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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Title
Allen Ginsberg Collection
Collection Number
SC 437
OCLC Number
In-process
Creator
Allen Ginsberg, 1926-1997
Provenance
Donated by Michael Hendrick in 2010.
Extent,Scope, and Content Note
The collection is comprised of one postcard (4" x 6") with correspondence and poem
handwritten by Allen Ginsberg to Mike Hendrick, circa 1973.
Arrangement and Processing Note
Processing completed in September 2010.
Finding aid updated and revised by Kristen J. Nyitray in June 2019.
Language
English
Restrictions on Access
The collection is open to researchers without restriction.
Rights and Permissions
Stony Brook University Libraries' consent to access as the physical owner of the collection
does not address copyright issues that may affect publication rights. It is the sole
responsibility of the user of Special Collections and University Archives materials
to investigate the copyright status of any given work and to seek and obtain permission
where needed prior to publication.
Citation
[Item], [Box], Allen Ginsberg Collection, Special Collections and University Archives,
Stony Brook University Libraries.
Historical Note
Acclaimed poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was born in Newark, N.J. and was raised
in Paterson, N.J., where his father, Louis Ginsberg, himself a poet, taught high school
English. Allen Ginsberg's mother was confined for years in a mental hospital. He mourned
for her in his long poem titled Kaddish (1961). In 1943, while attending Columbia
University, Ginsberg befriended Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, who later established
themselves as significant contributors to the Beat Movement. After leaving Columbia
in 1948, Mr. Ginsberg traveled widely and worked at a number of jobs, including cafeteria
floor mopper to market researcher. In 1956, Allen Ginsberg's first published book
of poetry, Howl and Other Poems, lamented what he believed to have been the destruction
by insanity of the "best minds of [his] generation." Expressive and raw with honesty,
the poem revealed Ginsberg's opinions on homosexuality, drug addiction, Buddhism,
and his revulsion from what he saw as the materialism and insensitivity of post-World
War II America. Ginsberg began a life of ceaseless travel, reading his poetry at campuses
and coffee bars, traveling abroad, and engaging in left-wing political activities.
Empty Mirror, Kaddish and Other Poems and Reality Sandwiches were all published in
the early 1960s. He became an influential guru of the American youth counterculture
in the late 1960s. He acquired a deeper knowledge of Buddhism, and increasingly a
religious element of love for all sentient beings entered his work. His later volumes
of poetry included Planet News (1968); The Fall of America: Poems of These States,
1965-1971 (1972), which won the National Book Award and White Shroud: Poems 1980-1985
(1986). Allen Ginsberg died of a heart attack while suffering from liver cancer on
April 5, 1997 in New York City. (Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica Online and the Gale
Literary Database Contemporary Authors)
Subjects
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997.
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Correspondence.
Poets, American.
American literature -- 20th century.
Beats (Persons)
American literature.
INVENTORY
Transcript of Poem
"Returning to the Country for a Brief Visit"
Old-one the dog stretches stiff-legged,
Soon he’ll be underground. Spring’s first fat bee
Buzzes yellow over new grass and dead leaves.
What’s this little brown insect walking zigzag
Over the sunny white page of Su Tung-P'O's poem?
Fly away, tiny mite, even your life is tender -
I lift the book and blow you into the dazzling void.
Allen Ginsberg 4/20/73
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