Born On This Day- June 3rd... Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg, the Beat Generation’s premier poet, wrote a long ode- Howl, in 1956. Its famous opening lines: “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.”

I'm not sure Ginsberg's poem is good, exactly, but it's a piece that has been quoted from for too long to really ignore. The image of Ginsberg in his later years, a bald, chubby dharma  bear, has eclipsed his early years as a cute, soulful jewish gay boy, back-to-back on a Paris park bench with his lifelong partner- Peter Orlovsky.

The poem warns of the destructive forces of materialism & conformity in the USA of the time, & it was an iconic moment in the social upheaval of the 1960s.

New Jersey born Ginsberg attended Columbia University where he met Lucien Carr, who introduced him to Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, & John Clellon Holmes, all future Beat Generation writers. They bonded over the potential they saw in the youth of America, as a counter movement to the McCarthy era.

In 1954, in San Francisco, just as I was being born across the bay in Oakland, Ginsberg met 21 year old Peter Orlovsky & they fell in love. Ginsberg encouraged Orlovsky to try writing poetry. They were partners for 40+ years, until Ginsberg’s death. Orlovsky’s gentleness & kindness were a contrast to Ginsberg’s dry brittle coldness. Ginsberg met members of the San Francisco Renaissance & other poets who would become part of a broader band, now known as The Beat Generation.

Ginsberg & Orlovsky by Avedon

Ginsberg held poetry reading that changed our culture, advertising the event as Six Poets at the Six Gallery. The reading, held on October 7, 1955, brought together the East & West Coast factions of the Beat Generation. It was the first public reading of Howl. The poem would bring him world-wide fame.

Because of its explicit, raw language, Howl was considered scandalous when it was first published. Banned for obscenity shortly after its1956 publication, that action became a cause célèbre among defenders of the First Amendment; the ban was rescinded after a judge declared the poem as having redeeming social importance.

Ginsberg's writings on taboo subjects made him a controversial figure in the conservative 1950s, but he continued to create  sensitive & inflammatory subjects throughout the next 4 decades. His openness about homosexuality, including his love of young men, was a constant expression. In his poetry he wrote graphically about his desire for the freedom of men to love other men. His work challenged obscenity laws, ultimately changing them.

Ginsberg left this world in 1997, at age 70, surrounded by family, friend & Orlovsky in his East Village loft in NYC. Orlovsky died in spring of 2010.  Gay people owe our legal freedom of expression to Ginsberg who bravely challenged the conservative conditions of our reactionary times. 

Howl was made into a film of sorts in 2010. As Allen Ginsberg talks about his life & art, his famous poem is illustrated in animation while the obscenity trial over the work is dramatized with an improbable James Franco, my occasional lover, playing Ginsberg.

On The Road With Neal Cassady

I am big on The Beats. They all seemed to have a very bisexual way of experiencing life. Allen Ginsberg was head over heels in love with Neal Cassady, & when Allen Ginsberg gave in to the love that was his true self, he was able to compose his greatest writings.

Neal Leon Cassady, Jr., was born on the road on this day, in 1928, in Salt Lake City, while his parents were traveling from Iowa to LA. He went with his father when the parents split up & he grew up in a masculine world of poverty, alcoholism, & despair. Cassady was a good reader with an excellent memory, & was eager to be liked by authority figure. He did well in school & pushed himself to be a good athlete, playing football & running track. While he was impressing teachers & coaches at school, he was dabbling petty crime, eventually becoming an inept car thief. He had been arrested 6 times by the age of 21. Cassady frequently ran away from home & at the age of 15 he traded in on his good looks for cash, working as a prostitute.

In 1946, Cassady moved, with his new 16 year old wife- LuAnn Henderson, to NYC. He fell into with a group of young men including Jack Kerouac & Allen Ginsberg. Both men took an interest in Cassady, & he & Ginsberg became lovers, though Cassady denied being homosexual & only had sex with men for money or some other consideration. He continued to have sex with men for the next 20 years. Ginsberg was a teacher to Cassady & opened the way into the intellectual crowd he aspired to.

In 1948 Cassady annulled his first marriage & married Carolyn Robinson, who was pregnant with his child. He took a job with the Southern Pacific Railroad. His attempt to settle down into a more conventional lifestyle was not very successful. Cassady began to take road trips, often with Kerouac, often lasting for months at a time. In 1950, Cassady married Diane Hansen, who was pregnant, but he was not divorced from Carolyn & he within a few months abandoned Diane & returned to Carolyn & his job & new child.

Cassady began to feel his life spinning out of control. He wrote a long, confessional letter to Kerouac which changed the way Kerouac viewed writing. Cassady wrote in an extemporaneous, unedited style that read like a breathless rush to get the words on to paper. Kerouac was inspired by the method. Cassady called it spontaneous prose, & he used it for the rest of his writing career.

In the 1950s, Cassady's life grew more erratic. He stopped attempting to hide his affairs from his wife & yet he managed to keep his job & support their 3 kids. In 1955, spinning out of control, he moved to San Francisco with another woman. In 1958 was arrested on drug charges & spent 2 years in San Quentin.

In the early 1960s, Cassady met Oregon’s own Ken Kesey & they became friends, sharing an interest in sports, drugs,& literature. Cassady joined Kesey's Merry Pranksters on their many cross-country bus trips. In 1963, divorced from Carolyn, but continued to see her & their children, until Carolyn asked him to stop in 1965. In January 1968 he went to Mexico to make an avant-garde film. At a cast party he took a fatal mixture of booze & downers. He was found unconscious the next morning on nearby railroad tracks & died a few hours later.

Cassady was the inspiration for the characters on books by Ginsberg, Kesey,Kerouac, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski & Robert Stone . He continues to be an influence in poetry & music. He has been portrayed on film by Nick Nolte (twice), Thomas Jane & Tate Donovan. Cassady & Ginsberg remained lovers off & on for more than 20 years. He is not a Gay Icon, the cool straight boys claim him, but he knew what love with another man was like.

If you find his era interesting, try Off the Road: 20 Years with Cassady, Kerouac, & Ginsberg by Carolyn Cassady. For his own writing you should look at Grace Beats Karma, published posthumously.