1926-1997

Allen Ginsberg was a poet and collaborator with fellow members of the Beat generation, including Jack Kerouac and William Borroughs, finding common ground through discourse and drugs in San Francisco, New York and Paris with Peter Orlovsky and Gregory Corso.  Mentored by William Carlos Williams, Ginsberg read his seminal Howl at The Six Gallery in 1955.  He published The Fall of America and bonded with cult figures:  Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey, Rod McKuen and Bob Dylan.  Graduating from Columbia University as a Woodberry Poetry Prize winner, Ginsberg embraced Hinduism and Buddhism, espoused opposition to obscenity laws and homophobia, and served as a dissident influence acknowledged by leaders such as Vaclav Havel as an inspiration to pursue freedom.  Ginsberg’s photos, which ultimately capture the spirit of the Beat generation, were acquired by the Howard Greenberg Gallery in 2002.