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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Williams in 1921

William Carlos Williams

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American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.

American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.

Williams in 1921
"The rose fades, and is renewed again ...."
I saw the figure 5 in gold. Charles Demuth 1928.
 
 
The Great Figure
 
 
Among the rain 
and lights 
I saw the figure 5 
in gold 
on a red 
firetruck 
moving 
tense 
unheeded 
to gong clangs 
siren howls 
and wheels rumbling 
through the dark city. 
 
 William Carlos Williams 1920.
This Is Just To Say
(wall poem in The Hague)

He had a significant influence on many of the American literary movements of the 1950s, including the Beat movement, the San Francisco Renaissance, the Black Mountain school, and the New York School.

One of Williams's more dynamic relationships as a mentor was with fellow New Jersey poet Allen Ginsberg.

Blake in a portrait
by Thomas Phillips (1807)

William Blake

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English poet, painter, and printmaker.

English poet, painter, and printmaker.

Blake in a portrait
by Thomas Phillips (1807)
28 Broad Street (now Broadwick Street) in an illustration of 1912. Blake was born here and lived here until he was 25. The house was demolished in 1965.
The archetype of the Creator is a familiar image in Blake's work. Here, the demiurgic figure Urizen prays before the world he has forged. The Song of Los is the third in a series of illuminated books painted by Blake and his wife, collectively known as the Continental Prophecies.
Europe Supported by Africa and America engraving by William Blake
The cottage in Felpham, now Blake’s Cottage, where Blake lived from 1800 until 1803
'Skofeld' wearing "mind forged manacles" in Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion Plate 51
Sketch of Blake from circa 1804 by John Flaxman
Blake's The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with Sun (1805) is one of a series of illustrations of Revelation 12.
William Blake's image of the Minotaur to illustrate Inferno, Canto XII,12–28, The Minotaur XII
"Head of William Blake" by James De Ville. Life mask taken in plaster cast in September 1823, Fitzwilliam Museum.
Blake's The Lovers' Whirlwind illustrates Hell in Canto V of Dante's Inferno
Headstone in Bunhill Fields, London, erected on Blake's grave in 1927 and moved to its present location in 1964–65
Ledger stone on Blake's grave, unveiled in 2018
A memorial to William Blake in St James's Church, Piccadilly
God blessing the seventh day, 1805 watercolour
Blake's Ancient of Days, 1794. The "Ancient of Days" is described in Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel. This image depicts Copy D of the illustration currently held at the British Museum.
The Night of Enitharmon's Joy, 1795; Blake's vision of Hecate, Greek goddess of black magic and the underworld
The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve, c. 1825. Watercolour on wood.
Blake's Newton (1795) demonstrates his opposition to the "single-vision" of scientific materialism: Newton fixes his eye on a compass (recalling Proverbs 8:27, an important passage for Milton) to write upon a scroll that seems to project from his own head.
Blake's Lot and His Daughters, Huntington Library, c. 1800
Blake's "A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows", an illustration to J. G. Stedman's Narrative, of a Five Years' Expedition, against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796)
The Ghost of a Flea, 1819–1820. Having informed painter-astrologer John Varley of his visions of apparitions, Blake was subsequently persuaded to paint one of them. Varley's anecdote of Blake and his vision of the flea's ghost became well-known.
William Blake's portrait in profile, by John Linnell. This larger version was painted to be engraved as the frontispiece of Alexander Gilchrist's Life of Blake (1863).
Memorial marking Blake's birthplace in Soho, City of Westminster

Blake had an enormous influence on the beat poets of the 1950s and the counterculture of the 1960s, frequently being cited by such seminal figures as beat poet Allen Ginsberg, songwriters Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Van Morrison, and English writer Aldous Huxley.

Jim Cohn

Jim Cohn

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Poet, poetry activist, and spoken word artist in the United States.

Poet, poetry activist, and spoken word artist in the United States.

Jim Cohn

He received a BA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in English (1976) and a Certificate of Poetics (1980) from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where he was a teaching assistant to Allen Ginsberg.

In 1996, Jim began planning for an online poetry project that would explore Beat Generation influences on the Postbeat Poets.

Coat of arms

Columbia University

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Private Ivy League research university in New York City.

Private Ivy League research university in New York City.

Coat of arms
Coat of arms
Samuel Johnson, the first president of Columbia
King's College Hall, 1790
Crop of 1797 Taylor map of NYC showing "The College" at its Park Place (then Robinson Street) location. Note earlier location, Trinity Church, lower left.
The Gothic Revival library and law school buildings on the Madison Avenue campus
Low Memorial Library, c. 1900
Alma Mater
College Walk
Butler Library
Union Theological Seminary
Lamont Campus entrance in Palisades, New York
The entrance to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Washington Heights
Access to Columbia is enhanced by the 116th Street–Columbia University subway station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line.
Van Amringe Quadrangle and Memorial
Low Memorial Library
The Barnard College Class of 1913 processes down the steps of Low Library.
Havemeyer Hall, a National Historic Chemical Landmark, where deuterium was discovered in 1931. Research conducted in Havemeyer has led to at least seven Nobel Prizes.
President Lee Bollinger presents the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to Jeffrey Eugenides.
Copies of the Columbia Daily Spectator being sold during the 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike
The Art Deco cover of the November 1931 edition of the Jester, celebrating the opening of the George Washington Bridge
Pupin Hall, the physics building, showing the rooftop Rutherfurd Observatory
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World Leaders Forum at Low Memorial Library
Earl Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its role in serving as a venue for meetings and dances of the Columbia Queer Alliance.
The Columbia University Marching Band in 2018
Alexander Hamilton: Founding Father of the United States; author of The Federalist Papers; first United States Secretary of the Treasury — King's College
John Jay: Founding Father of the United States; author of The Federalist Papers; first Chief Justice of the United States; second Governor of New York — King's College
Robert R. Livingston: Founding Father of the United States; drafter of the Declaration of Independence; first United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs — King's College
Gouverneur Morris: Founding Father of the United States; author of the United States Constitution; United States Senator from New York — King's College
DeWitt Clinton: United States Senator from New York; sixth Governor of New York; responsible for construction of Erie Canal — Columbia College
Barack Obama: 44th President of the United States; United States Senator from Illinois; Nobel laureate — Columbia College
Franklin D. Roosevelt: 32nd President of the United States; 44th Governor of New York — Columbia Law School
Theodore Roosevelt: 26th President of the United States; 25th Vice President of the United States; 33rd Governor of New York; Nobel laureate – Columbia Law School
Wellington Koo: acting President of the Republic of China; judge of the International Court of Justice — Columbia College, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
B. R. Ambedkar: Founding Father of India; architect of the Constitution of India; First Minister of Law and Justice — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States — Columbia Law School
Neil Gorsuch: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States — Columbia College
Charles Evans Hughes: 11th Chief Justice of the United States; 44th United States Secretary of State; 35th Governor of New York — Columbia Law School
Harlan Fiske Stone: 12th Chief Justice of the United States; 52nd United States Attorney General — Columbia Law School
William Barr: 77th and 85th United States Attorney General – Columbia College, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Hamilton Fish: 26th United States Secretary of State; United States Senator from New York; 16th Governor of New York — Columbia College
Madeleine Albright: 64th United States Secretary of State; first female Secretary of State — School of International and Public Affairs
Frances Perkins: fourth United States Secretary of Labor; first female member of any U.S. Cabinet — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Robert A. Millikan: Nobel laureate; measured the elementary electric charge — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Isidor Isaac Rabi: Nobel Laureate; discovered nuclear magnetic resonance — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Julian S. Schwinger: Nobel laureate; pioneer of quantum field theory — Columbia College, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Milton Friedman: Nobel laureate, leading member of the Chicago school of economics — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Simon Kuznets: Nobel laureate; invented concept of GDP; Milton Friedman's doctoral advisor — School of General Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Alan Greenspan: 13th Chair of the Federal Reserve — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Warren Buffett: CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; one of the world's wealthiest people — Columbia Business School
Herman Hollerith: inventor; co-founder of IBM – School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Robert Kraft: billionaire; owner of the New England Patriots; chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group — Columbia College
Richard Rodgers: legendary Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award-winning composer; Pulitzer Prize winner — Columbia College
Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance poet, novelist, and playwright — School of Engineering and Applied Science
Zora Neale Hurston: Harlem Renaissance author, anthropologist, and filmmaker — Barnard College, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Allen Ginsberg: poet; founder of the Beat Generation — Columbia College
Jack Kerouac: poet; founder of the Beat Generation — Columbia College
Isaac Asimov: science fiction writer; biochemist — School of General Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
J. D. Salinger: novelist, The Catcher in the Rye — School of General Studies
Amelia Earhart: first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean — School of General Studies
Jake Gyllenhaal: actor and film producer — Columbia College
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Sonia Sotomayor
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Lee Bollinger
Franz Boas
Margaret Mead
Edward Sapir
John Dewey
Charles A. Beard
Max Horkheimer
Herbert Marcuse
Edward Said
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Orhan Pamuk
Edwin Howard Armstrong
Enrico Fermi
Chien-Shiung Wu
Tsung-Dao Lee
Jack Steinberger
Joachim Frank
Joseph Stiglitz
Jeffrey Sachs
Robert Mundell
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Eric Kandel
Richard Axel
Andrei Okounkov

Columbia alumni have made an indelible mark in the field of American poetry and literature, with such people as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, pioneers of the Beat Generation; and Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, seminal figures in the Harlem Renaissance, all having attended the university.

The Treachery of Images, by René Magritte (1929), featuring the declaration, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe")

Surrealism

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Cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.

Cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.

The Treachery of Images, by René Magritte (1929), featuring the declaration, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe")
Max Ernst, The Elephant Celebes, 1921
Cover of the first issue of La Révolution surréaliste, December 1924.
Yvan Goll, Surréalisme, Manifeste du surréalisme, Volume 1, Number 1, October 1, 1924, cover by Robert Delaunay
Giacometti's Woman with Her Throat Cut, 1932 (cast 1949), Museum of Modern Art, New York City
André Masson. Automatic Drawing. 1924. Ink on paper, 23.5 x 20.6 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Giorgio de Chirico, The Red Tower (La Tour Rouge), 1913, Guggenheim Museum
Max Ernst, L'Ange du Foyer ou le Triomphe du Surréalisme (1937), private collection.
Yves Tanguy Indefinite Divisibility 1942, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Many writers from and associated with the Beat Generation were influenced greatly by Surrealists.

A few examples include Bob Kaufman, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, and Paul Simonon in concert with the Clash in 1980

The Clash

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English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock.

English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock.

Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, and Paul Simonon in concert with the Clash in 1980
The cover of London Calling.
Paul Simonon of the Clash performs at the Palladium, 20 September 1979. (Photo: S. Sherman)
Graffiti in Rijeka, Croatia commemorating Joe Strummer.

Though filled with offbeat songs, experiments with sound collage, and a spoken word vocal by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, it contained two "radio friendly" tracks.

Brooklyn College

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Public university in Brooklyn, New York.

Public university in Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn College Library, situated on the East Quad, designed by original architect Randolph Evans
View from the West Quad looking onto the East Quad (from left to right, James Hall, Boylan Hall, the library, Ingersoll Hall, and Roosevelt Hall)
Entry gate
West Quad Center
James Hall
Roosevelt Hall
Boylan Hall
Lily Pond
F. Murray Abraham
Hannah Arendt
John Ashbery
Michael Cunningham
Allen Ginsberg
Itzhak Perlman
Mark Rothko
Dr. Ruth
C.K. Williams
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (1959-1960)
California Senator and Representative Barbara Boxer (B.A. 1962)
Shirley Chisholm, first black woman elected to US Congress (B.A. 1946)
Biochemist and Nobel Laureate Stanley Cohen (B.A. 1943)
Alan Dershowitz, attorney and law professor (B.A. 1959)
Mel Brooks, Academy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning director, writer, and actor (1946)
James Franco, actor (M.F.A.)
Social psychologist Philip Zimbardo (B.A. 1954)
Don Lemon, Edward R. Murrow Award and Emmy Award winning CNN News anchor and journalist (B.A. 1996)

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), Beat Generation poet and Pulitzer Prize for Poetry finalist; Distinguished Professor of English from 1986 to 1997, replacing Ashbery (who accepted a MacArthur Fellowship and later moved to Bard College)