McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
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Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997
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Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
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Description area
Dates of existence
1926-1997
History
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey.
He was an American poet, philosopher, and writer, a champion of gay rights and anti-war movements, protesting the Vietnam War and coining the phrase "Flower Power." As a teenager, he began to write letters to The New York Times about political issues, such as World War II and workers' rights. In the 1940s, he briefly attended Montclair State College before entering Columbia University, where he contributed to the Columbia Review literary journal, the Jester humour magazine and served as president of the Philolexian Society. There he began friendships with William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and John Clellon Holmes, forming the core of the Beat Generation. In 1953, Ginsberg left New York City for Mexico to explore Indian ruins in Yucatan and experiment with various drugs. He settled in San Francisco, where he fell in love with Peter Orlovsky (1933-2010), who remained his lifelong partner. Shortly after publishing his collection of poems, "Howl and Other Poems" (1956), it got banned for obscenity. The American Civil Liberties Union defended Ginsberg's poem in a highly publicized obscenity trial in San Francisco, which concluded in October 1957 that “Howl” had redeeming social value. In 1959, Ginsberg published the novel "Naked Lunch." Experimenting with various psychedelic stimulants to create visionary poetry, he travelled to South America, Europe, Morocco, and India in 1962. Ginsberg became a Buddhist who extensively studied Eastern religious disciplines. In his poem “The Change,” he realized that meditation, not drugs, could assist his enlightenment. In his remaining years, publishing steadily and travelling tirelessly despite increasing health problems, Ginsberg gave readings in Russia, China, Europe, and the South Pacific. In 1986, he was awarded the Golden Wreath by the Struga Poetry Evenings International Festival in Macedonia. In 1993, the French Minister of Culture appointed Ginsberg a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
He died on April 5, 1997, in New York City, New York.