Ginsberg: A Biography - Hardcover

Miles, Barry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671507133 ISBN 13: 9780671507138

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1989

Synopsis

A biography of the poet, rebel, drug user, gay rights activist, and concerned dabbler, now in his sixties.

About this title

About the Author:

Barry Miles is the critically acclaimed author of Charles Bukowski, Hippie, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible, and Zappa.

From Publishers Weekly:

In overgenerous detail, this long, tedious biography records the rise to fame and the search for love by the now 63-year-old poet from Paterson, N.J. Son of a teacher-poet and his demented wife, Ginsberg was accustomed from childhood to crazed and eccentric behavior. In his student days he began using drugs to widen his consciousness and systematically explore his mind. Bizarre, mystic, passionate, pacifistic, gay Beatnik activist, Ginsberg always practiced what he preached in the extreme, according to the author. Miles, a British writer, depicts the poet's soulmates and bedmates Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Peter Orlovsky, his gurus Chogyam Trungpa and Timothy Leary. Describing his world travels, mantra-chanting, meditation, musical compositions and achievements as a photographer, Miles traces Ginsberg's development into a member of the establishment--"the most famous living poet on earth," the "loudest and most influential voice" among poets of his generation. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0671507133
• ISBN 13: 9780671507138
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 588