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Article: Literature of the Beat Generation.
- Article from:
- Bookmarks
- Article date:
- May 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Bookmarks Publishing LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"NOBODY KNOWS WHETHER WE WERE CATALYSTS OR INVENTED SOMETHING, OR JUST THE FROTH RIDING ON A WAVE OF ITS OWN. WE WERE ALL THREE, I SUPPOSE."
--Allen Ginsberg, quoted in Great Poets Howl: A Study of Allen Ginsberg's Poetry, 1943-1955
AT SAN FRANCISCO'S SIX GALLERY on October 7, 1955, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, then 29, performed his first public reading of "Howl." A confessional rant against the nation's social establishment and Eisenhower's America, its profanity and jazz-like rhythms forged a new poetic conscience. Published the next year by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Pocket Poets Series, "Howl" initiated a censorship trial that not only ...