Edith Ginsberg

Edith Ginsberg (Louis‘ second wife and Allen’s beloved stepmother).

Here’s her thoughts recorded (under the title “Lots More to Remember”) for Bill Morgan‘s 1986 Best Minds – A Tribute to Allen Ginsberg

“The first recollection I have of Allen was a glimpse I had of him in 1946 or 1947. Allen and his father were walking along Broadway, Paterson, N.J., discussing something very vehemently. Allen with his hands demonstrating his point and his father, head bent, thoughtfully talking and walking. Allen must have been about 18 or 19 at the time
In 1950 Louis and I were married and we all moved in together in a two-story frame house on E 34th St. in Paterson. Allen had just come out of the Psychiatric Institute. What with my two children Allen and Eugene, it was a lively, busy crowded household with very little money so we all “made do” including Allen. That was why he got a job in a ribbon mill on River Dr. The job turned up in a poem. He didn’t like the job and was subsequently fired.
There was the time in 1952 when Allen went to visit Carl Solomon and found him sick. So – he brought him home to us to make him well. Actual living & sleeping space being tight, he stayed a day or two.

Back tracking to 1951, Allen dashed in one evening and announced that Lucien Carr was  waiting for him. He dashed upstairs to his room , rummaged amongst his possessions, dashed out with the remark that he would be back in a day or so.
The next we heard from him he was in Mexico. Lucien had a car (no pun intended) and a vacation and money and offered Allen a trip. So Allen dashed in, picked up his birth certificate and wanting to avoid lengthy discussions took off. I think this was the trip when they visited with Burroughs in Mexico.

Another vivid memory was Allen coming to 34th St. in Paterson with a group of his friends. They were on their way back from a trip from Mexico & San Francisco. The time was 1956 or 1957. I remember Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac & Peter Orlovsky with Allen and a sleeping bag or two. The morning after they came, Louis drove them to Rutherford to visit with Dr. William Carlos Williams. They stayed with us for a few days, explored Paterson, did some writing, discussed ideas, gossiped & applauded one another. One line jumps out, coming from Peter, “the hydrant weeping huge tears” (The line is used in Peter’s book)
They exhausted themselves of energy & ideas & time & the household got tired too. So, off they went, back to New York still full of talk, leaving us to replenish the larder.
Never a dull moment! We had our disagreements, but none that couldn’t be settled.

Later on, when the dual readings were initiated, life really opened up for his father. Allen saw to it that his agent arranged readings for the two of them a few times a year . Louis loved the crowds, the attention and the people he met. Louis & Allen complemented one another and aside from all else it was fun and a chance to travel. I loved it because I went along.
In August 1967 we went to Europe  – Louis, Allen & I. They both read in London and then we headed for France & Italy. In Rome we were waiting on a rainy night for Allen to come back to the hotel from the Spanish Steps when we received a call from an English friend who informed us that Allen had been picked up by the police. It was a sweep of the kids hanging out at the Spanish Steps and Allen was nearby. His long hair and bard labeled him. A reporter got wind of their big catch & the newspapers mad a big to-do. Allen was released when we got to the police station. He was rather angry to say the least. Again – never a dull moment.

Enough for the time being except to say that we can still talk and laugh together.

******************

Edith was a stabilizing figure and much loved. Her appearance in Louis’ life was a boon. As Eugene, his son and Allen’s brother, remarked. “She gave him a very settled home life”. It was a warm and loving relationship that they sustained for over a quarter of a century.
And, as Harold Collen, her son from a previous marriage, recalled,  she and Allen took to each other immediately  – ”It was really Edith who took him in hand and sort of convinced him she would always be there for him.” – (Collen is quoted, in her obituary in the New York Times), “She became a lodestone. You could see she was the center of that whole family.”

George James also notes in that October 2000 obituary -“Mrs. Ginsberg tried to allay her husband’s resentment over Allen’s homosexuality. ”It doesn’t make him less of a person,” she told him. ”He’s your son.”

Allen’s devotion and affection for her in the quarter-century following Louis’ death remained a constant.In 1987, he dedicated White Shroud, Poems 1980-1985, his newest book of poems, to her. And when at the very end of his life, he moved into his new 13th Street loft, he insisted that a room be kept up in it for her – “Edith’s No Smoking Room”, he labeled it.

Al Aronowitz, chronicler of the Beats (and the man who introduced Allen to Bob Dylan):

“At Allen’s funeral (1997), I felt honored that Edith, even at the age of 91, made it a point to single me out for a greeting.  At that time, (she) was dismayed to see Allen’s remains go into a grave she had planned for herself, next to that of Louis.  But Bob Rosenthal, Allen’s longtime secretary and forever the diplomat, assuaged her by pointing out how much Allen had loved Edith, who, when her time came, could be buried alongside her stepson.  To Bob, the symmetry was perfect – Allen would lie between the two persons he adored the most, his father on one side of him and his stepmother on the other..”

Here’s a couple more (of the many) pictures that Allen took of his step-mother: