Alan Ginsberg
<p ><b>Irwin Allen Ginsberg</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɡ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >n</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >z</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >b</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ər</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɡ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a>; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and one of the leading figures of both the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Generation" title="Beat Generation" >Beat Generation</a> of the 1950s and the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture_of_the_1960s" title="Counterculture of the 1960s" >counterculture</a> that soon would follow. He vigorously opposed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militarism" title="Militarism" >militarism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_materialism" title="Economic materialism" >economic materialism</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_repression" title="Sexual repression" >sexual repression</a>. Ginsberg is best known for his epic poem "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl" title="Howl" >Howl</a>", in which he denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism" title="Capitalism" >capitalism</a> and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity" title="Conformity" >conformity</a> in the United States.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-2" >[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup>
In 1957, "Howl" attracted widespread publicity when it became the subject of an obscenity trial, as it depicted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosexuality" title="Heterosexuality" >heterosexual</a> and homosexual sex<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-4" >[4]</a></sup> at a time when<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodomy_laws_in_the_United_States" title="Sodomy laws in the United States" >sodomy laws</a> made homosexual acts a crime in every U.S. state. "Howl" reflected Ginsberg's own homosexuality and his relationships with a number of men, including<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Orlovsky" title="Peter Orlovsky" >Peter Orlovsky</a>, his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_partner" title="Life partner" >lifelong partner</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-5" >[5]</a></sup> Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that "Howl" was not obscene, adding, "Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemisms?"<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-6" >[6]</a></sup>
Ginsberg was a practicing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism" title="Buddhism" >Buddhist</a> who studied Eastern religious disciplines extensively. He lived modestly, buying his clothing in second-hand stores and residing in downscale apartments in New York’s East Village.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-7" >[7]</a></sup> One of his most influential teachers was the Tibetan Buddhist, the Venerable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%B6gyam_Trungpa" title="Chögyam Trungpa" >Chögyam Trungpa</a>, founder of the Naropa Institute, now <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naropa_University" title="Naropa University" >Naropa University</a> at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder,_Colorado" title="Boulder, Colorado" >Boulder, Colorado</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-8" >[8]</a></sup> At Trungpa's urging, Ginsberg and poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Waldman" title="Anne Waldman" >Anne Waldman</a> started <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac_School" title="Jack Kerouac School" >The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics</a> there in 1974.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-9" >[9]</a></sup>
Ginsberg took part in decades of non-violent political protest against everything from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War" title="Vietnam War" >Vietnam War</a> to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs" title="War on Drugs" >War on Drugs</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-10" >[10]</a></sup> His poem "September on Jessore Road," calling attention to the plight of Bangladeshi refugees, exemplifies what the literary critic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Vendler" title="Helen Vendler" >Helen Vendler</a> described as Ginsberg's tireless persistence in protesting against "imperial politics, and persecution of the powerless."<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-11" >[11]</a></sup>
His collection <i>The Fall of America</i> shared the annual U.S. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Book_Award_for_Poetry" title="National Book Award for Poetry" >National Book Award for Poetry</a> in 1974.<sup id="cite_ref-nba1974_12-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-nba1974-12" >[12]</a></sup> In 1979 he received the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Arts_Club" title="National Arts Club" >National Arts Club</a> gold medal and was inducted into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Letters" title="American Academy of Arts and Letters" >American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-13" >[13]</a></sup> In 1986 he was awarded the Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings in Struga, Macedonia.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-14" >[14]</a></sup> Ginsberg was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize" title="Pulitzer Prize" >Pulitzer Prize</a> finalist in 1995 for his book<i>Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986–1992</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#cite_note-15" >[15]</a></sup></p>