About Allen Ginsberg
Ginsberg was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Paterson. His father Louis Ginsberg was a poet and a high school teacher. Ginsberg's mother, Naomi Livergant Ginsberg (who was affected by epileptic seizures and mental illnesses such as paranoia) was an active member of the Communist Party and often took Ginsberg and his brother Eugene to party meetings. As a young teenager, Ginsberg began to write letters to The New York Times about political issues such as World War II and workers' rights.Browse all poems and texts published on Allen Ginsberg
Ginsberg's poetry was strongly influenced by Modernism, Romanticism, the beat and cadence of jazz, and his Kagyu Buddhist practice and Jewish background.
