The Works of Allen GinsbergThe Works of Allen GinsbergI've read the 'major' ones, though, and I really like them. Poetry sometimes puts me to sleep, but Ginsberg's poetry is just so crammed with manic energy that I stay awake and end up getting into it. None of that 'Sominex' effect here. Ginsberg is a crazed individual, and he has the intelligence and artistic instincts to capture his crazed vision in words.
He is probably the only Beat poet whose work stands tall by any measure. Many poets (for instance, Gary Snyder) can do beautiful and subtle things with words, but don't often grab your attention. You have to already be in a 'poetic mood' to hop on to a Snyder wavelength; his work isn't likely to transform you if you haven't already committed yourself to being transformed. Others, like Gregory Corso, are the opposite: they get your attention, but don't fully deliver on that rarefied, erudite poetic stuff that the college professors and little old ladies like so much.
But Ginsberg is *All That* (as Charles Isbell would say in his Hip/hop Review Web Site). He is PhunkyDopePhat++ and even sings good. So check out some of this stuff listed down below.
Thanks to Kelly Nagle for preparing this bibliography. Last updated 1995.
Siesta in Xbalba and Return to the States
Privately printed, 1956.
Kaddish and Other Poems, 1958-1960
City Lights, 1961.
Empty Mirror: Early Poems
Corinth Books, 1961.
A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley
Grabhorn Press, 1963.
Reality Sandwiches: 1953-1960
City Lights, 1963.
The Change
Writer's Forum, 1963.
Kral Majales (King of May)
Oyez, 1965.
Wichita Vortex Sutra
Housmans, 1966.
TV Baby Poems
Cape Golliard Press, 1967.
Airplane Dreams: Compositions From Journals
House of Anansi, 1968.
Scrap Leaves, Hasty Scribbles
Poet's Press, 1968.
Wales - A Visitation, July 29, 1967
Cape Golliard Press, 1968.
The Heart is a Clock
Gallery Upstairs Press, 1968.
Message II
Gallery Upstairs Press, 1968.
Planet News
City Lights, 1968.
For the Soul of the Planet is Wakening . . .
Desert Review Press, 1970.
The Moments Return: A Poem
Grabhorn-Hoyem, 1970.
New Year Blues
Phoenix Book Shop, 1972.
Open Head
Sun Books, 1972.
Bixby Canyon Ocean Path Word Breeze
Gotham Book Mart, 1972.
Iron Horse
Coach House Press, 1972.
The Fall of America: Poems of These States, 1965-1971
City Lights, 1973.
The Gates of Wrath: Rhymed Poems 1948-1952
Grey Fox, 1973.
Sad Dust Glories: Poems during Work Summer in Woods
Workingman's Press, 1974.
First Blues: Rags, Ballads and Harmonium Songs, 1971-1974
Full Court Press, 1975.
Mind Breaths: Poems, 1972-1977
City Lights, 1978.
Poems All Over the Place: Mostly Seventies
Cherry Valley, 1978.
Mostly Sitting Haiku
From Here Press, 1978.
Careless Love: Two Rhymes
Red Ozier Press, 1978.
Plutonian Ode and Other Poems, 1977-1980
City Lights, 1982.
Many Loves
Pequod Press, 1984.
Old Love Story
Lospecchio Press, 1986.
White Shroud: Poems, 1980-1985.
The poem 'White Shroud' is a postscript to 'Kaddish'.
Harper, 1986.
Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems, 1986-1992.
HarperCollins, 1994.
Prose Contribution to Cuban Revolution
Artists Workshop Press, 1966
Background Papers on Student Drug Abuse
Contributor
U.S. National Student Association, 1967
Pardon Me, Sir, But is My Eye Hurting Your Elbow
Contributor
Geis, 1968
Angkor Wat
With Alexandra Lawrence
Fulcrum Press, 1968.
Ginsberg's Improvised Poetics
Edited by Mark Robison
Anonym Books, 1971.
Take Care of My Ghost, Ghost
With Jack Kerouac
Ghost Press, 1977
Composed on the Tongue: Literary Conversations, 1967-1977
Edited by Donald Allen
Grey Fox Press, 1980
Nuke Chronicles,
Contributor
Contact Two, 1980
Allen Ginsberg and Robert Frank
Galerie Watari, 1985.
Karel Appel: Street Art, Ceramics, Sculpture, Wood Reliefs, Tapestries,
Murals, Villa El Salvador
Text by Pierre Restany and Allen Ginsberg
Abbeville Press, 1985
Declaration of Independence for Dr. Timothy Leary
Hermes Free Press, 1971.
The Fall of America Wins a Prize
Gotham Book Mart, 1974.
The Visions of the Great Rememberer
Mulch Press, 1974.
Chicago Trial Testimony
City Lights, 1975.
The Dream of Tibet
City Moon, 1976.
Your Reason and Blake's System
Hanuman Books, 1989.
To Eberhart from Ginsberg: A Letter about Howl, 1956
Pena Press, 1976.
As Ever: The Collected Correspondence of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady
Creative Arts, 1977
Straight Hearts' Delight: Love Poems and Selected Letters
with Peter Orlovsky, edited by Winston Leyland
Gay Sunshine Press, 1980
Journals: Early Fifties, Early Sixties
Edited by Gordon Ball
Grove, 1977.
Kaddish
Atlantic, 1966.
William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience Tuned by Allen Ginsberg
MGM/Verve, 1970.
First Blues: Rags, Ballads and Harmonium Songs
Folkways, 1981.
First Blues
John Hammond Records, 1982
The Lion for Real
Great Jones/Island Records, 1989.
Allen Ginsberg, Fotografier, 1947-87
Forlaget Klim, 1987.
Allen Ginsberg Photographs
Twelvetrees Press, 1990.
Snapshot Poetics
Chronicle Press, 1993.
Literary Kicks
by
Levi Asher