The Essential Ginsberg
Featuring the legendary and groundbreaking poem “Howl,” this remarkable volume showcases a selection of Allen Ginsberg’s poems, songs, essays, letters, journals, and interviews and contains sixteen pages of his personal photographs.

One of the Beat Generation’s most renowned poets and writers, Allen Ginsberg became internationally famous not only for his published works but for his actions as a human rights activist who championed the sexual revolution, human rights, gay liberation, Buddhism and eastern religion, and the confrontation of societal norms—all before it became fashionable to do so. He was also the dynamic leader of war protesters, artists, Flower Power hippies, musicians, punks, and political radicals.

The Essential Ginsberg collects a mosaic of materials that displays the full range of Ginsberg’s mental landscape. His most important poems, songs, essays, letters, journals, and interviews are displayed in chronological order. His poetic masterpieces, “Howl” and “Kaddish,” are presented here along with lesser-known and difficult to find songs and prose. Personal correspondence with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac is included as well as photographs—shot and captioned by Ginsberg himself—of his friends and fellow rogues William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and more.

Through his essays, journals, interviews, and letters, this definitive volume will inspire readers to delve deeper into a body of work that remains one of the most impressive literary canons in American history.

1120303516
The Essential Ginsberg
Featuring the legendary and groundbreaking poem “Howl,” this remarkable volume showcases a selection of Allen Ginsberg’s poems, songs, essays, letters, journals, and interviews and contains sixteen pages of his personal photographs.

One of the Beat Generation’s most renowned poets and writers, Allen Ginsberg became internationally famous not only for his published works but for his actions as a human rights activist who championed the sexual revolution, human rights, gay liberation, Buddhism and eastern religion, and the confrontation of societal norms—all before it became fashionable to do so. He was also the dynamic leader of war protesters, artists, Flower Power hippies, musicians, punks, and political radicals.

The Essential Ginsberg collects a mosaic of materials that displays the full range of Ginsberg’s mental landscape. His most important poems, songs, essays, letters, journals, and interviews are displayed in chronological order. His poetic masterpieces, “Howl” and “Kaddish,” are presented here along with lesser-known and difficult to find songs and prose. Personal correspondence with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac is included as well as photographs—shot and captioned by Ginsberg himself—of his friends and fellow rogues William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and more.

Through his essays, journals, interviews, and letters, this definitive volume will inspire readers to delve deeper into a body of work that remains one of the most impressive literary canons in American history.

19.99 In Stock
The Essential Ginsberg

The Essential Ginsberg

by Allen Ginsberg
The Essential Ginsberg

The Essential Ginsberg

by Allen Ginsberg

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Overview

Featuring the legendary and groundbreaking poem “Howl,” this remarkable volume showcases a selection of Allen Ginsberg’s poems, songs, essays, letters, journals, and interviews and contains sixteen pages of his personal photographs.

One of the Beat Generation’s most renowned poets and writers, Allen Ginsberg became internationally famous not only for his published works but for his actions as a human rights activist who championed the sexual revolution, human rights, gay liberation, Buddhism and eastern religion, and the confrontation of societal norms—all before it became fashionable to do so. He was also the dynamic leader of war protesters, artists, Flower Power hippies, musicians, punks, and political radicals.

The Essential Ginsberg collects a mosaic of materials that displays the full range of Ginsberg’s mental landscape. His most important poems, songs, essays, letters, journals, and interviews are displayed in chronological order. His poetic masterpieces, “Howl” and “Kaddish,” are presented here along with lesser-known and difficult to find songs and prose. Personal correspondence with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac is included as well as photographs—shot and captioned by Ginsberg himself—of his friends and fellow rogues William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and more.

Through his essays, journals, interviews, and letters, this definitive volume will inspire readers to delve deeper into a body of work that remains one of the most impressive literary canons in American history.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062362285
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 05/26/2015
Pages: 448
Product dimensions: 8.90(w) x 5.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Allen Ginsberg was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as a winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1926, and died in New York City in 1997.

Table of Contents

Introduction Michael Schumacher xi

I Poems

The Bricklayer's Lunch Hour (1947) (Empty Mirror) 3

The Trembling of the Veil (1948) (Empty Mirror) 4

The Shrouded Stranger (1949-1951) (The Gates of Wrath) 5

The Green Automobile (1953) (Reality Sandwiches) 6

Song (1954) (Howl and Other Poems) 11

On Burroughs' Work (1954) (Reality Sandwiches) 13

Howl (1955) (Howl and Other Poems) 14

Footnote to Howl (1955) (Howl and Other Poems) 23

A Supermarket in California (1955) (Howl and Other Poems) 24

Sunflower Sutra (1955) (Howl and Other Poems) 25

America (1956) (Howl and Other Poems) 27

Kaddish (1957-1959) (Kaddish and Other Poems) 30

Message (1958) (Kaddish and Other Poems) 50

To Aunt Rose (1958) (Kaddish and Other Poems) 51

The Change: Kyoto-Tokyo Express (1963) (Planet News) 53

Kral Majales (1965) (Planet News) 60

Who Be Kind To (1965) (Planet News) 62

Wichita Vortex Sutra (1966) (Planet News) 66

City Midnight Junk Strains (1966) (Planet News) 83

Wales Visitation (1966) (Planet News) 86

Please Master (1968) (The Fall of America) 89

On Neal's Ashes (1968) (The Fall of America) 91

Memory Gardens (1969) (The Fall of America) 92

Mind Breaths (1973) (Mind Breaths) 97

Ego Confession [1974] (Mind Breaths) 100

Don't Grow Old (1976-1978] (Mind Breaths) 102

Plutonian Ode [1978] (Plutonian Ode) 107

White Shroud (1983) (White Shroud) 111

Cosmopolitan Greetings (1986) (Cosmopolitan Greetings) 115

Return of Krai Majales (1990) (Cosmopolitan Greetings) 117

After Lalon (1992) (Cosmopolitan Greetings) 118

The Charnel Ground (1992) (Cosmopolitan Greetings) 122

Death & Fame (1997) (Death and Fame) 125

Starry Rhymes (1997) (Death and Fame) 128

II Songs

September on Jessore Road (1971) 131

Gospel Noble Truths (1975) 137

Capitol Air (1980) 139

III Essays

Poetry, Violence, and the Trembling Lambs (1959) 145

"When the Mode of the Music Changes, the Walls of the City Shake" (1961) 148

Prose Contribution to Cuban Revolution (1961) 156

How Kaddish Happened (1966) 167

Statement of Allen Ginsberg, Poet, New York City, Hearings Before a Special Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary-U.S. Senate (1966) 171

Public Solitude (1966) 188

"The Fall of America" Wins an Award (1974) 197

A Definition of the Beat Generation (1981) 199

Meditation and Poetics (1987) 203

Statement [on Censorship] (1990) 216

IV Journals

New York: ca. late-winter 1949 223

New York: May 20, 1952 233

San Francisco: June 8, 1955 235

Pacallpa, Peru: June 11, 1960 237

Benares, India: February 22, 1963 243

Havana, Cuba: Feb. 18-19, 1965 248

Cherry Valley, New York: October 22, 1969* 255

V Interviews

The Paris Review Interview (Paris Review) (1965) 259

The Craft Interview (New York Quarterly) (1970) 297

VI Letters

AG to Neal Cassady, ca. April 21, 1949 313

AG to John Clellon Holmes, June 16, 1949 317

AG to Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, ca. February 1952 328

AG to Louis Ginsberg, ca. late-March 1956 333

AG to Richard Eberhart, May 18, 1956 337

AG to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, April 3, 1957 348

AG to William S. Burroughs, June 10, 1960 351

AG to Jack Kerouac, May 11, 1962 356

AG to Nicanor Parra, August 20, 1965 377

AG to Robert Creeley, November 28, 1967 388

AG to Gary Snyder, July 8, 1968 394

AG to Diana Trilling, January 15, 1979 396

*previously unpublished

VII Photographs

AG on rooftop [1953] 403

Jack Kerouac on fire escape [1953] 404

William S. Burroughs [1953] 405

Jack Kerouac [1953] 406

Neal Cassady and Natalie Jackson [1955] 407

San Francisco apartment [1955] 408

Gregory Corso [1957] 409

Group portrait, Tangier [1961] 410

AG in India [1963] 411

*previously unpublished

Neal Cassady and Timothy Leary [1964] 412

Lawrence Ferlinghetti [1984] 413

Anne Waldman [1985] 414

Orlovsky family [1987] 415

William S. Burroughs [1991] 416

Herbert Huncke [1993] 417

Self-portrait on 70th birthday [1996] 418

Acknowledgments 419

About the Editor 423

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