The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
Yesterday was the 56th anniversary of the day that U.S. customs agents seized some 500 copies of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl on the grounds of obscenity. Yesterday and today, the Supreme Court of the United States heard two cases regarding marriage. The first one yesterday, regarding California Proposition 8, addressed the right to marry the person you love.
...moreGinsberg is not typically remembered for his photography, but from 1950 to 1990 he captured hundreds of photographs documenting his life, family, and friends.
In “The Photography of Allen Ginsberg,” Roslyn Bernstein discusses going to Ginsberg’s poetry readings during her youth, and her experience seeing his photography exhibit almost 50 years later.
...moreBob Hicok Says Believe Me: Over at The Believer, Bob Hicok fields a few questions (excerpts only at this point per interviewer Matthew Sherling) about his writing process. Hicok’s takes on on his own process reveal a darling and darting mind, same as you find in his poems.
...moreAt The Poetry Foundation, Garrett Caples writes a moving essay on the life of Alden Van Buskirk, a Vermont born, Dartmouth-St. Louis-Mexico-Oakland raised poet with connections to the Beats and a love for Rimbaud.
Van Buskirk (Van, to his friends) published only one, posthumous volume, titled LAMI, a largely autobiographical work collected by his close friend David Rattray.
...moreAllen Ginsberg debuted “Howl” at the Six Gallery Reading on October 7, 1955. In 2006, for the 50th anniversary of the poem’s publication, City Lights came out with Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression and The Believer reflected on the significance of “Howl” and Ginsberg’s less celebrated antiwar poem “Wichita Vortex Sutra.”
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Howl is neither a biopic about the poem’s author Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), nor does it delve into any other poem in his literary oeuvre. These are the first of many missteps that the producers take in their approach towards the rich material of Ginsberg’s life and work.
Good Morning. Hungry?
Why not listen to William S. Burroughs reading from Naked Lunch? Or how about viewing some of the Naked Lunch manuscript? Or pictures of different editions of the book since its publication in 1959? Or hell, how about some great pictures of the man himself?
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Friday October 16, the New Yorker opened its annual weekend festival of readings, conversations, art tours and musical performances. This is my account of the events I attended, which included among others a talk with Malcolm Gladwell, readings by George Saunders, Gary Shteyngart and Jonathan Franzen, a musical performance by Neko Case and a conversation with James Franco.
President Barack Obama signed legislation on Monday naming the Great Falls on the Passaic River in Paterson, N.J. a national historic park.
The 77-foot falls, site of early American industrial plants, has also inspired American writers. The great 20th century poets William Carlos Williams, whose epic work “Paterson” used the falls and the river as embodiments of American spirit, and Allen Ginsberg, who also commemorated the falls in his work, grew up nearby.
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