In the first biography of Ginsberg since his death in 1997 and the only one to cover the entire span of his life, Ginsberg's archivist Bill Morgan draws on his deep knowledge of Ginsberg's largely unpublished private journals to give readers an unparalleled and finely detailed portrait of one of America's most famous poets. Morgan sheds new light on some of the pivotal aspects of Ginsberg's life, including the poet's associations with other members of the Beat Generation, his complex relationship with his lifelong partner, Peter Orlovsky, his involvement with Tibetan Buddhism, and above all his genius for living.
Bill Morgan is a painter and archival consultant working in New York City. His previous publications include The Works of Allen Ginsberg 1941-1994: A Descriptive Bibliography and Lawrence Ferlinghetti: a Comprehensive Bibliography. He has worked as an archivist for Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, and Timothy Leary.
As Ginsberg's bibliographer and archivist for almost 20 years, Bill Morgan became quite close to him. His familiarity with his subject makes it fitting he should write the life, or a life. I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg is the story he tells. The use of the word is deliberate. Fred Anderson, in a recent review, wrote of distinguishing history as studies or stories. I suppose it could apply to biography as well. This is the story of Ginsberg's life rather than a study of the man or his work. And as such it's more of a public life than a private one. Morgan tells us little that we didn't already know; though the title hints at surprises, there are few here. The book is a catalogue of trips, places visited, people seen and known. It's what Ginsberg did. However, Morgan gives us scant insight into why he did what he did and why he wrote what he wrote. It's all neatly done, too. Each chapter covers a year of Ginsberg's life. Want to know what Allen was doing when you started college or when your first child was born? It's easy to align your activities with his. One interesting facet of the biography is that in the margins Morgan has included references to the poetry which was inspired by the biographical events. Not surprisingly, I found Ginsberg's poetic reflections on what he was experiencing much more interesting than Morgan's descriptions. I realize it's a labor of love, just as Ginsberg lived his life. Morgan says in his "Forward" that Ginsberg's story is a love story which began with a love of himself. He learned it from Whitman, who accepted himself and lived in acceptance of everyone else. Love, I think, always makes a good story.
A This bio of Ginsberg by his bibliographer is just terrific--it includes people I know (Steven Taylor, Rose, Anne, amongst others) and is just fascinating! I couldn't put it down and I love Allen so much more than I did before. I was so sad when he wrote about Allen's death.
I read this biography in tandem with the collected poems '47-'97, the works and their pages numbers are annotated along side the text in Bill Morgan's thorough book. So to have read all Ginsberg in biographical context is an extraordinary gift to me, and I don't think I would have been able to appreciate his work so much without the biography.
Needless to say, the reading was a massive study that took a long time. I just finished and am still trying to process everything. If you're a fan of free verse, playful words, colorful mind language, then Ginsberg is worth it. Not all the poems are good, especially toward the end, but at least worth a read.
The biography is also a worthy study of anybody interested in the Beat Generation. Sure Kerouac was the face of the literary movement, but not by choice. Ginsberg was the true advocate of the Beats, and there is so much adventure here, especially the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
Morgan does a fantastic job at capturing the rise and development of one of America's greatest poets.
Allen Ginsberg wanted to be a Great Poet,a Rock'n'Roll Star and a Saint...on the evidence in this exhaustive but very interesting biography he only succeeded at Sainthood... his incredible kindness,generosity and unfailing devotion to his friends are made manifest on every page...while I enjoy some of his poems("Father Death Blues" and "Kaddish",for example)my taste runs more to Eliot(First Thought is NOT neccessarily Best Thought)but as a Human Being he was exemplary...as with Kerouac,Burroughs,Corso,et al.I'd rather read about Ginsberg than read his work but he seems to have had exactly the life he wanted and it made him happy...what more can one ask?
Fantastic biography. Definitely one of the best and most moving biographies I have ever read. Ginsberg led such a full life! He fulfilled his dream of becoming a successful poet, partly fulfilled his dream of becoming a rock star, along with Burroughs, Kerouac and others, spearheaded the beat movement which had a huge impact on a global scale and whose ripples can still be felt today, tried almost every drug you have ever heard of and more, slept with a large number of both men and women (yeah surprised me too) and even became a successful photographer. What a life!
My opinion of Ginsberg after reading this book? Well, on the one hand, he was an incredibly brave, sometimes bold, intelligent, compassionate, incredibly generous (constantly donating his royalties and earnings from his poetry readings to various causes and friends) and such a caring man. On the other hand, he was an incorrigible egomaniac, sex-obsessed figure who often slept with his Naropa students like the ancient Greeks did and seemingly could not write a poem without using the word 'cock' at least once. Hmm.
This is a stunning piece of Beat scholarship. Morgan has done an outstanding job of painting a moving, and at times bittersweet, portrait of one of the most important figures in 20th Century American literature, society and the counterculture. Considering the vast number of notebooks and journals Ginsberg left behind, hats off truly to Morgan for this in-depth biography of a great man.
Not only did I learn a lot about Ginsberg through reading this book but I also learned much about other Beat luminaries such as Corso, Orlovsky and Huncke, who were talented in their own way but deeply flawed and afflicted, often badly strung out on heroin or amphetamines, while Ginsberg, much the wiser, always knew when to walk away before addiction set in and at the same time never gave up on his friends even when they were using his money to buy drugs and booze (Orlovsky) or stealing his rare books or manuscripts to sell off for drug money (Corso). This book does not paint Kerouac, Corso or Orlovsky (especially Orlovsky) in a very positive light but Ginsberg certainly did have his shortcomings too. What I didn't know about Orlovsky was that he was basically heterosexual but did experiment with homosexual sex in the 60s. Allen's love for him was like an obsession and many times when he should have let Orlovsky go he didn't and unknowingly made Orlovsky hopelessly dependent on him. Many parts of the book discuss their difficult relationship and it was really hard to read about Peter's eventual and inevitable breakdown/meltdown which was mostly caused by his own debauchery and drugs but also due to a situation he got himself into and did not know how to get out. Tragic but funny to think how he outlived Allen by 13 years!
In closing, I would have to say that in spite of all of his shortcomings, Ginsberg is a wonderful example of a good human being working hard to make a difference in an increasingly troubled world. Given the current state of affairs, we certainly could do with someone like him right here right now.
Long, sympathetic and celebratory chronicle (rather than biography) that details Ginsberg's frantic level of activity (actions rather than his poetry or even his ideas). Non-literary but with page references to the poems (Morgan suggests you read his book with the Collected Works at your side). The book lists debts, endless engagements for readings and teaching, misogynistic actions, sex partners, drugs (mescaline, wine, marijuana, LSD, STP, mushrooms, yage, and more), encounters with the famous (Beatles, Dylan, Marianne Faithful, the Fugs, and poets, poets, poets), songs, diseases (bronchitis, hepatitis, kidney stones, gonorrhea, broken finger and leg, enlarged heart, and finally cancer and a stroke), countries kicked out of or arrested in (Cuba, Czechoslovakia, US, etc), apartments and houses, destructive outbursts from long-time partner Peter, cars, trips, depressed periods (many), but mostly it lists friends--ones Ginsberg paid for, helped, acted as agent, cajoled into teaching with him, had sex with, mentored with privileges, welcomed as house guests, got drunk or high with, and cooked soup for. But after 700 pages you wonder if it is not true that life is just one damned thing after another.
I didn't know much about Ginsberg, except that he wrote Howl, so I read this thorough, kind, and generous biography with interest; it's immediately clear by his tone that the biographer truly respects and admires his subject. Ginsberg traveled widely, lived on very little, and wrote constantly. He was generous with friends and single-handedly promoted and launched the careers of many of the Beats. I enjoyed reading about someone with his passion and commitment to his craft. An especially nice touch is that this book puts the poem that he was working on during each period of his life in the margin.
I liked it! I have read several biographies of Jack Kerouac and The Beat Generation but most of those just touched on the life of Allen Ginsberg.
Morgan pulls few punches, we get the good with the bad. We find out who Ginsberg admired, who he emulated and who he blew.
I guess when discussing the life and loves of a heterosexual or a homosexual it is important to know which of his/her relationships were sexual in nature though I don't believe it is necessary to go into graphic detail as Morgan does here,I found it somewhat tasteless.
Still, it was an excellent biography and gives a real glimpse of the life of one of the 20th century's most important poets and literary movements.
Written by a 20 year associate and archivist of Ginsberg, warts and all, I found it to be a fascinating study of an American original. Without Ginsberg's tireless advocacy for the Beats, Kerouac, Burroughs, Corso and others may never have been published or might have been decades before being published. His fight against censorship kept the work of all the Beats in the public eye, as unsettling or shocking that work may have been to some. Today, many of these writers are icons of American literature.
A true "blow by blow" description of Allen Ginsberg's life. It is written by Ginsberg's archivist and is a truly amazingly and at times, excruciating, account of Ginsberg's charmed life. It made me want to listen to his poems, which I feel he felt were best "heard" rather than "read" which makes him really part of the beginning of "new media" while he continued the tradition of Walt Whitman and all of American poetry. This is a fascinating read.
This bioraphy is interesting but the inlusion unecessary gritty details of Ginsbergs specific sexual encounters is puzzling and distracting. Such detail may appeal to those with purient interest, but are not essential to understanding the man and I fail to see why they were included. We know he was homosexual and this fact is fine - the specifics are not needed thank you Mr. Morgan.
I enjoyed every minute of this gigantic biography. A.G. had the most amazing life. Reading about his travels in India and Mexico was, for me, the best part. It seemed like an honest and accurate account; I never felt that the writer was biased. Very entertaining, and I also learned a lot about the Beat movement and its effect on American sub-culture.
I loved the insight this biography provided into the culture of the Beats, along with the surrounding political events and what was going on during Ginsberg's travels. The writing style is clear and flows well, compensating for the length of the book.
This is a great book that takes a very vivid glance at Allen Ginsberg's entire life. It's over 600 pages but filled with great information that will help you to better understand his poetry. The man did more in a couple of years of his life than most do with all of theirs!
Shocked to notice all those misinformations about India, Calcutta.Nobody bothers to recheck informations before writing a book these days. For Example Hare Krishna chant becomes Hari Krishna.
A mantra represents a historical time and place of a society and it just cannot be ignored as a typo.
An excellent and thorough account of the life, origin, work, outlook, values and beliefs of a genius beat-generation poet. I do cherish some hopes to be able to translate Bill Morgan's biography into my native Bulgarian tongue some day.
This is the book for you if you want to learn about the inside dirt on the Ginsberg's personal life, to learn the details about love affairs, mental break downs, friend's drug overdoses, murders, two of them, and suicide attempts, then this book will be a very satisfying read. It has the low down on who Ginsberg slept with, the friends he betrayed, those that betrayed him, the hurt feelings, and the unrequited loves of his entire life. There certainly was a lot of material of that nature to tell. It takes up much of the 700 pages. In a sense this biography is largely a detailed portrait of the artist as a confused gay man.
Personally, I was looking for more about Ginsberg as a poet, about his writing. How did he change and develop over time as a writer, who were his influences, what were the major elements of his style and their evolution, and how did all of that fit into the emerging literary moment he was part of? What was the importance to his poetry in his long connection with William Carlos Williams? How about W.H. Auden? These writers do come up but not much detail is provided. What sort of critiques did he make of Kerouac, Burroughs and others over the years? What about other non-beat writers? A lot of that sort of material seems marginalized here in favor of the many pages given over to his romantic pursuits of Neal Cassidy, Jack Kerouac, Peter Orlofsky, and others. Too much water from that well and too little showing the contribution he made to American poetry from the 1940s until he died in 1997.
When I picked this up in the bookshop, I wondered if I really wanted to dedicate myself to 650 pages about a Beat Poet. However, I was convinced by the claim on the back that Ginsberg had a genius for living. Surprisingly, he does live up to that extravagant claim. I was amazed by his tenacity to get his friends Kerouac and Burroughs writing into print, his desire to see everything, his generosity to friends and his commitment to causes (even when they seemed hopeless). What makes the biography great is Morgan - who was / is Ginsberg's archivist - does not white wash his character and is happy to share his failings too.
Discovering how a small group of friends overcame incredible odds - the mono culture of the USA in the 50's - to change writing and the way a generation thought is a great story. I admired Ginsberg's bravery in being open about his sexuality many years before Stonewall (and it was good to get an insight into this era).
Best of all, the book shows how Ginsberg found his poetic voice - by taking ideas from his journal and working them into poems. I keep a journal too and one day, while writing it up, I found the writing wanted to arrange itself onto a page. Several poems have followed since.
It was with great sorrow that I finally finished the book and I'm so pleased I overcame my initial resistance because reading it has broadened my mind (and my writing).
What’s the biographer’s job? Is something I asked constantly while reading this. The book is exhaustively researched and, really, a more intimate look at a person’s life than I’ve ever read—the result of Ginsberg’s lifetime of uninhibited journaling and the author’s unlimited access as Ginsberg’s archivist. On the other hand, it leaves much of that life unexamined.
Rather than dividing Ginsberg’s life into phases, Morgan simply divides it into years: each chapter is one year in Ginsberg’s adult life. The chapter titled �1958� begins in January and ends around Christmas. So do all the others. This format is so rigid it almost feels avant-garde.
Sexuality and spirituality were the driving forces in Ginsberg’s life. Money didn’t matter except to the extent it enabled him to help his friends and his causes. Despite being one of the world’s most famous poets, he was near-poor his entire life. When he received a fatal cancer diagnosis at 70, friends had just unpacked the last box in the first New York apartment where he would have had space and security. He died nine days later.
Morgan’s fondness for Ginsberg permeates the book, despite its mostly objective tone. What emerges is an endearing portrait of a naïve, caring, endlessly curious workaholic. But Morgan’s approach shades into obtuseness toward acts like sex tourism, pedophilia, and sexual coercion. Context (including a backdrop of homophobia and censorship) of course plays a role in how one should think about all of this. But Morgan rarely steps out of Ginsberg’s diaristic headspace to examine these parts of Ginsberg’s life. Is that the biographer’s job?
This took me a long time to get through, it is very very thorough, but I think it was worth the journey and I'm glad I read through many of his essential works before getting here so I had a more firm grounding beyond just Howl. I really like the year-by-year structure, it seemed to make total sense here and did not prevent this at all from having a flowing narrative. I also liked the margin notes that tagged his poems in time and place, really cool way to do things. I feel like I have a much greater understanding of Ginsberg's life, including his boundless championing of friends and contemporaries as well as his egotism and flaws.
Since I first read his Howl in my teens Allan Ginsberg has been a counterculture hero of and role model of mine. Indeed, I have ended up having a life that shares many characteristics with Allen's; an engagement with mysticism and meditation, with a key teenage years experience that set the course of a whole life; an engagement with poetry, both as reader and writer; pursuit of psychedelic experience as scientific study of consciousness rather than hedonism, and a life filled with a large cast of colourful characters with a broad range of worldviews, some quite challenging. I also have deep political commitments which I tend to come at from a spiritual rather than an economic point of view. Apart from that I'm not at all like Allen. I have never been famous and have reached an age where I no longer care about such things. And I don't like being duped, being taken for a fool or otherwise abused, while Allen seemed to thrive on such treatment; the more you took from him the more he tried to give you. He was a beautiful guy who made 'turning the other cheek' into an art form, because someone has to be the example.
Reading a biography of someone so similar to oneself is an interesting experience as it forces one to revaluate the core questions and and enigmas of one's own experience. I read this very fine, detailed biography as an adjunct to my tackling of his Collected Poems. This biography is particularly useful as it has the title of each of the poems embedded in the margins in each of their biographical contexts. This is a straight nuts and bolts biography written by Allen's long time bibliographer and archivist. The book will tell you where he was, what was happening and who he was with, at just about any time of his life, and certainly in the context of the writing of any of the poems. There is no real discussion of poetics or analysis of the poetical content; what his long term significance is and what he means today. Nor does the author make any real attempt at psychoanalysis, though Freud, would indeed have had a field day.
Absolutely the right biography to accompany me on my journey into the Collected Poems.
I gave this 5 stars as it's the best and certainly most in-depth account of Mr. Ginsberg's important life in existence. If I could have subtracted half a star I would have as while it's well-written from a technical standpoint it is, IMO, too technically written.
Suffice it to say the author Mr. Morgan, while loyal and respectful in his tone and tenor he's certainly not David McCullough. Hence, the half star. Hard to take a whole star from someone for not being Mr. McCullough. A bit much to as - but not too much to wish for.
PS: I finished this 4/5 - which is also the date Mr. Ginsberg passed. Not planned, but gave me chills.
Long comfort read about a central figure in Beat poetry. Slightly repetitive in later parts, where Allen is on tour doing endless poetry readings, but some great material in other parts on his sexuality, spirituality and creativity. RIP.