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Allen Ginsburg (1926-1997)
Name: Allen Ginsburg Birth Name: Irwin Allen Ginsburg Birthdate: 3 June, 1926 - Newark, New Jersey, USA Date of death: 5 April, 1997 - East Village, New York City, NY, USA (cause: Liver cancer caused by hepatitis) Notable as: One of the pivotal forces behind the Beat movement of the 1950s and 60s, together with friends Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Works include "Howl," "Kaddish," "Sunflower Sutra," "America," "Wichita Vortex Sutra," Mind Breaths, and The Fall of America. Factoids: His mother Naomi, for whom "Kaddish" was written, was a Communist and nudist who suffered from mental illness for most of her life. Signing the papers authorizing her lobotomy was the more traumatic experiences in Ginsburg's life. One of Allen Ginsburg's earliest inspirations was the poetry of Walt Whitman. A vision of William Blake in 1948 had a profound influence on Ginsburg. He was arrested in 1949 after his car wrecked in a police chase and items which his roommates had been stealing were found stored in the car; Ginsburg agreed to enter a psychiatric hospital as a condition of his release. The Yage Letters were a collection of letters exchanged between Ginsburg and William S. Burroughs, with whom he had a afair in 1953; the title refers to a powerful hallucinogenic Burroughs had found in Ecuador. Howl and Other Poems became a major seller after the clerk and owner of City Lights Books were arrested for selling the book, which local authorities considered "lewd and obscene." A court ruled the book was not obscene and threw out the charges five months later. One of Ginsburg's lovers, Neal Cassady, was a participant in the cross-country psychedelic bus tour organized by Ken Kesey and immortalized in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Ginsburg was expelled from Cuba after allegedly saying Fidel Castro's brother Raul was gay. His essay, "No Taxation Without Representation," was read during the 1967 anti-war rally in Washington as part of a "Pentagon Exorcism." While chiefly known as a poet, Ginsburg was also an accomplished photographer. Links: Allen Ginsburg Trust, Official Site The Beat Page - Allen Ginsburg The Knitting Circle: Allen Ginsburg Literary Kicks - Allen Ginsburg Allen Ginsburg: Shadow Changes Into Bone Naropa University - Allen Ginsburg Tribute Allen Ginsburg - The Academy of American Poets Gloria G. Bramme Interview with Allen Ginsburg The Biography Project: Allen Ginsburg On Allen Ginsburg: The Foetid Halls Allen Ginsburg at the Vaults of Erowid The Beat Museum: Allen Ginsburg Rockument Shrine to Allen Ginsburg Ginsberg at Evergreen: An Extended Interview American Masters: Allen Ginsburg
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