Alvin Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg (English: Irwin Allen Ginsberg, June 3, 1926 - April 5, 1997), whose surname is also translated as Ginsberg, was an American writer and poet. He met William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac while studying at Columbia University in the 1940s, and the three became the core of the "Beat Generation" literary movement. He attacked militarism, economic materialism and sexual oppression. He is regarded as the soul of the Beats because of his views on drugs, sex and multiculturalism, his opposition to bureaucracy, and his openness to Eastern religions. Ginsberg's most famous work is the long poem "Howl," in which he praised his Beat colleagues and criticized the capitalist ideas and conformist culture that were prevalent in the United States at that time (which he believed to be two destructive forces). "Howl" depicts heterosexual and same-sex sexual behavior. At that time, homosexuality was still considered illegal in various states in the United States due to the implementation of sexual misconduct laws. Therefore, "Howl" attracted widespread attention when it was seized by the San Francisco police and U.S. Customs in 1956, and was tried on charges of obscenity the following year. "Howl" reflects on Ginsberg's own sexuality and his relationships with several men, including his lifelong partner Peter Orlovsky. Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that "Howl" was not obscene: "How can there be freedom of the press and freedom of speech if the vocabulary available to man has to be reduced to empty, insignificant euphemisms?" Ginsburg was a Buddhist and had extensive research on Eastern religious teachings. He lives modestly, buying clothes from second-hand stores and living in an apartment in New York City's East Village. One of Ginsburg's most influential teachers was Tibetan Buddhist Chogyam Trungpa, founder of the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Prompted by Chogyam Trungpa, Ginsberg and the poet Anne Waldman founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa College in 1974. Ginsburg also played a major role in decades of political protest, from the Vietnam War to the War on Drugs. His poem "September, Jessore's Road" calls attention to the plight of Bangladeshi refugees in the aftermath of the 1971 genocide. Literary critic Helen Vendler wrote that the poem exemplified Ginsberg's commitment to "imperial rule" and "the persecution of the powerless."