Word: howlings
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Most of the poetry was previously published by City Lights Books and the rest made it to print through other publishers. Classics like "Howl" and "Kaddish" adorn the pages of this volume, adorned by Buddhist-inspired drawings, pictures of Ginsberg's Beatnik buddies and supplementary essays by literati honchos like William Carlos Williams. The most novel aspect of the book is its comprehensiveness--avid Ginberg fans can view the poet's life and work in a single volume...
...BEEN almost 30 years since Beat poet Allen Ginsberg published the poem that first made heads turn in American literary circles. Giinsberg, who finished "Howl" in 1956, was part of an American troupe of writers which included novelists Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs and poets Gregory Corso and Philip Whalen. Known for their experiments with hallucinogens, affection for jazz, dabblings in Buddhism and spontaneous lifestyles, the Beatniks formed one of the major literary movements in the post-modern era. In the midst of the 58-year-old Ginsberg's East Coast tour to promote his new book, Collected Poems...
Part of the group of literary and cultural iconoclasts known as the Beatniks, Ginsberg first gained popularity in 1956 after publishing his poem, "Howl," Ginsberg's other well known pieces include "Kaddish" and "A Supermarket in California...
...that applies to America's most public poet. Approaching his autumnal years, the man once feared as a weevil in the nation's moral fiber is in a disarming state of equilibrium. Cultural norms have adjusted in Ginsberg's favor since 1956, when he disturbed the peace with Howl. It was a poetic tantrum thrown at the Eisenhower years, at an academic system that rejected his rude unconventionality, at an encompassing conspiracy he imagined had driven his mother and his soul mates crazy. "Moloch! Moloch!" he cried. "Robot apartments! invisible suburbs! skeleton treasuries! blind capitals! demonic industries! spectral nations! invincible...
...Coast beatnik, sexual experimenter, war protester, world traveler and Buddhist. Ginsberg's style harks back to the tradition of popular speech, jazz rhythms and strong imagery. The energy never flags, but the quality is wildly uneven. There are love poems that read like high parodies of rest-room scrawl. Howl, once effective as counterculture manifesto, is now an unconvincing historical oddity: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." But Kaddish, about Ginsberg's insane mother, who died in 1956, is a masterpiece of candor and emotional persuasion: "The Charity of her hands stinking with Manhattan, madness...