Irwin Allen Ginsberg
9 min read
Reading time
1,767
Words
Published
112
Film credits
42
Books
7
Awards
Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 poem Howl became a defining work of the Beat generation and led to a landmark First Amendment case. He was a poet, actor, and composer who was an anti-war activist and co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He died of liver cancer in Manhattan, New York City in 1997 at age 70.
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Allen Ginsberg — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Louis Ginsberg, a moderate Jewish Socialist, and Naomi Ginsberg, a radical Communist and nudist. The political and religious tensions between his parents shaped his worldview. He attended Eastside High School in Paterson, then Montclair State University and Columbia University.
In 1956, Ginsberg published Howl, a poem so raw it was seized by U.S. Customs and led to an obscenity trial. In San Francisco, he met his lifelong partner Peter Orlovsky and became a central figure of the Beat movement, collaborating with Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and an advocate for drug legalization and gay rights. In the 1970s, he embraced Tibetan Buddhism under the guidance of Trungpa Rinpoche. He co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He acted in films like The Dick Cavett Show and Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. His poetry collection The Fall of America: Poems of these States, 1965-1971 won the National Book Award in 1974.
In 1954, Ginsberg met Peter Orlovsky in San Francisco; Orlovsky, then 21, became his life partner and remained with him until Ginsberg’s death in 1997. They shared a devotion to Tibetan Buddhism, and Orlovsky later published his own poetry. Ginsberg was close friends with Bob Dylan, Donovan, and John Lennon, and he sang on Lennon’s 1969 peace anthem Give Peace A Chance. He was deported from Cuba in 1965 after criticizing the country’s anti-marijuana and anti-homosexual policies, and then expelled from Czechoslovakia after being named King of the May Day parade.
Ginsberg’s Howl remains a foundational text of the Beat generation and a template for free expression in literature. He inspired a generation of poets and activists, including future Czech president Václav Havel, who cited him as a symbol of freedom. Posthumously, he was nominated for the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize. His work continues to be studied in classrooms and performed worldwide; he is remembered most for the raw, spiritual, and political energy of his poetry.
The complete filmography of Allen Ginsberg — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Allen Ginsberg's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Allen Ginsberg — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Poetry Is Not an Expression of the Party Line. It’s That Time of Night, Lying in Bed, Thinking What You Really Think, Making the Private World Public, That’s What the Poet Does.
You Don’t Have to Be Right. All You Have to Do Is Be Candid.
The Future Is History, We’re in Science Fiction Now.
Follow Your Inner Moonlight, Don’t Hide the Madness.
Little-known facts about Allen Ginsberg — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Public readings of Howl became an event before and after the First Amendment controversies. When one heckler doubted Ginsberg’s commitment to going naked in the world, Ginsberg answered by disrobing onstage.
Appears as Carlo Marx, Alvah Goldbook, and Irwin Garden in friend Jack Kerouac’s novels. Kerouac also gave Howl its title after writing a critique of the unfinished work in a letter that began I received your howl.
Sang on 1969’s Give Peace A Chance with John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their bed-in in Montreal, part of a chorus including Tom Smothers, Timothy Leary, Norman Mailer, and the local Hare Krishna chapter. Later spent time with Lennon and Ono in New York and opposed radicals Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin’s wilder suggestions.
Worked with William S. Burroughs.
Admired by Bob Dylan and Donovan; socialized with Dylan occasionally in New York.
Restated the three laws of thermodynamics: The First Law — ‘You can’t win’; The Second Law — ‘You can’t break even’; The Third Law — ‘You can’t quit.
In 1965 he was deported from Cuba for protesting its anti-marijuana stance and homophobic social policies. He also outraged Fidel Castro by remarking that Che Guevara was cute. The Cubans deported him to Czechoslovakia, where one week after being named King of the May Day parade, the Czech communist government labeled him an immoral menace and deported him. Playwright and future President Václav Havel credits Ginsberg as an important figure inspiring their desire for freedom.
Cousin of psychiatrist Oscar Janiger.
Won the National Book Award in 1974 for The Fall of America: Poems of these States, 1965-1971.
Was friends with Michael Savage, later an ultra-right-wing radio host; they once skinny-dipped together.
In 1954, met his life partner Peter Orlovsky in San Francisco. Orlovsky, then 21, remained with Ginsberg until his death 43 years later. They shared an interest in Tibetan Buddhism, and Orlovsky later became a published poet.
Portrayed by David Cross in I’m Not There 2007.
Nominated for the 2011 New Jersey Hall of Fame for services and contributions to Literature. Awarded the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Contributor to Tricycle, The Buddhist Review.
Learned meditation from Gary Snyder.
Friend of Zen Roshi Philip Whalen.
Admired Mikhail Vartanov’s Parajanov: The Last Spring 1992.
Biography in American National Biography, Supplement 1, pp. 230-232, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Impersonates the voice of Travis Bickle Robert De Niro from Taxi Driver 1976 in The Clash song Red Angel Dragnet on their 1982 Combat Rock album.
Mentioned in the song Só As Mães São Felizes by Cazuza.
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