I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg [Hardcover]

Bill Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2006

Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Howl, the first full biography of Allen Ginsberg—from birth to death

Allen Ginsberg was America’s most influential poet since World War II, a figure who was in the vanguard of every popular movement of that time, from the emergence of the Beat generation to the countercultural revolution to the interest in Eastern spirituality. In this new biography, the first since the poet’s death in 1997 and the only one to cover his entire life, Bill Morgan creates the most complete portrait to date of Ginsberg.

Drawing on his unparalleled access to Ginsberg’s inner circle as well as on the poet’s journals and correspondence, Morgan offers a revealing portrait of a complicated and flamboyant character. Ginsberg was a tenacious man who was driven by ambition and curiosity; he was plagued by self-doubt and always longed for acceptance and recognition. He also had a genius for living and networking and for expressing himself candidly; his love for freedom and equality was uncompromising. Morgan examines Ginsberg’s life and his tremendous impact on society from many different angles: his political views, his battles with censorship, and his approach to drugs. He also provides a more accurate picture than previously told of Ginsberg’s search for love (including his complex relationship with his lifelong partner, Peter Orlovsky) and of his involvement with Tibetan Buddhism. This definitive and engaging life of Ginsberg also includes a unique feature—it lists the titles of Ginsberg’s poems in the margins so that the reader can see exactly what he was writing at any point in his life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It has become almost a cliché for biographers to speculate about their subjects' psychosexual oddities. But speculation is not necessary when the subject is Allen Ginsberg, because the legendary beat poet and countercultural figure proudly proclaimed his psychosexual oddities, from his youthful incestuous impulses toward his father and brother to his little-requited infatuations with beat golden boys like Neal Cassady and his later eye for young male acolytes. Indeed, Ginsberg meticulously documented all his doings and feelings, and Morgan, his archivist and bibliographer, relies on that trove. Morgan does little to shape the material; each chapter, bluntly titled with the calendar year, simply recounts 365 days' worth of parties, debauches, quarrels and breakups, drug experimentation, all-night debates about literature and philosophy, dead-end jobs, knock-about travels, psychoanalysis, ecstatic Blakean visions, depressed funks, homicides committed by friends, jazz, poetry readings and Ginsberg's contemporary ruminations on all the above. The disorganized, onrushing flow of experience is occasionally eye-glazing, and Morgan offers disappointingly little interpretation of Ginsberg's poems. But Ginsberg and his gang—Kerouac, Burroughs, Cassady et al.—are such vibrant, compelling characters that this mere straightforward chronicle of their lives approaches, as they intended, a fair imitation of art. Photos. (Oct. 9)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The late Beatnik poet would have been 80 this year, and this massive life chronicle marks the occasion. Ginsberg was an indefatigable journaler, correspondent, and, especially in his latter years, photographer (he got good enough to publish, exhibit, and sell prints), which means Morgan has a rich trove of self-reportage to draw on. Morgan has also extensively interviewed Ginsberg's friends, and the resulting massive tome seems to note every movement Ginsberg ever made. Notes inserted on the margins of each page refer by title and page number to poems (in Collected Poems: 1947-1997, which HarperCollins is issuing, also in October 2006, and at 1,000-plus pages and $39.95, relatively cheaply) written at the times of events reported in the text. This isn't a critical or interpretive biography, nor is it even fully descriptive, for Ginsberg's is virtually the only personal perspective given any expression in its pages. As a clear, exhaustive record of a very restless man's life journey, however, it will be invaluable to all future biographers. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1st ptg. edition (October 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670037966
• ISBN-13: 978-0670037964
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Life to Celebrate, December 18, 2006

By 

David S. Nichols "davemult" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg (Hardcover)

There are now many biographies of Allen Ginsberg. Shumacher's Dharma Lion stands out as a particular favorite, and the book-length poem by Ed Sanders is not to be overlooked. Most take a bird's-eye view of this poet and his life. Because of his long personal relationship with Ginsberg as his archivist and bibliographer, Morgan stood closer to his subject, both personally and through his access to the prolific journals Ginsberg diligently kept from the age of eleven to the end of his life, than any previous biographer has, or any future biographer is likely to.

The result is a biography whose intimacy and authority are unparalleled. For or some at least, this will be a decidedly mixed blessing. Those with a strong aversion to sexual revelation and description will be distracted if not put off, for Ginsberg was possessed of a ruthless, at times self-defeating, candor in all matters sexual, as readers familiar with his poetry will know. But, as Morgan shows, he was equally candid in all other areas of his life and feeling.

He was also deeply flawed, persistently naive and hopeful about the numerous lifelong friends he made in his days at Columbia and shortly thereafter: Kerouac, a drunk Republican mama's-boy and anti-semite, whose friendship Ginsberg treasured and whose work he championed to long after Kerouac's death; Huncke, who mooched and stole from him repeatedly; Burroughs, who, for a time lusted after him, but at others was inaccessible and gratuitously mean to Ginsberg's life partner, Peter Orlovsky; Cassady, an insatiable womanizer and artful dodger, or worse; Corso, who embarrassed and abused him often; and Orlovsky himself, heterosexual, chronically unstable and addicted to alcohol and amphetamines, and not infrequently interpersonally and physically destructive. To all of these, and to scores if not hundreds of others, Ginsberg's loyalty, generosity, and his efforts to support them financially and promote their work and enhance their lives never wavered. In his close personal relationships, Ginsberg could be, and often was, a fool, but he was not a fair-weather friend. Among the flaws that Morgan addresses and clarifies was Ginsberg's peculiar and persistent blind spot for women, their strengths, virtues, and talents. Even those close to him, not rarely in love with him, could in important ways escape his notice.

In fairly documenting his flaws, however, Morgan's treatment does not throw Ginsberg's virtues into shadow. His intense interest in all things human, his passionate commitment to free speech and unfettered thought and social justice and, some will be surprised, his patriotism, all come through. But what comes through most powerfully is the loving pains he took to care for others, more often than not one-at-a-time. Undivided attention, a meal, a place to stay, the reading of a poet's work brought to him for comment, his personal responses to virtually all the letters sent to him, from friend and stranger alike; Ginsberg cared and gave.

Until the last very few years of his life, and despite the popularity of his books, readings, and recordings, Ginsberg was chronically close to poverty, on many occasions simply broke, and sometimes temporarily stranded. Even when his income was nominally adequate, he bought his clothing in second-hand stores, rescued his friends again and again and again, and made up the difference. As he supported his friends, sometimes over many years, he supported numerous younger poets and writers, as well as working tirelessly to benefit the many causes, programs, and institutions he cared about; he gave and gave and gave.

In the end, Morgan's biography, its chapters proceeding year by year, covers the life of a great poet who was not less a man of truly heroic love and candor, a flawed human being who can stand as a model and a beacon for that which is most tender and dear in each of us.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top of My Favorites List, December 2, 2006

By 

Lita M. Gamgort "Lita Aprile" (Hockessin, DE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg (Hardcover)

Bill Morgan's new book about the poet Allen Ginsberg, "I Celebrate Myself", rates at the top of my favorites list. I was immediately captivated when I read in the Introduction about an incident where Ginsberg saw a poor woman who was about to be attacked by an angry dog.Ginsberg went to her and asked,"Would you like a fig newton?" From then on I couldn't stop reading.
The book is full of many interesting facts about Ginsberg's life and poetry.His writings represent the turbulence of the cultural revolution of the time and this book is a wonderful testament to this eccentric and unique writer's talent. I applaud and congratulate Bill Morgan for his superb book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Biography, November 21, 2006

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mary helen wiesel (wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg (Hardcover)

I highly recommend Bill Morgan's "I Celebrate Myself", a biography of the late poet, Allen Ginsberg, a "Beat Generation" writer. Bill Morgan allows the reader to understand and appreciate, in such an interesting narrative, Ginsberg's unique style of poetry. I was truly captivated by this poet's life and work that the book seemed to be much shorter than it actually was. In addition to the title "I Celebrate Myself" from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," I especially enjoyed Bill Morgan's innovative approach of describing occurrences in Ginsberg's personal life that influenced his writing by placing in the margins of the book, the titles of the poems that Ginsberg was writing at the time. This creates for the reader an immediate interest and desire to read Ginsberg's poetry. "I Celebrate Myself" was a joy and adventure to read, and I learned so much about this sensitive, brilliant, and compassionate poet of the twentieth century. Fascinating Book!!