I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg

I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg
by Bill Morgan

I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg
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Book Summary Information

Author: Bill Morgan
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-10-05
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 720
Publisher: Viking Adult

Book Reviews of I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg

Book Review: perfect book title
Summary: 5 Stars

Really good biography, hard to put down, would highly recommend. A couple of thoughts on finishing (first I would like to mention almost didn't get this book because of the Amazon description, it gave me an idea of a book of charts, it is not. The chapters are headed up by years - 1966, 1967 etc. and is a normal biography) is that condensing the book to a few chapters after 1970 would have avoided a lot of repetition. In his later years it's mostly about traveling and giving readings and Peter's crazy antics and boys. (After reading yet another lament by Allen about growing old by himself I couldn't help thinking a problem could be that he only seemed to be attracted to heterosexual male teenagers that inevitable left him for girlfriends.)

Two other biography's I recently finished was the very good Literary Outlaw about Burroughs the work of art Memory Babe about Kerouac, and while I am hooked on their books and think that they are our most important and influential post WW2 writers, they are still, even with fame, to borrow a title from Kerouac, the subterraneans. A fascinating cast of drug addicts, alcoholics, murderers (Carr and Burroughs), criminals, thieves, bisexuals, homosexuals, a few heterosexuals, and some truly, clinically insane people.

- also, Ginsberg would be pleased to know that there is something to shock nearly everyone in the book. I for one did not feel comfortable with the seduction by Ginsberg of hundreds? of boys while he was an unpaid teacher at the Narobi? institute. I guess because this was a tantric institution it was accepted since teacher/student flings seemed to be going on with not just Allen (in the book a scandal is reported when the then leader of the college was found to be having numerous affairs with students even though he knew he was HIV positive.) Also Allen's unwavering support of NAMBA, yuck

Summary of I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg

In the first biography of Ginsberg since his death in 1997 and the only one to cover the entire span of his life, Ginsberg's archivist Bill Morgan draws on his deep knowledge of Ginsberg's largely unpublished private journals to give readers an unparalleled and finely detailed portrait of one of America's most famous poets. Morgan sheds new light on some of the pivotal aspects of Ginsberg's life, including the poet's associations with other members of the Beat Generation, his complex relationship with his lifelong partner, Peter Orlovsky, his involvement with Tibetan Buddhism, and above all his genius for living.

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