Born in 1926, Allen Ginsberg almost defies classification. A member of the Beat Generation, Ginsberg was a writer, photographer, teacher, musician, song writer, world traveler, philanthropist and political gadfly.

With his poetry, he is distinguished by two lengthy works: "Howl," which focuses on the best minds of the generation and "Kaddish," the biography of his mother, Naomi Ginsberg. Other well-know works include "Sunflower Sutra,""America,""Wichita Vortex Sutra," "Father Death Blues," and "White Shroud." However, it was the 1956 publication of "Howl and Other Poems" that established Ginsberg reputation as a voice for his generation.

Ginsberg played a key role in the publication of Jack Kerouac's legendary book "On the Road" and William S. Burroughs' "Naked Lunch." Eventually, Ginsberg became the spokesperson for the Beat Generation and is credited with coining the term "Flower Power" in relationship to the hippies in the late 60's and early 70's.

Ginsberg used his fame as a poet to launch a modestly successful career in music. During that period, Ginsberg appeared with such well-known musicians as Bob Dylan, The Fugs, Phil Ochs, the Clash and Patti Smith.

Unlike Americans today, Ginsberg made no attempt to acquire significant wealth. Possessions meant very little to a Beat poet who lived modestly and purchased his clothing in second-hand stores. Ginsberg donated most of his income to a non-profit organization that he helped organized, a group that offered assistance to struggling artists and writers.

Though Ginsberg succumbed to liver cancer in 1997, his writings are still immensely popular today. Virtually all of his books remain in print and many other books of his writings and interviews have been published posthumously.

Howl

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war,
who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burning their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through the wall,
who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York.