Beats Poets
Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsberg, born in 1926 in New Jersey, was one of the most prominent Beats writers. In his early life, his mother experienced many nervous breakdowns - which he was able to use to his advantage by pleading insanity on drug charges in college. Ginsberg attended Columbia University where he met William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac and the three would later go on to establish the Beats Generation.
In 1956 he published his book Howl and Other Poems, which was written in the style of Walt Whitman. After becoming published, Ginsberg began to gain attention from the lengthy ranting poems against society. The book gained even more recognition when the San Francisco Police Department arrested Ginsberg for the obscene language used. Following Allen Ginsberg's trial, the ideas in Howl became the inspiration for the Beats Movement. |
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