Allen Ginsberg

Gina Wisker (University of Brighton)
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Irwin Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey, at 2 a.m. on June 3, 1926, and died at 2.40 a.m. on April 4, 1997. His mother, Naomi, was a teacher and a communist who was sadly unwell; his father, Louis, was a socialist, a teacher and a poet. Thus Allen entered a world of thought, pain, poetry, and the familiar pull-and-shove in a family between two sets of politics. Later he was to exclaim that it would be good if all sons’ fathers were poets. He wrote a poem which was published in the

Paterson Evening News

when he was nine or ten years old which reads:

Once upon my window sill A sparrow hopped but then stood still I asked him why he did the latter He said to me, “It doesn’t matter.” Men kill a cow for mutton pie So should I confide in you my woe?

Once upon my…

2936 words

Citation: Wisker, Gina. "Allen Ginsberg". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5212, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5212 Allen Ginsberg 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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