Allen Ginsberg Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Allen Ginsberg
OCCUPATION: Activist, Poet
BIRTH DATE: June 03, 1926
DEATH DATE: April 05, 1997
EDUCATION: Columbia University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Newark, New Jersey
PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
Full Name: Irwin Allen Ginsberg
AKA: Allen Ginsberg

Best Known For

Allen Ginsberg is one of the 20th century's most influential poets, regarded as a founding father of the Beat Movement and known for works like "Howl."

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Allen Ginsberg

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Ginsberg also came up with the phrase "flower power," which he used to describe the peace movements that fueled much of the anti-war demonstrations he took part in, including his protests against the Vietnam War.

Ginsberg was an advocate of drug use,

though he would generally walk away from this position after he studied yoga and meditation during a 1962 voyage to India. Ginsberg later converted to Buddhism and founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics of the Naropa Institute, which focused on Buddhist teachings. He was also a world traveler, remaining for extended periods of time in Latin America and Europe.

Ginsberg won the 1974 National Book Award for his work The Fall of America: Poems of these States 1965-1971, and over the ensuing years, became increasingly renowned for the importance and influence of his work, receiving accolades like the 1986 Robert Frost Medal. In the 1980s and '90s, he continued to write and worked with musical artists like Philip Glass, Bono, Sonic Youth and the Clash.

Death

Ginsberg died from liver cancer on April 5, 1997, in the East Village in Manhattan, New York. He was 70 years old. A massive collection of his work can be found with the book Collected Poems 1947-1997.