A report on Allen Ginsberg and Beat Generation

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
First edition cover of Ginsberg's landmark poetry collection, Howl and Other Poems(1956)
A section devoted to the beat generation at a bookstore in Stockholm, Sweden
Ginsberg with his partner, poet Peter Orlovsky. Photo taken in 1978
Portrait with Bob Dylan, taken in 1975
Allen Ginsberg greeting A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at San Francisco International Airport. January 17, 1967
The Mantra-Rock Dance promotional poster featuring Allen Ginsberg along with leading rock bands.
Allen Ginsberg, 1979
Protesting at the 1972 Republican National Convention
Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and John C. Lilly in 1991

As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation.

- Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959), and Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) are among the best known examples of Beat literature.

- Beat Generation

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Jack Kerouac by Tom Palumbo circa 1956

Jack Kerouac

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Jack Kerouac by Tom Palumbo circa 1956
Jack Kerouac's birthplace, 9 Lupine Road, 2nd floor, West Centralville, Lowell, Massachusetts
His third of several homes growing up in the West Centralville section of Lowell
Kerouac's Naval Reserve Enlistment photograph, 1943
Jack Kerouac lived with his parents for a time above a corner drug store in Ozone Park (now a flower shop), while writing some of his earliest work.
454 West 20th Street
House in College Park in Orlando, Florida where Kerouac lived and wrote The Dharma Bums
Grave in Edson Cemetery, Lowell
On the Road excerpt in the center of Jack Kerouac Alley
Jack Kerouac Alley in Chinatown, San Francisco

Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.

Howl and Other Poems was published in the fall of 1956 as number four in the Pocket Poets Series from City Lights Books.

Howl (poem)

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Howl and Other Poems was published in the fall of 1956 as number four in the Pocket Poets Series from City Lights Books.
The administrative board of Yleisradio is getting ready to discuss the broadcast of “Howl” in December 1969.

"Howl", also known as "Howl for Carl Solomon", is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1954–1955 and published in his 1956 collection Howl and Other Poems.

It came to be associated with the group of writers known as the Beat Generation.

Burroughs in the 1980s

William S. Burroughs

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Burroughs in the 1980s
William S. Burroughs' childhood home on Pershing Place in St. Louis
William S. Burroughs and James Grauerholz in the alley behind the Jazzhaus in Lawrence, Kansas (1996)
Burroughs and David Woodard with Brion Gysin Dreamachine, 1997

William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature.

In 1943, while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.

Neal Cassady

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1944 Denver mug shot of Cassady

Neal Leon Cassady (February 8, 1926 – February 4, 1968) was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s.

Cassady also appeared in Allen Ginsberg's poems, and in several other works of literature by other writers.

Placed before the location of Six Gallery on the 50th anniversary of the first full-length public reading of HOWL.

Six Gallery reading

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Important poetry event that took place on Friday, October 7, 1955, at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.

Important poetry event that took place on Friday, October 7, 1955, at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.

Placed before the location of Six Gallery on the 50th anniversary of the first full-length public reading of HOWL.

Conceived by Wally Hedrick, this event was the first important public manifestation of the Beat Generation and helped to herald the West Coast literary revolution that continued the San Francisco Renaissance.

At the reading, five talented young poets—Allen Ginsberg, Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen—who until then were known mainly within a close company of friends and other writers (such as Lionel Trilling and William Carlos Williams), presented some of their latest works.

Kenneth Rexroth

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American poet, translator, and critical essayist.

American poet, translator, and critical essayist.

Kenneth Rexroth Street in San Francisco, California

Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.

With Rexroth acting as master of ceremonies, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen performed at the famous Six Gallery reading on October 7, 1955.

City Lights Bookstore, 2010

City Lights Bookstore

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Independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics.

Independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics.

City Lights Bookstore, 2010
City Lights Bookstore - outside, 2013
Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights in 2007
City Lights bookstore in July 2003.
The poetry room.
Howl and Other Poems was published in the fall of 1956 as number four in the Pocket Poets Series from City Lights Books

Both the store and the publishers became widely known following the obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg's influential collection Howl and Other Poems (City Lights, 1956).

In addition to books by Beat Generation authors, the press publishes literary work by such authors as Charles Bukowski, Georges Bataille, Rikki Ducornet, Paul Bowles, Sam Shepard, Andrei Voznesensky, Nathaniel Mackey, Alejandro Murguía, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ernesto Cardenal, Daisy Zamora, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Juan Goytisolo, Anne Waldman, André Breton, Kamau Daáood, Masha Tupitsyn, and Rebecca Brown.

Underwater atomic test "Baker", Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean, 1946

Counterculture of the 1960s

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Anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s.

Anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s.

Underwater atomic test "Baker", Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean, 1946
Free Speech activist Mario Savio on the steps of Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley, 1966
King's "I Have a Dream" speech, given in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington
A family watches television, c. 1958
Anti-war protesters
Carnaby Street, London, 1966
Oz number 31 cover
Three radical icons of the sixties. Encounter between Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Cuba, in 1960
Yellow Power activist Richard Aoki at a Black Panther Party rally.
Herbert Marcuse, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory, was an influential libertarian socialist thinker on the radical student movements of the era and philosopher of the New Left
Eugene McCarthy, anti-war candidate for the Democratic nomination for the US presidency in 1968
A sign pointing to an old fallout shelter in New York City
The cover of an early Whole Earth Catalog shows the Earth as seen by astronauts traveling back from the Moon
Frisbee and alternative 1960s disc sports icon Ken Westerfield
A small part of the crowd of 400,000, after the rain, Woodstock, United States, August 1969
The Jimi Hendrix Experience performs for the Dutch television show Fenklup in March 1967
The Doors performing for Danish television in 1968
Recording "Give Peace a Chance". Left to right: Rosemary Leary (face not visible), Tommy Smothers (with back to camera), John Lennon, Timothy Leary, Yoko Ono, Judy Marcioni and Paul Williams, June 1, 1969.
The plaque honoring the victims of the August 1970 Sterling Hall bombing, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
A small segment of the "Wall" at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial listing the names of the nearly 60,000 American war dead
Jerry Rubin, University at Buffalo, March 10, 1970

The Pranksters created a direct link between the 1950s Beat Generation and the 1960s psychedelic scene; the bus was driven by Beat icon Neal Cassady, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was on board for a time, and they dropped in on Cassady's friend, Beat author Jack Kerouac—though Kerouac declined to participate in the Prankster scene.

Snyder in 2007

Gary Snyder

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American man of letters.

American man of letters.

Snyder in 2007

Snyder met Allen Ginsberg when the latter sought Snyder out on the recommendation of Kenneth Rexroth.

In the 1950s, Snyder took part in the rise of a strand of Buddhist anarchism emerging from the Beat movement.

Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr (right) in 1944

Lucien Carr

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Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr (right) in 1944

Lucien Carr (March 1, 1925 – January 28, 2005) was a key member of the original New York City circle of the Beat Generation in the 1940s; later he worked for many years as an editor for United Press International.

It was also at Columbia that Carr befriended Allen Ginsberg in the Union Theological Seminary dormitory on West 122nd Street (an overflow residence for Columbia at the time), when Ginsberg knocked on the door to find out who was playing a recording of a Brahms trio.