US poet and political activist. His reputation as a visionary, overtly political poet was established by Howl (1956), which expressed and shaped the spirit of the Beat Generation and criticised the materialism of contemporary US society.
Ginsberg – like many of his generation of poets – found his authorial voice via experimentation with drugs, alternative religion, and the hippie culture. His poetry drew, for example, on Oriental philosophies and utilised mantric breath meditations.
Ginsberg travelled widely – to Cuba, India, and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, and China and Nicaragua in the 1980s – spreading his Zen-socialist politics of radical but passive dissent.
His other major poem, Kaddish (1961), dealt with the breakdown and death of his schizophrenic mother. His Collected Poems 1947 – 1980 was published in 1985.
He died on 5 April 1997, surrounded by family and friends in his East Village loft in New York City, succumbing to liver cancer via complications of hepatitis. He was 70 years old.
Related Posts
Protest Movement Protests in the 1960s can be divided into two main categories; those provoked by racial tensions, such as the ghetto…
GTOs, The The GTOs were a "group of groupies" in the late 1960s, comprising Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres), Miss Sparky (Linda Sue…
Nikita Khrushchev 1 8 9 4 - 1 9 7 1 A coal miner's son from Kalinovka, Ukraine, Nikita Khrushchev became involved…
Moonies The term "Moonies" was a popular name for followers of the Unification Church - a religious sect founded by Korean…
Neville Bonner Neville Thomas Bonner was the first Aborigine to be elected to Australia's federal parliament. He lived in poverty in the…
Fred Dagg Fred Dagg was actually New Zealand-born comedian and political satirist John Clarke, who appeared as Dagg on television always wearing…
Robert Muldoon 1 9 2 1 - 1 9 9 2 New Zealand National Party right-of-centre politician and NZ prime minister from…
Black Panthers The Black Panthers wanted to be the vanguard of a revolution that would create economic, social and political equality across…
Ginsberg – like many of his generation of poets – found his authorial voice via experimentation with drugs, alternative religion, and the hippie culture. His poetry drew, for example, on Oriental philosophies and utilised mantric breath meditations.
