Portrait

Allen Ginsberg

Born: 3 June 1926Newark, New Jersey, USA
Died: 5 April 1997New York City, USA · aged 70

PoetUnited States100th birthday

Allen Ginsberg

The obscenity trial over “Howl” helped make his poetry a landmark in the struggle over free expression.

Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1926. His father was a poet and teacher; his mother’s severe mental illness deeply affected the family. At Columbia University he met Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, forming friendships central to the Beat Generation.

Ginsberg read part of “Howl” at San Francisco’s Six Gallery in 1955. Published by City Lights Books the following year, the poem brought mental illness, drugs, friendship and sex between men into an expansive account of American life. Its publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, faced an obscenity prosecution. The 1957 ruling in his favour became an important victory for literary freedom.

In 1954 Ginsberg met Peter Orlovsky, his partner for more than four decades. He spoke openly about being gay, protested against the Vietnam War and became a practising Buddhist. “The Fall of America” won the National Book Award in 1974.

His activism also included support for the North American Man/Boy Love Association, which sought to remove legal restrictions on sexual contact between adults and minors. Ginsberg defended his association with it in terms of free speech; that position remains a controversial part of his record. He died in New York in 1997.

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