Howl (poem)

Howl
by Allen Ginsberg
Howl and Other Poems was published in the fall of 1956 as number four in the Pocket Poets Series from City Lights Books.
Written1955
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

"Howl", also known as "Howl for Carl Solomon", is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1954–1955 and published in his 1956 collection Howl and Other Poems. The poem is dedicated to Carl Solomon.

Ginsberg began work on "Howl" in 1954. In the Paul Blackburn Tape Archive at the University of California, San Diego, Ginsberg can be heard reading early drafts of his poem to his fellow writing associates. "Howl" is considered to be one of the great works of American literature.[1][2] It came to be associated with the group of writers known as the Beat Generation.[1]

Ginsberg read a draft of "Howl" at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco in 1955. Fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books, who attended the performance, published the work in 1956. Upon the poem's release, Ferlinghetti and the bookstore's manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were charged with disseminating obscene literature, and both were arrested. On October 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene.[3]

  1. ^ a b Bill Savage (2008). Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and the Paperback Revolution Archived 2011-09-05 at the Wayback Machine. Poets.org, Academy of American Poets.
  2. ^ Jonah Raski (2006). American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation. University of California Press. 223.
  3. ^ Morgan, Bill and Joyce Peters. Howl on Trial.(2006) p. xiii.