The Happy Birthday of Death

Gregory Corso has been much publicized as one of the leading literary spokesmen for the 'Beat Generation, ' together with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs.

It is true that he has been one of the inner circle of the 'Beats' from the first, but many admirers of his poetry feel that it belongs quite as much to other and older traditions in world literature. One of these is the revival of pure poetry whenever an “original”––be it Rimbaud or Whitman––has broken with current ver...