So it was that on October 13, 1955 Allen Ginsberg gave his historic reading of “Howl” at Gallery Six, a converted auto repair shop. The first line, now one of the most famous in American poetry, was a veritable Beat anthem: “I saw the best minds of my generation/destroyed by madness/starving, mystical, naked,/who dragged themselves thru the angry streets at/dawn looking for a negro fix ...” Ginsberg was dazzling as a performer that night. Kerouac was in the audience, with a bottle of jug wine, cheering Ginsberg on, shouting, “Go, go,” throughout the evening.
