WRITER

Allen Ginsberg

1926 - 1997

Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Allen Ginsberg has received more than 7,310,556 page views. His biography is available in 77 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 73 in 2019). Allen Ginsberg is the 585th most popular writer (down from 501st in 2019), the 598th most popular biography from United States (down from 513th in 2019) and the 57th most popular American Writer.

Allen Ginsberg is most famous for his poem "Howl" and his involvement in the Beat Generation.

Memorability Metrics

7.3M
Page Views (PV)
65.71
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
77
Languages Editions (L)
4.56
Effective Languages (L*)
5.92
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Howl

Poetry

Published in 1956 as the title poem of Allen Ginsberg's first collection, "Howl" is a prophetic masterpiece that overcame censorship trails to become one of the most widely read poems of the century. The annotated Howl is the poet's own re-creation of the long process of composition of a revolutionary poem that broke new ground in America poetry through its expansive poetic form, tonal range, and freshness of spirit.

19594 / 5

Empty mirror

1961

Howl, and Other Poems

The epigraph for Howl is from Walt Whitman: "Unscrew the locks from the doors!/Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!" Announcing his intentions with this ringing motto, Allen Ginsberg published a volume of poetry which broke so many social...

19564 / 5

Wichita Vortex Sutra

1966

Kaddish, and Other Poems, 1958–1960

Poetry

Great strange visionary poems by the author of Howl, "in the midst of the broken consciousness of mid-twentieth century . . ." In the midst of the broken consciousness of mid-twentieth century suffering anguish of separation from my own body and its natural infinity of feeling its own self one with all self, I instinctively seeking to reconstitute that blissful union which I experience so rarely. I took it to be supernatural an gave it holy Name thus made hymn laments of longing and litanies of triumphancy of Self over mind-illusion mechano-universe of un-feeling Time in which I saw my self my own mother and my very nation trapped desolate our worlds of consciousness homeless and at war except for the original trembling of bliss in breast and belly of every body that nakedness rejected in suits of fear that familiar defenseless living hurt self which is myself same as all others abandoned scared to own unchanging desire for each other. These poems almost unconscious to confess the beatific human fact, the language intuitively chosen as in trance & dream, the rhythms rising on breath from belly thru breast, the hymn completed in tears, the movement of the physical poetry demanding and receiving decades of life while chanting Kaddish the names of Death in many worlds the self seeking the Key to life found at last in our self.

1961