Editing Allen Ginsberg (section)

===San Francisco Renaissance===
Ginsberg moved to [[San Francisco]] during the 1950s. Before ''[[Howl and Other Poems]]'' was published in 1956 by [[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights]], he worked as a market researcher.<ref name="Schumacher, Michael 2002">Schumacher, Michael (January 27, 2002). "Allen Ginsberg Project".</ref>

In 1954, in San Francisco, Ginsberg met [[Peter Orlovsky]] (1933–2010), with whom he fell in love and who remained his lifelong partner.<ref name="auto"/> Selections from their [[Love letter|correspondence]] have been published.<ref>''Straight Hearts' Delight: Love Poems and Selected Letters'', by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, edited by Winston Leyland. Gay Sunshine Press, 1980, {{ISBN|0-917342-65-8}}.</ref>

Also in San Francisco, Ginsberg met members of the [[San Francisco Renaissance]] (James Broughton, Robert Duncan, Madeline Gleason and Kenneth Rexroth) and other poets who would later be associated with the Beat Generation in a broader sense. Ginsberg's mentor [[William Carlos Williams]] wrote an introductory letter to San Francisco Renaissance figurehead [[Kenneth Rexroth]], who then introduced Ginsberg into the San Francisco poetry scene.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hartlaub |first=Peter |date=December 4, 2015 |orig-date=December 4, 2015 |title=How the Beats helped build San Francisco's progressive future |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Our-SF-The-Beats-help-build-city-s-progressive-6676634.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104174446/https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Our-SF-The-Beats-help-build-city-s-progressive-6676634.php |archive-date=November 4, 2022 |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=The San Francisco Chronicle |language=English}}</ref> There, Ginsberg also met three budding poets and [[Zen]] enthusiasts who had become friends at [[Reed College]]: [[Gary Snyder]], [[Philip Whalen]], and [[Lew Welch]]. In 1959, along with poets John Kelly, [[Bob Kaufman]], [[A. D. Winans]], and William Margolis, Ginsberg was one of the founders of the ''[[Beatitude (magazine)|Beatitude]]'' poetry magazine.

[[Wally Hedrick]]—a painter and co-founder of the [[Six Gallery reading|Six Gallery]]—approached Ginsberg in mid-1955 and asked him to organize a poetry reading at the [[Six Gallery reading|Six Gallery]]. At first, Ginsberg refused, but once he had written a rough draft of "Howl," he changed his "fucking mind," as he put it.<ref name="auto1"/> Ginsberg advertised the event as "Six Poets at the Six Gallery." One of the most important events in Beat mythos, known simply as "The [[Six Gallery reading]]" took place on October 7, 1955.<ref name="npr">{{Cite web |last=Siegel |first=Robert |date=October 7, 2005 |title=Birth of the Beat Generation: 50 Years of 'Howl' |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4950578 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061017033639/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4950578 |archive-date=October 17, 2006 |access-date=October 2, 2006 |website=All Things Considered}}</ref> The event, in essence, brought together the East and West Coast factions of the [[Beat Generation]]. Of more personal significance to Ginsberg, the reading that night included the first public presentation of "Howl," a poem that brought worldwide fame to Ginsberg and to many of the poets associated with him. An account of that night can be found in Kerouac's novel ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'', describing how change was collected from audience members to buy jugs of wine, and Ginsberg reading passionately, drunken, with arms outstretched.

[[File:Howl and Other Poems (first edition).jpg|thumb|First edition cover of Ginsberg's landmark poetry collection, ''[[Howl and Other Poems]]''{{nbsp}}(1956)]]

Ginsberg's principal work, "Howl," is well known for its opening line: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked&nbsp;[...]." "Howl" was considered scandalous at the time of its publication, because of the rawness of its language. Shortly after its 1956 publication by San Francisco's [[City Lights Bookstore]], it was banned for obscenity. The ban became a [[wikt:cause célèbre|cause célèbre]] among defenders of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]], and was later lifted, after Judge Clayton W. Horn declared the poem to possess redeeming artistic value.<ref name="auto"/> Ginsberg and [[Shig Murao]], the City Lights manager who was jailed for selling "Howl," became lifelong friends.<ref>Ball, Gordon, {{" '}}Howl' and Other Victories: A friend remembers City Lights' Shig Murao", ''San Francisco Chronicle'', November 28, 1999.</ref>

====Biographical references in "Howl"====
Ginsberg claimed at one point that all of his work was an extended biography (like Kerouac's ''[[Duluoz Legend]]''). "Howl" is not only a biography of Ginsberg's experiences before 1955, but also a history of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg also later claimed that at the core of "Howl" were his unresolved emotions about his schizophrenic mother. Though [[Kaddish (poem)|"Kaddish"]] deals more explicitly with his mother, "Howl" in many ways is driven by the same emotions. "Howl" chronicles the development of many important friendships throughout Ginsberg's life. He begins the poem with "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness", which sets the stage for Ginsberg to describe Cassady and Solomon, immortalizing them into American literature.<ref name="auto1"/> This madness was the "angry fix" that society needed to function—madness was its disease. In the poem, Ginsberg focused on "Carl Solomon! I'm with you in Rockland", and, thus, turned Solomon into an archetypal figure searching for freedom from his "straightjacket". Though references in most of his poetry reveal much about his biography, his relationship to other members of the Beat Generation, and his own political views, "Howl," his most famous poem, is still perhaps the best place to start.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}