Irwin Allen Ginsberg
was born on June 3, 1926 in Newark, New Jeresy. Louis Ginsberg, Allen’s dad, was a published poet, a high school teacher and a Jewish Socialist. His wife, Naomi, was a radical Communist and nudist who went tragically insane in early adulthood. A shy and complicated child growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, Allen's home life was dominated by his mother's bizarre and frightening episodes. A severe paranoid, she trusted Allen when she was convinced the rest of the family and the world was plotting against her. As Allen tried to understand what was happening with his mother, he also had to struggle to comprehend what was happening inside him, because he was consumed by lust for other boys ...
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might say were equally obsessed with drugs, crime, sex and literature. Eventually, Allen got suspended from Columbia for various small offenses. He began hanging around with Times Square junkies and thieves (mostly friends of Burroughs), experimenting with Benzedrine and marijuana, and cruising gay bars in Greenwich Village. At this point in Ginsberg life he and Kerouac thought they were working towards some kind of great poetic vision, which they called the “New Vision.”
Ginsburg’s friends acted crazy in a sort of joyfull way, that coupled with the real craziness of his mother, whose condition continued to worsen until she was hospitalized for life and finally lobotomized. Some people deal with insanity in the family by becoming exaggeratedly normal, but Ginsberg went in the opposite direction. Knowing himself to be sane, he used bizarreness as a style of life, as if seeking to find the edge his mother had fallen over. In 1948, the 26-year-old Allen Ginsberg had a mad vision ...
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notice when he gave a performance of his new poem 'Howl' at the legendary Six Gallery poetry reading in October 1955. This poem, which brought about an obscenity charge that made Allen a worldwide symbol of sexual depravity (as homosexuality was then veiwed).
Ginsberg followed 'Howl' with several other new poems, such as 'Sunflower Sutra.' At a critical stage in his career, he somehow was able to avoid the 'fame burnout' that Kerouac fell pray too. Ginsberg mellowed considerably during this period, after travelling the world, discovering Buddhism and falling in love with Peter Orlovsky, who would remain a constant companion (though their relationship was not monogamous) for thirty ...
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"Irwin Allen Ginsberg." Essayworld.com. March 27, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Irwin-Allen-Ginsberg/81162.
"Irwin Allen Ginsberg." Essayworld.com. March 27, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Irwin-Allen-Ginsberg/81162.
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