Beat Poet and Performer June 3, 1926-April 5,1997 A very famous saying among the Tibetan Buddhists: if the student is not better than the teacher, then the teacher is a failure. And I was really knocked out by the eloquence; particularly ‘I’ll know my song well before I start singing,’ and ‘where all souls shall reflect it,’ or you know, ‘stand on the mountain where everybody can hear.’ It’s sort of this biblical prophecy. -- Allen Ginsberg, in NO DIRECTION HOME Allen Ginsberg was a fan of Bob Dylan before he became his friend. In NO DIRECTION HOME, Ginsberg describes the emotional impact that Dylan's lyrics had on him when he first heard one of his songs: "When I got back from India, and got to the West Coast, a poet, Charlie Plymell -- at a party in Bolinas -- played me a record of this new young folk singer. And I heard 'Hard Rain' -- and wept. Because it seemed that the torch had been passed to another generation, from earlier bohemian, or Beat illumination." Allen Ginsberg was born in 1926 in Paterson, New Jersey. His father, Louis, was a high school teacher and poet; his mother, Naomi, had severe bouts of mental illness and was eventually hospitalized for life. Ginsberg originally intended to be a labor lawyer when he began attending Columbia University, but he became friends with a group that was into sex, drugs, and literature, including Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr, and nonstudents William S. Burroughs and Neal Cassady. Ginsberg was suspended from Columbia for writing profanities on his dorm windowsill, and he began hanging out with petty criminal friends of Burroughs, experimenting with marijuana and speed, cruising in the Village, and carrying on a cross-country affair with Neal Cassady, in part for the sake of his poetic vision. Though he briefly tried going "straight" after being arrested and imprisoned because of his friends' criminal activities, even getting a job as a marketing researcher, he soon returned to his crazy, poetic lifestyle and traveled to San Francisco, where he quickly became part of the local poetry scene. In October 1955, Ginsberg gained public attention with a reading of his as-yet-unpublished poem, "Howl," in a San Francisco art gallery. After its publication by City Lights Books, it gained even more notoriety because of a misguided obscenity charge due to a line about anal sex. "Howl" is one of the great pieces of Beat literature, and, like ON THE ROAD, is one of its central texts. Another of his notable poems from this period is "Kaddish," a powerfully honest and moving exploration of his feelings about his mother's mental illness and death. Ginsberg, who had a generous spirit, an amazing daring streak, and a flair for publicity, didn't burn out like Kerouac in the 1960s but continued publishing poetry, became involved in Buddhism, the antiwar movement and the hippie scene, and became close to a number of other counterculture celebrities, including Bob Dylan. Ginsberg is one of the planted questioners in Dylan's 1965 San Francisco KQED press conference; he can be seen in the background in the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" scene at the beginning of D. A. Pennebaker's documentary about Dylan, DON'T LOOK BACK; and he later had a role in Dylan's 1977 film, RENALDO AND CLARA. Ginsberg helped to found the poetry school, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He was an active and memorable participant in cultural events, singing, chanting, and reading poetry, often for the cause of personal freedom. He died in New York City in 1997. SELECTED BOOKS HOWL AND OTHER POEMS, 1956 KADDISH AND OTHER POEMS, 1961 EMPTY MIRROR, EARLY POEMS, 1961 REALITY SANDWICHES, 1963 ANGKOR WAT, 1968 PLANET NEWS, 1968 THE FALL OF AMERICA: POEMS OF THESE STATES, 1973 MIND BREATHS: POEMS 1971-76, 1978 PLUTONIAN ODE: POEMS 1977-1980, 1982 SELECTED POEMS 1947-1995, 1996 WHITE SHROUD: POEMS 1980-1985, 1986 COSMOPOLITAN GREETINGS: POEMS 1986-1992, 1994 RELATED LINKS Allen Ginsberg: American Master Allen Ginsberg Allenginsberg.org Home www.allenginsberg.org about other musicians, writers, and artists who have had an impact on Bob Dylan’s music. Precursors Johnny Cash Liam Clancy Allen Ginsberg Jimmie Rodgers Pete Seeger Influences Brecht & Weill Gregory Corso Ramblin Jack Elliott Woody Guthrie Robert Johnson Jack Kerouac John Jacob Niles Odetta Mike Seeger Verlaine & Rimbaud Big Joe Williams Hank Williams 50's Rockers Peers Joan Baez Paul Clayton John Koerner Bob Neuwirth Suze Rotolo Dave Van Ronk Music Business Albert Grossman John Hammond Izzy Young

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