Allen Ginsberg

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Allen Ginsberg


Born
in Newark, New Jersey, The United States
June 03, 1926

Died
April 05, 1997

Website

Genre

Influences


Allen Ginsberg was a groundbreaking American poet and activist best known for his central role in the Beat Generation and for writing the landmark poem Howl. Born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, to Jewish parents, Ginsberg grew up in a household shaped by both intellectualism and psychological struggle. His father, Louis Ginsberg, was a published poet and a schoolteacher, while his mother, Naomi, suffered from severe mental illness, which deeply affected Ginsberg and later influenced his writing—most notably in his poem Kaddish.
As a young man, Ginsberg attended Columbia University, where he befriended other future Beat luminaries such as Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady. These relationships formed the core of what bec
...more

Average rating: 4.04 · 234,021 ratings · 8,663 reviews · 489 distinct worksSimilar authors
Howl and Other Poems

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4.13 avg rating — 118,892 ratings — published 1956 — 139 editions
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Kaddish and Other Poems

4.19 avg rating — 9,506 ratings — published 1961 — 56 editions
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Collected Poems, 1947-1980

4.18 avg rating — 7,033 ratings — published 1984 — 11 editions
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Howl

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4.07 avg rating — 6,219 ratings — published 1956 — 28 editions
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Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

3.98 avg rating — 3,520 ratings — published 1956 — 7 editions
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Collected Poems 1947-1997

4.32 avg rating — 2,686 ratings — published 2006 — 17 editions
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Reality Sandwiches

3.94 avg rating — 2,153 ratings — published 1963 — 38 editions
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Television Was a Baby Crawl...

2.79 avg rating — 1,910 ratings — published 2018 — 3 editions
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The Fall of America: Poems ...

4.07 avg rating — 1,285 ratings — published 1972 — 2 editions
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Selected Poems, 1947–1995

4.14 avg rating — 886 ratings — published 1996 — 21 editions
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More books by Allen Ginsberg…

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Quotes by Allen Ginsberg  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.”
Allen Ginsberg

“I don't think there is any truth. There are only points of view. ”
Allen Ginsberg

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night.”
Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

Polls

May 2021 Short Story/Novella Poll

Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen, 54 pages, 1958
 
  44 votes, 20.5%

The Altar of the Dead by Henry James, 48 pages, 1895
 
  37 votes, 17.2%

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  36 votes, 16.7%

 
  29 votes, 13.5%

 
  26 votes, 12.1%

 
  23 votes, 10.7%

Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen, 99 pages, 1967
 
  20 votes, 9.3%

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