The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems: 1937-1952 - Paperback

by Allen Ginsberg (Author), Juanita Lieberman-Plimpton (Author), Bill Morgan (Author)

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) kept a journal his entire life, beginning at the age of eleven. In these first journals the most important and formative years of the poet's storied life are captured, his inner thoughts detailed in what the San Francisco Chronicle calls a "vivid first-person account...Ginsberg's unmistakable voice coming into its own for the first time." Ginsberg's journals-so candid he insisted they be published only after his death-document his complex, fascinating relationships with such figures of Beat lore as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and reveal a growing self-awareness about himself, his sexuality, and his identity as a poet. Illustrated with never-before-seen photos and bolstered by an appendix of his earliest poems, The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice is a major literary event.

Author Biography

In 1956, Allen Ginsberg published "Howl," one of the most widely read and translated poems of the twentieth century. Ginsberg was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and cofounder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute.