Collected Poems 1947-1997 [Hardcover]

Allen Ginsberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2006

Here, for the first time, is a volume that gathers the published verse of Allen Ginsberg in its entirety, a half century of brilliant work from one of America's great poets. The chief figure among the Beats, Ginsberg changed the course of American poetry, liberating it from closed academic forms with the creation of open, vocal, spontaneous, and energetic postmodern verse in the tradition of Walt Whitman, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hart Crane, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams. Ginsberg's classics Howl, Reality Sandwiches, Kaddish, Planet News, and The Fall of America led American (and international) poetry toward uncensored vernacular, explicit candor, the ecstatic, the rhapsodic, and the sincere—all leavened by an attractive and pervasive streak of common sense. Ginsberg's raw tones and attitudes of spiritual liberation also helped catalyze a psychological revolution that has become a permanent part of our cultural heritage, profoundly influencing not only poetry and popular song and speech, but also our view of the world.

The uninterrupted energy of Ginsberg's remarkable career is clearly revealed in this collection. Seen in order of composition, the poems reflect on one another; they are not only works but also a work. Included here are all the poems from the earlier volume Collected Poems 1947-1980, and from Ginsberg's subsequent and final three books of new poetry: White Shroud, Cosmopolitan Greetings, and Death & Fame. Enriching this book are illustrations by Ginsberg's artist friends; unusual and illuminating notes to the poems, inimitably prepared by the poet himself; extensive indexes; as well as prefaces and various other materials that accompanied the original publications.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Counterculture icon, beat apostle, Buddhist chanter, heir to William Blake, unapologetic explorer of intoxicating substances, world traveler, political protest leader, celebrant of gay sex, chronicler of New Jersey Jewish heritage and of Lower East Side post-hippie bohemians, Ginsberg (1926–1997) became by the midpoint of his career the most famous American poet of his era. At first hardworking and tormented, later on a spontaneous, welcoming mentor, the writer who in Howl (1956) "saw the best minds of my generation starving hysterical naked," and who mourned his psychotic mother in the wrenching title poem of Kaddish (1960) kept creating entertaining (if not quite so innovative) poems, for almost three decades after he rose to fame. This first complete collection of Ginsberg's work reproduces his 1980 Collected Poems—including all the extensive notes: here are "Howl" and "Kaddish" and the great anti–Vietnam War poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra"; here too are the poems about Prague and Cornwall, Benares and Shanghai and the Australian outback, the songs and chants in quatrains (with sheet music) and the unashamed odes to beautiful young men. This complete edition adds White Shroud (1986), Cosmopolitan Greetings (1994) and the aptly titled Death and Fame: Last Poems (2000). A hefty, vivid and important tome, it should remind us just how much Ginsberg accomplished. (Oct.)
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Review

“Sooner or later, anyone interested in American poetry must embrace Allen Ginsberg.” (Houston Chronicle )

“Taken all together, Ginsberg’s poems are X-rays of a considerable part of American society during the last four decades.” (The New Yorker )

“The mammoth new COLLECTED POEMS, 1947-1997 places Ginsberg firmly among the most prolific poets of the age.” (Washington Post Book World )

“A...brilliant volume that shows Ginsberg...to be not only a legendary protest writer but also a lyric poet.” (New York Times )

“There’s a lot to like...the current volume testifies to the poet’s scope and indefatigable energy.” (Chicago Sun-Times )

“Essential…COLLECTED POEMS…is easily the best of the bunch…Some 50 years later, Ginsberg’s talent still glows on paper.” (The Post and Courier )

“he wrote any number of splendid, singular poems that no other American poet of our age was capable of penning…” (San Diego Union-Tribune )

“The COLLECTED POEMS” are the ultimate statement on Ginsberg’s art.” (Chicago Tribune )

“If you want to read Ginsberg’s poetry, you should go straight to the source. COLLECTED POEMS 1947-1997 gathers everything.” (Los Angeles Times )

“The volume gathers for the first time all the published verse of...poet Ginsberg...A history...of a turbulent time.” (Salt Lake City Tribune )

“Ginsberg’s poems are reminders that those who face a culture’s disapproval can approve themselves.” (The Progressive )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1216 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061139742
• ISBN-13: 978-0061139741
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #773,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Allen Ginsberg was born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, a son of Naomi Ginsberg and lyric poet Louis Ginsberg. In 1956 he published his signal poem, Howl, one of the most widely read and translated poems of the century. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, awarded the medal of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French minister of culture in 1993, and co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute, the first accredited Buddhist college in the Western world, Allen Ginsberg died on April 5, 1997.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ginsy's Collected Poems, November 18, 2006

By 

taogoat (the mothership) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collected Poems 1947-1997 (Hardcover)

I just finished reading Ginsberg's collected poems, 1947-1997 -- fifty years and over a thousand pages of poetry. My overall impression is that he was probably the kindest, most moral member of the beat generation. When the other beats were penniless & borrowing money, Ginsberg was the one they borrowed money from. Corso would steal Ginsberg's manuscripts and sell them to used book dealers to score heroin, and each time Ginsberg would walk down to the book dealer and buy back his priceless words. Where Kerouac preached his own version of buddhism and gave it up a few years later for alcoholic catholicism, Ginsberg remained a dedicated student of buddhist compassion to the end of his days.

And that's what shines thru in many of these poems -- compassion, attention to the present, and the courage to be so honest about his life and his feelings. Many of these poems are raw, experimental, informal, and spontaneous, almost like journal entries. He wrote numerous classics -- Pull My Daisy (written with Kerouac & Cassady in 1949), Howl, America, Kaddish, Mescaline, Lysergic Acid, Wichita Vortex Sutra, Wales Visitation, Elegy for Neal Cassady, and Memory Gardens (elegy for Jack Kerouac), among others.

Some of the most common themes are world travel, nature, daily events, progressive politics, the US invasion of Vietnam, the peace movement, road trips, drug use, the beats, gay sex, hinduism, buddhism, death, and love. In other words, Ginsberg wrote about his life. He talks about his friends dying, his father dying, his mother's insanity and death, his loves, his joys, and whatever is pressing and interesting to him at the moment. Some of the poems are better than others, but I can't imagine there's a more honest poet out there.

Casual readers of the beats will likely want to skip around and read a poem here, a poem there, just checking out the highlights. But even for casual readers, there's no sense in buying Ginsberg's small City Lights books -- just buy this big book so you can have it all.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry Five Stars, of Course but..., November 21, 2006

By 

John A. Gregorio (Castalian Springs, TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Collected Poems 1947-1997 (Hardcover)

Americans who can't name five poets will name Allen Ginsberg. In this case, that is good since he was one of America's Greatest Poets. This book attest to this.
I write this review to show disappointment in the publisher who continues to publish the collected works on the cheapest paper next to newsprint.
For the next edition, I would like to see, at least in limited edition, a volume printed on quality paper which could last more than a few years before turning yellow.
Ginsbergs deserves better treatment.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Allen Ginsberg was a genius..., November 17, 2008

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Collected Poems 1947-1997 (Paperback)

This book contains almost all of Ginsberg's poetry. If you are one of those people that must have all of his poems, a great purchase would be The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice. It is his journals and early poems from 1937-1952. You will have every poem that he wrote and his journal. Also, you can buy his book of letters too.