Allen ginsberg biography mother poem

American poet and writer (–)

For the American businessman, see Alan Ginsburg. For the serial killer who was born Allen Ginsberg, see William MacDonald (serial killer).

Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, &#;– April 5, ) was an American poet and writer.

As a student at Columbia University in the s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation. He vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism, and sexual repression, and he embodied various aspects of this counterculture with his views on drugs, sex, multiculturalism, hostility to bureaucracy, and openness to Eastern religions.^[1][2]

Best known for his poem "Howl", Ginsberg denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States.^[3][4] San Francisco police and US Customs seized copies of "Howl" in , and a subsequent obscenity trial in attracted widespread pub