HOWL / ALLEN GINSBERG

In the decade before his death, Allen Ginsberg assembled the originaltypescripts of his prophetic masterpiece Howl, along with revisions andlater drafts of each section of the poem; they are reproduced here infacsimile with facing-page transcriptions and notes. Following, and at theheart of this volume, are the poet's meticulous annotations of each verseof the successive drafts of Howl. A treasure trove of literary allusions,anecdotes, techniques of composition, as well as a veritable socialhistory of the 1950s, the annotations offer a fascinating and uniqueinsight into the material with which Ginsberg worked and the process bywhich his poem evolved. A selection of contemporaneous correspondencefrom the mid-1950s reveals the variety of responses to Howl in all itsnewness and offers a glimpse of the lively literary comradeship among BeatGeneration writers. Hitherto unpublished material from a wide range ofpoets and critics who were involved with the poem-Jack Kerouac, GarySnyder, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Richard Eberhart, JohnClellon Holmes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carl Solomon, Louis Simpson, PhilipLamantia, Tuli Kupferberg, Lionel Trilling, and Gregory Corso-reads like arich and exuberant tale of the tribe. A complete bibliography ofeditions, translations, and recordings; first person accounts of the Howltrial and its first public reading, along with a series of remarkablephotographs from the period complete the monumental exposition ofGinsberg's most celebrated poem. Ferlinghetti's new introductionhighlights the impact of Howl on American First Amendment protections aswell as the place of the poem as a democratic catalyst ofthe manymovements for peace and inclusiveness that grew in the following decades. Allen Ginsberg was born June 3, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey and died onApril 5, 1997 in New York City. In 1956, he published his remarkable poemHowl with City Lights Books, which overcame censorship trials to becomeone of the most widely read poems of our time.