LITERARY LINKS SECTION
PAGE ONE
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Ooooowwwwwhoooo!
Went Allen Ginsberg upon entry into the world on the day of his birth
June 3rd, 1926, and he continued to HOWL right up until his death on
April 5, 1997. Born in Newark, NJ, the son of Louis Ginsberg, a high
school teacher and poet, and his mother Naomi, who later was to be
institutionalized in a mental hospital, Ginsberg possessed from the start a
dazzling persona destined for unavoidable fame and greatness.
In the direct lineage of the
American tradition of poetry, beginning with Whitman and continuing up to
William Carlos Williams, Ginsberg is the natural culmination of that free
flowing and spirited America, both filled with joy and defiantly unapologetic,
that characterizes a style both hallucinatory and filled with living ecstasies.
He is the American poet, to say the least. He is lyric and all the time singing. He is a prophet of rage.
He is comic and saddened. He
is a holy voice filled with obscenity and mysticism. His is a voice filled with pacifism, peace and a litany of
war. He is barbaric and gentle.
Allen Ginsberg is so many things… and more.
After attending Columbia University, it was here for
the first time that Ginsberg met Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Neal
Cassady (among many other noted writers and poets). Kerouac, who was later to coin the term “beat
generation”, which he first heard used by Herbert Huncke, was somewhat of a
reluctant spokesman for the generation. But
nevertheless, it was Ginsberg who took up the reigns of becoming spokesman,
while helping to bring recognition to the writers and movement that changed the
social consciousness in America for years to come.
HOWL, which was published in 1956 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, is
Ginsberg’s famous litany that helped escalate him into the spotlight after it
was banned and both him and Ferlinghetti found themselves dragged into court on
obscenity charges. Allen Ginsberg
has achieved the kind of success that few poets are able to do. He has been read and translated in a multitude of languages
all across the globe. And because
there are so many people out there whom Ginsberg has affected, the
AllenGinsberg.org website is a living homage to his greatness.
About the website
A few years prior to his death, Allen Ginsberg
established the Allen Ginsberg Trust, which as one of its originating plans was
to establish a website. The
website is intended to offer a comprehensive glance at Allen and his work, in
addition as a way of offering future projects such as further publications,
photography, correspondences and a documentary detailing Ginsberg’s most
famous work – Howl. The result is
a very professional and beautiful tribute to the legacy of Allen Ginsberg.
The website begins with an animated caricature of Allen as his recorded
voice is heard reading his poem, America. Other features include a brief
biography, timeline, and macromedia flash player capabilities, as well as an
extensive library. The library is a growing archive intended for research or
general perusal of vast materials from video clips of interviews, artwork,
photographs, audio interviews and readings, texts, handwritten drafts and
manuscripts, posters, fliers and much more.
Everything is detailed and documented for easy exegesis.
Click below to get started.
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