Early life and family Ginsberg was born into a
Jewish family on June 3, 1926, in
Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby
Paterson. Naomi Ginsberg was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia where she was institutionalised for extended periods during Ginsberg's childhood, including treatment at Greystone Park State Hospital in New Jersey. Her illness manifested paranoid delusions and many suicide attempts. As a teenager, Ginsberg began to write letters to
The New York Times about political issues, such as
World War II and
workers' rights. While in high school, Ginsberg became interested in the works of
Walt Whitman, inspired by his teacher's passionate reading. In 1943, Ginsberg graduated from
Eastside High School and briefly attended
Montclair State College before entering
Columbia University on a scholarship from the
Young Men's Hebrew Association of Paterson. Ginsberg intended to study
law at
Columbia but later changed his major to
literature. While at Columbia, Ginsberg contributed to the
Columbia Review literary journal, the
Jester humor magazine, won the Woodberry Poetry Prize, served as president of the
Philolexian Society (literary and debate group), and joined
Boar's Head Society (poetry society). He was a resident of
Hartley Hall, where he met other poets such as
Jack Kerouac and
Herbert Gold. Ginsberg has stated that he considered his required freshman seminar in Great Books, taught by
Lionel Trilling, to be his favorite course. In 1948, he graduated from Columbia with a B.A in English and American Literature. Following a legal issue involving stolen goods in his dorm room, Ginsberg pleaded insanity, spending several months in a mental institution.
Relationship with his parents Ginsberg referred to his parents in a 1985 interview as "old-fashioned delicatessen philosophers". His father, Louis Ginsberg, was a school teacher and a poet, known for his traditional lyric poems and encouragement to study literature at home. Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were poets he loved to recite as well as having strong criticism for modern writers like T.S. Eliot."
New York Beats In Ginsberg's first year at Columbia he met
Lucien Carr, who introduced him to future Beat writers, including
Jack Kerouac,
William S. Burroughs, and
John Clellon Holmes. They all shared a similar interest in developing a new literary ideology that rejected the cultural conformity of America post World War II. Ginsberg and Carr discussed a "New Vision" (a phrase adapted from Yeats' "A Vision"), to reshape literature and America. Carr also introduced Ginsberg to
Neal Cassady, for whom Ginsberg formed a close and personal relationship. In the first chapter of his 1957 novel
On the Road Kerouac described the meeting between Ginsberg and Cassady. Ginsberg appeared as the character "Carlo Marx" reflecting his sympathy for leftist politics although he was never a member of the communist party. Political differences between both parties led to tensions between Ginsberg and Kerouac. In New York, Ginsberg met
Gregory Corso who had been released from prison and was writing poetry in Greenwich Village. Ginsberg introduced Corso to Kerouac and Burroughs and they began to travel together. Ginsberg and Corso remained lifelong friends and collaborators. Shortly after this period in Ginsberg's life, he became romantically involved with
Elise Nada Cowen who was associated with the Beat circle. Through Cowen, Ginsberg had associated a stronger bond with Carl Solomon, to whom he dedicated Howl (1956) and defining the beat generation, reflecting on Ginsberg's experiences in New York and expanding on his relationship with other writers.
The "Blake vision" In 1948, in an apartment in
East Harlem, Ginsberg experienced an
auditory hallucination while masturbating and reading the poetry of
William Blake which he later referred to as his "Blake vision". Ginsberg claimed to have heard the voice of God—also described as the "voice of the
Ancient of Days"—or of Blake himself reading "
Ah! Sun-flower", "
The Sick Rose" and "
The Little Girl Lost". The experience lasted several days, with him believing that he had profoundly altered his perception of reality and have a deeper understanding of his spirituality and the materialistic world. This became a pivotal moment in his development as it provided him with visionary themes which become central to his work. Later, in 1955, he referenced his "Blake vision" in his poem "Sunflower Sutra", saying "—I rushed up enchanted—it was my first sunflower, memories of Blake—my visions—".
San Francisco Renaissance Ginsberg moved to
San Francisco during the 1950s, working as a market researcher. In his time there, he became associated with poets that were centred around public readings. In 1954, in San Francisco, Ginsberg met
Peter Orlovsky, who remained his lifelong partner. Ginsberg also met members of the
San Francisco Renaissance (James Broughton, Robert Duncan, Madeline Gleason and Kenneth Rexroth) and other poets who would later be associated with the Beat Generation in a broader sense. Ginsberg's mentor
William Carlos Williams wrote an introductory letter to San Francisco Renaissance figurehead
Kenneth Rexroth, who then introduced Ginsberg into the San Francisco poetry scene. There, Ginsberg also met three budding poets and
Zen Buddhism enthusiasts who had become friends at
Reed College:
Gary Snyder,
Philip Whalen, and
Lew Welch who became a part of the broader beat movement. On October 7, 1955, Ginsberg was approached by
Wally Hedrick—a painter and co-founder of the
Six Gallery— and asked him to organize a poetry reading at the
Six Gallery. Ginsberg was skeptical at first but after reading his draft of "Howl" he changed his mind. That night included the first public presentation of "Howl," a poem that brought worldwide fame to Ginsberg and to many of the poets associated with him. ''(1956) "Howl" was considered scandalous at the time of its publication, because of the rawness of its language. Shortly after its 1956 publication by San Francisco's
City Lights Bookstore, it was banned for obscenity.
Biographical references in "Howl" Ginsberg claimed at one point that all of his work was an extended biography (like Kerouac's
Duluoz Legend). "Howl" is not only a biography of Ginsberg's experiences before 1955, but also a history of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg also later claimed that at the core of "Howl" were his unresolved emotions about his schizophrenic mother. Though
"Kaddish" deals more explicitly with his mother, "Howl" in many ways is driven by the same emotions. "Howl" chronicles the development of many important friendships throughout Ginsberg's life. He begins the poem with "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness", which sets the stage for Ginsberg to describe Cassady and Solomon, immortalizing them into American literature. Also during this time, he formed friendships with some of the prominent young
Bengali poets of the time including
Shakti Chattopadhyay and
Sunil Gangopadhyay. Ginsberg had several political connections in India; most notably
Pupul Jayakar who helped him extend his stay in India when the authorities were eager to expel him.
England and the International Poetry Incarnation In May 1965, Ginsberg arrived in London, and offered to read anywhere for free. Shortly after his arrival, he gave a reading at
Better Books, which was described by
Jeff Nuttall as "the first healing wind on a very parched collective mind." Soon after the bookshop reading, plans were hatched for the
International Poetry Incarnation,
Peter Whitehead documented the event on film and released it as
Wholly Communion. A book featuring images from the film and some of the poems that were performed was also published under the same title by Lorrimer in the UK and Grove Press in US.
Continuing literary activity . Photo taken in 1978 Though the term "Beat" is most accurately applied to Ginsberg and his closest friends (Corso, Orlovsky, Kerouac, Burroughs, etc.), the term "Beat Generation" has become associated with many of the other poets Ginsberg met and became friends with in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A key feature of this term seems to be a friendship with Ginsberg. Friendship with Kerouac or Burroughs might also apply, but both writers later strove to disassociate themselves from the name "
Beat Generation." Part of their dissatisfaction with the term came from the mistaken identification of Ginsberg as the leader. Ginsberg never claimed to be the leader of a movement. He claimed that many of the writers with whom he had become friends in this period shared many of the same intentions and themes. Some of these friends include:
David Amram,
Bob Kaufman;
Diane di Prima;
Jim Cohn; poets associated with the
Black Mountain College such as
Charles Olson,
Robert Creeley, and
Denise Levertov; poets associated with the
New York School such as
Frank O'Hara and
Kenneth Koch. LeRoi Jones before he became
Amiri Baraka, who, after reading "Howl", wrote a letter to Ginsberg on a sheet of toilet paper. Baraka's independent publishing house Totem Press published Ginsberg's early work. Through a party organized by Baraka, Ginsberg was introduced to
Langston Hughes while
Ornette Coleman played saxophone. , taken in 1975 Later in his life, Ginsberg formed a bridge between the
beat movement of the 1950s and the
hippies of the 1960s, befriending, among others,
Timothy Leary,
Ken Kesey,
Hunter S. Thompson, and
Bob Dylan. Ginsberg gave his last public reading at
Booksmith, a bookstore in the
Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, a few months before his death. In 1993, Ginsberg visited the
University of Maine at Orono to pay homage to the 90-year-old
Carl Rakosi.
Buddhism and Krishna In 1950, Kerouac began studying Buddhism and shared what he learned from
Dwight Goddard's Buddhist Bible with Ginsberg. Ginsberg's spiritual journey began early on with his spontaneous visions, and continued with an early trip to India with
Gary Snyder. a
Kagyu and
Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist master, led to Trungpa becoming his friend and lifelong teacher. at
San Francisco International Airport. January 17, 1967 Despite disagreeing with many of Bhaktivedanta Swami's
required prohibitions, Ginsberg often sang the Hare Krishna mantra publicly as part of his philosophy and declared that it brought a state of ecstasy. He was glad that Bhaktivedanta Swami, an authentic
swami from India, was now trying to spread the chanting in America. Along with other
counterculture ideologists like
Timothy Leary,
Gary Snyder, and
Alan Watts, Ginsberg hoped to incorporate Bhaktivedanta Swami and his chanting into the hippie movement, and agreed to take part in the Mantra-Rock Dance concert and to introduce the swami to the Haight-Ashbury hippie community. On January 17, 1967, Ginsberg helped plan and organize a reception for Bhaktivedanta Swami at
San Francisco International Airport, where fifty to a hundred hippies greeted the Swami, chanting Hare Krishna in the airport lounge with flowers in hands. To further support and promote Bhaktivedanta Swami's message and chanting in San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg agreed to attend the
Mantra-Rock Dance, a musical event held in 1967 at the
Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco
Hare Krishna temple. It featured some leading rock bands of the time:
Big Brother and the Holding Company with
Janis Joplin, the
Grateful Dead, and
Moby Grape, who performed there along with the Hare Krishna founder
Bhaktivedanta Swami and donated proceeds to the Krishna temple. Ginsberg introduced Bhaktivedanta Swami to some three thousand hippies in the audience and led the chanting of the
Hare Krishna mantra. promotional poster featuring Allen Ginsberg along with leading rock bands. Music and chanting were both important parts of Ginsberg's live delivery during poetry readings. He often accompanied himself on a
harmonium, and was often accompanied by a guitarist. It is believed that the Hindi and Buddhist poet
Nagarjun had introduced Ginsberg to the harmonium in Banaras. According to
Malay Roy Choudhury, Ginsberg refined his practice while learning from his relatives, including his cousin Savitri Banerjee. When Ginsberg asked if he could sing a song in praise of Lord
Krishna on
William F. Buckley, Jr.'s TV show
Firing Line on September 3, 1968, Buckley acceded and the poet chanted slowly as he played dolefully on a harmonium. According to
Richard Brookhiser, an associate of Buckley's, the host commented that it was "the most unharried Krishna I've ever heard." At the 1967
Human Be-In in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and the 1970 Black Panther rally at Yale campus Allen chanted "Om" repeatedly over a sound system for hours on end. Ginsberg further brought mantras into the world of rock and roll when he recited the
Heart Sutra in the song "
Ghetto Defendant". The song appears on the 1982 album
Combat Rock by British first wave punk band
The Clash. Ginsberg came in touch with the
Hungryalist poets of
Bengal, especially Malay Roy Choudhury, who introduced Ginsberg to the three fish with one head of Indian emperor
Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar. The three fish symbolised coexistence of all thought, philosophy, and religion. In spite of Ginsberg's attraction to Eastern religions, the journalist
Jane Kramer argues that he, like Whitman, adhered to an "American brand of mysticism" that was "rooted in humanism and in a romantic and visionary ideal of harmony among men." The Allen Ginsberg Estate and Jewel Heart International partnered to present "Transforming Minds: Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche and Friends", a gallery and online exhibition of images of
Gelek Rimpoche by Allen Ginsberg, a student with whom he had an "indissoluble bond," in 2021 at
Tibet House US in New York City. Fifty negatives from Ginsberg's Stanford University photo archive celebrated "the unique relationship between Allen and Rimpoche." The selection of never-before presented images, featuring great Tibetan masters including the Dalai Lama, Tibetologists, and students were "guided by Allen's extensive notes on the contact sheets and images he'd circled with the intention to print."
Illness and death In 1960, he was treated for a
tropical disease, and it is speculated that he contracted
hepatitis from an unsterilized needle administered by a doctor, which played a role in his death 37 years later. Ginsberg was a lifelong smoker, and though he tried to quit for health and religious reasons, his busy schedule in later life made it difficult, and he always returned to smoking. In the 1970s, Ginsberg had two minor strokes which were first diagnosed as
Bell's palsy, which gave him significant paralysis and stroke-like drooping of the muscles in one side of his face. Later in life, he also had constant minor ailments such as
high blood pressure. Many of these symptoms were related to stress, but he never slowed down his schedule. Ginsberg won a 1974
National Book Award for
The Fall of America (split with
Adrienne Rich,
Diving into the Wreck). In 1986, Ginsberg was awarded the Golden Wreath by the
Struga Poetry Evenings International Festival in Macedonia, the second American poet to be so awarded since
W. H. Auden. At Struga, Ginsberg met with the other Golden Wreath winners,
Bulat Okudzhava and
Andrei Voznesensky. In 1989, Ginsberg appeared in
Rosa von Praunheim's award-winning film
Silence = Death about the fight of gay artists in New York City for AIDS-education and the rights of HIV infected people. In 1993, the French Minister of Culture appointed Ginsberg a
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Ginsberg continued to help his friends as much as he could: he gave money to
Herbert Huncke out of his own pocket, regularly supplied neighbor
Arthur Russell with an extension cord to power his home recording setup, and housed a broke, drug-addicted
Harry Smith. With the exception of a special guest appearance at the
NYU Poetry
Slam on February 20, 1997, Ginsberg gave what is thought to be his last reading at The
Booksmith in San Francisco on December 16, 1996. After returning home from the hospital for the last time, where he had been unsuccessfully treated for
congestive heart failure, Ginsberg continued making phone calls to say goodbye to nearly everyone in his address book. Some of the phone calls were sad and interrupted by crying, and others were joyous and optimistic. Ginsberg continued to write through his final illness, with his last poem, "Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)", written on March 30. He died on April 5, 1997, surrounded by family and friends in his
East Village loft in Manhattan, succumbing to
liver cancer via complications of
hepatitis at the age of 70. He was cremated, and his ashes were buried in his family plot in Gomel Chesed Cemetery in Newark. He was survived by Orlovsky. On May 14, 1998, a tribute event took place at the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine attended by some 2,500 of Ginsberg's friends and fans. In August 1998, various writers, including
Catfish McDaris, read at a gathering at Ginsberg's farm to honor Allen and the Beats.
Good Will Hunting (released in December 1997) was dedicated to Ginsberg, as well as Burroughs, who died four months later. ==Social and political activism==