THE ESSENTIAL GINSBERG

Name: THE ESSENTIAL GINSBERG
Author: Allen Ginsberg
ISBN: 978-0-06-236228-5

by Allen Ginsberg ; edited by Michael Schumacher ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2015

Except for brief introductions to the journal entries, Schumacher allows the selections to stand alone as testimony to an...

bookshelf

A representative sampling from an iconic American poet.

A prolific poet and political gadfly, Ginsberg (1926-1997) never wrote an autobiography, but he did keep journals, write letters to fellow poets, and reflect on his life and work in interviews and essays. Schumacher (November's Fury: The Deadly Great Lakes Hurricane of 1913, 2013, etc.), Ginsberg’s biographer, offers a well-chosen selection of his writings in this copious collection: 34 poems, including the famous “Howl” and “Kaddish”; 10 essays, including his testimony regarding LSD before a special Senate Judiciary Committee; assorted journal entries from 1949 to 1969, several unpublished; two lengthy interviews; and a dozen letters to prominent Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William Burroughs and Robert Creeley. Forthright about fueling his creativity with a cornucopia of drugs, Ginsberg expounds on his interest in “all states of consciousness”: dreams, spiritual ecstasy, and “preconscious, quasi-sleep” states. Besides Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman and Blake, he cites as influences William James, especially Varieties of Religious Experience, and the poetry of James’ student Gertrude Stein. In an “Independence Day Manifesto” in 1959, he proclaimed that America “is having a nervous breakdown,” intent on oppressing poets for their allegedly anti-social behavior. But in a country “gone mad with materialism, a police-state America, a sexless and soulless America,” poetry offered solace and wisdom. “Poetry,” he contended, “is the record of individual insights into the secret soul of the individual and…into the soul of the world.” A few years later, he again chided Americans for living in a “mental dictatorship” of materialism and conformity. If his solution—everyone should try LSD once—seems capricious, his critique is likely to resonate with contemporary readers.

Except for brief introductions to the journal entries, Schumacher allows the selections to stand alone as testimony to an often outrageous, groundbreaking poet and tireless social activist.

Pub Date: May 26, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-06-236228-5

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FALL OF AMERICA JOURNALS, 1965–1971
by Allen Ginsberg ; edited by Michael Schumacher

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEST MINDS OF MY GENERATION
by Allen Ginsberg edited by Bill Morgan

- BOOK REVIEW
I GREET YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT CAREER
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti & Allen Ginsberg ; edited by Bill Morgan

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.