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Howl and Other Poems

By Allen Ginsberg (Author), William Carlos Williams (Contributor)

Paperback published by City Lights Books

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Howl and Other Poems

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"Allen Ginsberg's Howl & Other Poems was originally published by City Lights Books in the fall of 1956. Subsequently seized by U.S. Customs and the San Francisco police, it was the subject of a long court trial at which a series of poets and professors persuaded the court that the book was not obscene.


Allen Ginsberg was born June 3, 1926, the son of Naomi Ginsberg, Russian émigré, and Louis Ginsberg, lyric poet and schoolteacher, in Paterson, New Jersey. To these facts Ginsberg adds: “High school in Paterson till 17, Columbia College, merchant marine, Texas and Denver copyboy, Times Square, amigos in jail, dishwashing, book reviews, Mexico City, market research, Satori in Harlem, Yucatan and Chiapas 1954, West Coast 3 years. Later Arctic Sea trip, Tangier, Venice, Amsterdam, Paris, read at Oxford Harvard Columbia Chicago, quit, wrote Kaddish 1959, made tape to leave behind & fade in Orient awhile. Carl Solomon to whom Howl is addressed, is a intuitive Bronx dadaist and prose-poet.”"


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"Allen Ginsberg's Howl & Other Poems was originally published by City Lights Books in the fall of 1956. Subsequently seized by U.S. Customs and the San Francisco police, it was the subject of a long court trial at which a series of poets and professors persuaded the court that the book was not obscene.


Allen Ginsberg was born June 3, 1926, the son of Naomi Ginsberg, Russian émigré, and Louis Ginsberg, lyric poet and schoolteacher, in Paterson, New Jersey. To these facts Ginsberg adds: “High school in Paterson till 17, Columbia College, merchant marine, Texas and Denver copyboy, Times Square, amigos in jail, dishwashing, book reviews, Mexico City, market research, Satori in Harlem, Yucatan and Chiapas 1954, West Coast 3 years. Later Arctic Sea trip, Tangier, Venice, Amsterdam, Paris, read at Oxford Harvard Columbia Chicago, quit, wrote Kaddish 1959, made tape to leave behind & fade in Orient awhile. Carl Solomon to whom Howl is addressed, is a intuitive Bronx dadaist and prose-poet.”"


Product Details
Paperback (57 pages)
Published: January 1, 1956
Publisher: City Lights Books
ISBN: 9780872860179
Other books byAllen Ginsberg
(48)
  • Collected Poems 1947-1997

    Collected Poems 1947-1997
    Here, for the first time, is a volume that gathers the published verse of Allen Ginsberg in its entirety, a half century of brilliant work from one of America's great poets. The chief figure among the Beats, Ginsberg changed the course of American poetry, liberating it from closed academic forms with the creation of open, vocal, spontaneous, and energetic postmodern verse in the tradition of Walt Whitman, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hart Crane, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams. Ginsberg's classics Howl, Reality Sandwiches, Kaddish, Planet News, and The Fall of America led American (and international) poetry toward uncensored vernacular, explicit candor, the ecstatic, the rhapsodic, and the sincere—all leavened by an attractive and pervasive streak of common sense. Ginsberg's raw tones and attitudes of spiritual liberation also helped catalyze a psychological revolution that has become a permanent part of our cultural heritage, profoundly influencing not only poetry and popular song and speech, but also our view of the world. The uninterrupted energy of Ginsberg's remarkable career is clearly revealed in this collection. Seen in order of composition, the poems reflect on one another; they are not only works but also a work. Included here are all the poems from the earlier volume Collected Poems 1947-1980, and from Ginsberg's subsequent and final three books of new poetry: White Shroud, Cosmopolitan Greetings, and Death & Fame. Enriching this book are illustrations by Ginsberg's artist friends; unusual and illuminating notes to the poems, inimitably prepared by the poet himself; extensive indexes; as well as prefaces and various other materials that accompanied the original publications.
    Visit Book Page

    First Thought Best Thought

    First Thought Best Thought
    "First thought, best thought." This was the phrase that poet Allen Ginsberg used to describe spontaneous and fearless writing, a way of telling the truth that arises from naked and authentic experience. For more than 30 years, groundbreaking teachers at Naropa University such as Ginsberg and his colleagues Anne Waldman, William S. Burroughs, and Diane di Prima have inspired emerging poets and prose writers to express themselves with unfettered honesty and immediacy. Now, with First Thought, Best Thought, the first landmark release from Naropa University's treasured audio archives, you are invited to meet and learn with these literary mentors face-to-face as they share the secrets of their craft. Selected and edited by poet and Naropa alumnus Randy Roark from thousands of hours of performance and teaching sessions, First Thought, Best Thought brings you four rare gems of inspiration and practical wisdom, including: William S. Burroughs teaching his breakthrough methods for generating fresh writing—including the cut-up method, chance operations, and dreamworkDiane di Prima on how to survive as an artist—preserving your sensibility, creating a supportive artistic community, getting published, self-publishing, and much moreAllen Ginsberg exploring every stage of poetic activity—from inspiration, to composition, to revision, to performing your poetry in publicAnne Waldman on the elements of the poet's craft—from the raw material of the words themselves to the many aspects of the poem in performance
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    Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg

    Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
    The Letters
    "[An] essential Beat masterpiece." --The Village Voice. Perhaps one of the last great dual correspondences of the twentieth century, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters reveals not only the process of creation of the two most celebrated members of the Beat Generation, but also the unfolding of a remarkable friendship of immense pathos and spiritual depth. Through this exhilarating exchange of letters, two-thirds of which have never been published before, Kerouac and Ginsberg emerge first and foremost as writers of artistic passion, innovation, and genius. Vivid and enthralling, the letters, which date from their first meeting in 1944 to Kerouac's untimely death in 1969, chronicle the endless struggle, anguish, and sacrifice involved in giving form to their literary visions.
    Visit Book Page

    Collected Poems 1947-1980

    Collected Poems 1947-1980
    Visit Book Page

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BookReviews
13 Total Reviews

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  • November 05, 2011
    GBILL
    LibraryThing User

    “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix…” And so begins the poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg, a rambling, drug-inspired beat classic. I want to love it but can’t; I recommend Kerouac’s prose instead. This edition also includes several of Ginsberg’s other works from the mid-fifties, such as “America” (“America when will end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.”); these are also hit-and-miss.

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    “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix…” And so begins the poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg, a rambling, drug-inspired beat classic. I want to love it but can’t; I recommend Kerouac’s prose instead. This edition also includes several of Ginsberg’s other works from the mid-fifties, such as “America” (“America when will end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.”); these are also hit-and-miss.


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  • May 23, 2011
    KAIONVIN
    LibraryThing User

    Boo hoo the plight of myself and all my cool friends who are so brilliant here's some literary references so you know and disenfranchised and we take drugs and wander about and dammit we're iconoclasts and therefore don't have to write lines that actually sound good or end poems before we overstate our positions or anything because reading a poem should feel like being stuck at bus stop with *that* dude and so we Howl our dissatisfaction well at least as much as you can even after you become a classic.

    Show less

    Boo hoo the plight of myself and all my cool friends who are so brilliant here's some literary references so you know and disenfranchised and we take drugs and wander about and dammit we're iconoclasts and therefore don't have to write lines that actually sound good or end poems before we overstate our positions or anything because reading a poem should feel like being stuck at bus stop with *that* dude and so we Howl our dissatisfaction well at least as much as you can even after you become a classic.


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    Flag This Content For Review

  • April 17, 2011
    UH8MYZEN
    LibraryThing User

    This poem blew my mind and to this day, the opening lines of this poem are among my favorite in all of poetic cannon. Ginsberg was a poetic genius who like Kerouac, was among the great chroniclers of the beat generation.

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    This poem blew my mind and to this day, the opening lines of this poem are among my favorite in all of poetic cannon. Ginsberg was a poetic genius who like Kerouac, was among the great chroniclers of the beat generation.


    Was this review helpful to you? Helpful|Not Helpful
    Flag This Content For Review

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