Allen Ginsberg Centennial – one significant marker (scheduled for publication this Spring) is Erik Mortenson‘s contribution to Cambridge University Press’ Literature in Context series, Allen Ginsberg in Context, a stellar compendium of essays and appraisals
“Allen Ginsberg’s life and career can only be described as exceptional. Fond of pushing limits and challenging boundaries, Ginsberg produced a staggering body of work that garnered attention not just for its innovative style and personal candor, but for its range of theme and willingness to meaningfully engage the world in a bid to change it. Ginsberg is essential to an understanding of twentieth century poetry. But Ginsberg was not just a poet. He was an icon, instantly recognizable to his legions of fans in underground circles, and it is impossible to overstate the importance of Ginsberg as a countercultural figure. Taking a broadly chronological approach, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of the major issues, themes, and moments essential to understanding Ginsberg, his work, and his outsized influence on the cultural politics of the postwar both in the US and globally.
Following Mortenson’s Introduction, the book is divided into five sections
Part I – Early Years and Influences: “Ginsberg and the Labor Movement” – Ben Lee, “The Columbia University Years” – A. Robert Lee, “William Carlos Williams” – Terence Diggory, “Walt Whitman” – Anne Lovering Rounds, “Blake, Romanticism, and the Visionary” – Luke Walker, “Ginsberg’s Complex French Influences” – Peggy Pacini, “Jack Kerouac” –Tanguy Harma
Part II – Career Highlights: “Gallery and the Breakthrough of “Howl”” – Kurt Hemmer, “The Vietnam War and Countercultural Activism” – Steven Belletto, “Into the Vortex: Allen Ginsberg’s “The Fall of America”” – Jonah Raskin – “First Blues”, Music in the Life and Work of Allen Ginsberg” – Steven Taylor – “Photography” – Daniel Morris – “Ginsberg in the Classroom” – Erik Mortenson
Part III – International Travels: “Allen Ginsberg in Mexico – David Stephen Calonne – “The Beat Hotel” – Barry Miles – “Ginsberg’s South American Trips” – Oliver Harris – “A Counterrevolutionary Camerado – The Significance of Allen Ginsberg’s Month in Cuba” – Eric Keenaghan – “Prague” – Antonín Zita – “India” – Raj Chandarlapaty -“China” – David S. Wills
Part IV Major Themes: “Poetry as Confession – Ginsberg, T. S. Eliot, and the New York School Poets” – Stephen Paul Miller -“Madness, Mental Illness, and “Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg”” – Stevan M. Weine – “Queer Sexuality – La Grande Permission” – Rona Cran – “Ginsberg and Drugs” – Marcus Boon – “Nature and Nuclear Reckoning in Ginsberg’s “Plutonian Ode”” – Chad Weidner – “Was Allen Ginsberg Jewish?” – Stephen Fredman – “Playing with the Perfections – Some Developments in Ginsberg’s Buddhist Poetics” – John Whalen-Bridge, “Ginsberg’s Domesticity” – Steven Gould Axelrod
Part V – Death and Afterlife: “Recording the Body’s and the Body Politics’ Demise – “Death & Fame”” – Bill Mohr – “Ginsberg’s Archive” – Bill Morgan – “Allen Ginsberg’s Iconic Statuses” – Michael J. Prince – “Afterword” – Tony Trigilio – Further Reading