Editing Allen Ginsberg (section)

===Relationship with his parents===
Ginsberg referred to his parents in a 1985 interview as "old-fashioned delicatessen philosophers".<ref name="NYT" /> His mother was also an active member of the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]] and took Ginsberg and his brother Eugene to party meetings. Ginsberg later said that his mother "made up bedtime stories that all went something like: 'The good king rode forth from his castle, saw the suffering workers and healed them.'"<ref name="BioProject">{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Bonesy |title=Biographical Notes on Allen Ginsberg |url=http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/allen_ginsberg.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051023041027/http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/allen_ginsberg.html |archive-date=October 23, 2005 |access-date=October 20, 2005 |publisher=Biography Project}}</ref> Of his father Ginsberg said: "My father would go around the house either reciting [[Emily Dickinson]] and [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Longfellow]] under his breath or attacking [[T. S. Eliot]] for ruining poetry with his '[[obscurantism]].' I grew suspicious of both sides."<ref name="NYT" />

Naomi Ginsberg had [[schizophrenia]] which often manifested as [[paranoid]] [[delusions]], [[Thought disorder|disordered thinking]] and multiple [[Suicide|suicide attempts]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hadda |first=Janet |date=2008 |title=Ginsberg in Hospital |journal=American Imago |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=229–59 |issn=0065-860X |jstor=26305281}}</ref> She would claim, for example, that the president had implanted listening devices in their home and that her mother-in-law was trying to kill her.<ref>{{harvnb|Miles|2001|p=26}}</ref><ref>Hyde, Lewis and Ginsberg, Allen (1984) ''On the poetry of Allen Ginsberg''. University of Michigan Press. {{ISBN|978-0-472-06353-6}}. p. 421.</ref> Her suspicion of those around her caused Naomi to draw closer to young Allen, "her little pet," as [[Bill Morgan (archivist)|Bill Morgan]] says in his biography of Ginsberg, titled ''I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg''.<ref name="auto3">{{harvnb|Morgan|2007|p=18}}</ref> She also tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists and was soon taken to [[Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital|Greystone]], a mental hospital; she would spend much of Ginsberg's youth in mental hospitals.<ref>Dittman, Michael J. (2007), ''Masterpieces of Beat literature''. Greenwood Publishing Group. {{ISBN|0-313-33283-5}}, pp. 57–58.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morgan|2007|p=13}}</ref> His experiences with his mother and her mental illness were a major inspiration for his two major works, "[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]" and his long autobiographical poem "[[Kaddish (poem)|Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg (1894–1956)]]".<ref name="Breslin">Breslin, James (2003), "Allen Ginsberg: The Origins of ''Howl'' and ''Kaddish.''" in ''Poetry Criticism''. David M. Galens (ed.). Vol. 47. Detroit: Gale.</ref>

When he was in junior high school, he accompanied his mother by bus to her therapist. The trip deeply disturbed Ginsberg—he mentioned it and other moments from his childhood in "Kaddish".<ref name="Modern">{{Cite web |last=Charters |first=Ann |title=Allen Ginsberg's Life |url=http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511185747/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm |archive-date=May 11, 2008 |access-date=October 20, 2005 |publisher=Modern American Poetry website}}</ref> His experiences with his mother's mental illness and her institutionalization are also frequently referred to in "Howl." For example, "Pilgrim State, Rockland, and Grey Stone's foetid halls" is a reference to institutions frequented by his mother and [[Carl Solomon]], ostensibly the subject of the poem: Pilgrim State Hospital and [[Rockland Psychiatric Center|Rockland State Hospital]] in New York and [[Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital]] in [[New Jersey]].<ref name="auto3"/><ref name="orig">Ginsberg, Allen (1995). ''Howl: Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography.'' Barry Miles (Ed.). Harper Perennial. {{ISBN|0-06-092611-2}}. pp. 131, 132, 139–140.</ref><ref>Theado, Matt (2003) ''The Beats: A Literary Reference''. Carroll & Graf Publishers. {{ISBN|0-7867-1099-3}}. p. 53.</ref> This is followed soon by the line "with mother finally ******." Ginsberg later admitted the deletion was the expletive "fucked."<ref name="orig"/> He also says of Solomon in section three, "I'm with you in Rockland where you imitate the shade of my mother," once again showing the association between Solomon and his mother.<ref>{{harvnb|Raskin|2004|pp=156–57}}</ref>

Ginsberg received a letter from his mother after her death responding to a copy of "Howl" he had sent her. It admonished Ginsberg to be good and stay away from drugs; she says, "The key is in the window, the key is in the sunlight at the window—I have the key—Get married Allen don't take drugs—the key is in the bars, in the sunlight in the window."<ref>Hyde, Lewis and Ginsberg, Allen (1984), ''On the poetry of Allen Ginsberg''. University of Michigan Press.  {{ISBN|978-0-472-06353-6}}, pp. 426–27.</ref> In a letter she wrote to Ginsberg's brother Eugene, she said, "God's informers come to my bed, and God himself I saw in the sky. The sunshine showed too, a key on the side of the window for me to get out. The yellow of the sunshine, also showed the key on the side of the window."<ref>{{harvnb|Morgan|2007|pp=219–20}}</ref> These letters and the absence of a facility to recite [[kaddish]] inspired Ginsberg to write "Kaddish", which makes references to many details from Naomi's life, Ginsberg's experiences with her, and the letter, including the lines "the key is in the light" and "the key is in the window."<ref>Ginsberg, Allen (1961), ''Kaddish and Other Poems''. Volume 2, Issue 14 of The Pocket Poets series. City Lights Books.</ref>