles,” read from his lectures, see photos of him and by him, and view clips of videos with Ginsberg at The Allen Ginsberg Project.

Ginsberg died in his apartment in April 1997 of terminal liver cancer. He was 70 years old. “He embodied the East Village and the Lower East Side,” Bill Morgan, Ginsberg’s friend and archivist told The New York Times. Allen used the lower Manhattan area as inspiration in “Howl” and in other works. “In terms of real work, the Lower East Side is where it happened,” said Ginsberg’s personal secretary.