Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) was an American poet, a leading figure of the Beat Generation and one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. His poem "Howl" — whose famous opening line "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" — challenged censorship, and its 1956 obscenity trial became a landmark for free expression, together with "Kaddish" for his mother.

A student of Blake and Whitman and friend of Kerouac and Burroughs, Ginsberg was also an openly gay, anti-war activist, a Buddhist, and co-founder of the famous "Blakean" vision. His collected work, including his Yale lectures and the epic autobiography The Best Minds of My Generation, is read today as a chronicle of American counterculture.