The Poem Human: A Biography of Gregory Corso

Gregory Corso was not born a poet—he made himself one.

Abandoned by his mother, raised in foster homes, and hardened by reform schools and prison, Nunzio Corso seemed destined to disappear into the machinery of the state. Instead, he reinvented himself as Gregory Corso—one of the most singular voices of the Beat Generation and the author of poems that would help redefine American poetry.

In The Poem Human, Kurt Hemmer offers the most searching and authoritative biography of Corso to date. D...