About the Author

Jason Shinder (1955-2008) was the author of three poetry collections: Stupid Hope, Among Women, and Every Room We Ever Slept In. He also edited numerous anthologies, including The Poem that Changed America and The Poem I Turn To. Shinder earned a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and founded the YMCA National Writer's Voice.

Reviews

The most influential poem since T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Shinder (writing, Bennington Coll., VT; Among Women) has collected 26 essays that document the poem's reception, from its stormy City Lights publication in November 1956 to the canonical status it enjoys today. Contributors include fellow poets Amiri Baraka, Andrei Codrescu, Alicia Ostriker, and Robert Pinsky as well as disciples like Anne Waldman and Eliot Katz. There are also appreciations by scholars and journalists like Marjorie Perloff, Gordon Ball, David Gates, Vivian Gornick, and Ginsberg's early biographer, Jane Kramer (Allen Ginsberg in America). While the contributors' tone is generally respectful, their comments are not always laudatory. Phillip Lopate, for instance, complains about Ginsberg's sentimentality, while Frank Bidart charges that fame turned the poet into a guru. The hardcover edition includes a CD of Ginsberg reading "Howl." Recommended for all literature collections.-William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

If the opening lines of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" aren't seared into your brain, they will be by the end of this collection of 26 essays compiled by Shinder, a poet (Among Women) who learned much of his craft as Ginsberg's pupil. It's a shame the poem isn't included, though it feels as if it's quoted in its entirety at various points (the hardcover edition does come with a Ginsberg reading on CD). This collection juxtaposes reflections by writers such as Rick Moody and Andrei Codrescu about the impact of "Howl' on their lives; Billy Collins writes, "...it wasn't a waste of time for a Catholic high school boy from the suburbs to try to sound in his poems like a downtown homosexual Jewish beatnik." Robert Pinsky writes that he was initially elated by the poem's linguistic freedom even more than by its raw emotion. Though everybody gives the poem its due as an American classic, personal reactions dominate, and nearly everyone has a Ginsberg story to tell, even if it's just about being blown away by hearing him read. For those who have been moved by Ginsberg's words, this collection serves as a stirring confirmation. Photos. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.