Perhaps no poet in the history of America, with the exception of Walt Whitman, has so dominated the popular imagination as has Allen Ginsberg From the close of World War II to the end of the Cold War, Ginsberg has been in the vanguard of every popular movement from the emergence of the Beat Generation in the Fifties to the hippie and antiwar movements of the sixties, toPerhaps no poet in the history of America, with the exception of Walt Whitman, has so dominated the popular imagination as has Allen Ginsberg From the close of World War II to the end of the Cold War, Ginsberg has been in the vanguard of every popular movement from the emergence of the Beat Generation in the Fifties to the hippie and antiwar movements of the sixties, to the ecology movement and the Buddhist revival of the seventies, Allen Ginsberg has given voice to his generation s spirit in poetry of astonishing power Michael Schumacher has spent eight years researching and writing this dramatic biography, with Ginsberg s full cooperation and with access to all his journals and papers, as well as spending thousands of hours interviewing Ginsberg s friends and enemies alike With the sweep of an epic novel Schumacher tells the story of this quintessentially American poet and his times, with fascinating portraits of such contemporaries as Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and William Burroughs, among many others, along with many rarely seen photographs This is undoubtedly the most complete portrait we are ever likely to see of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.
Dharma Lion A Biography of Allen Ginsberg Perhaps no poet in the history of America with the exception of Walt Whitman has so dominated the popular imagination as has Allen Ginsberg From the close of World War II to the end of the Cold War
This is a massive book for a figure that -like him or not- loomed large over 20th-century poetry. There's no denying the impact of poems like "Howl" or "Kaddish," but given such a prodigious and uneven output, it's difficult to rate him as a poet. But as Michel Shumacher points out in Dharma Lion, Allen Ginsberg was as much a cultural icon as he was a poet, and his work and life impacted more than just the world of literature.In "Dharma Lion" we see a Ginsberg who was both insecure and egotistic [...]
Probably the longest nonfiction book I’ve read in my whole life, and one of the most engaging and well-written ones, too. It reads like a novel.It is, in fact, a literary matryoshka in that it’s not only a comprehensive Ginsberg biography, but also a history of the Beat Generation as well as a brief history of American counterculture: hippies, anti-war movement, anti-nuclear movement, gay liberation, the fight against the demonization of certain drugs Man, Ginsberg WAS counterculture! This b [...]
Michael Schumacher did such a good job writing ALLEN GINSBERG's life that often I felt as if I were with Allen as if Allen actually wrote this book through Schumacher. What a truly fascinating, gifted, talented, courageous man Allen Ginsberg is. I highly recommend this book to everyone. There is no one that would not benefit from reading this book your life your views your ideals will shift and morph and change you will be a more well-rounded person for it.
Sympathetic treatment of Ginsberg. Wide coverage of his doings and dealings as poet, celebrity, friend. Review cut short by carpal tunnel syndrome and/or boss visiting cubicle
EXCELLENT biography of Ginsberg - very comprehensive.