The Poem That Changed America - Paperback

by Jason Shinder (Author)

A tribute to Ginsberg's signature work, which stirred a generation of angel-headed hipsters to cultural rebellion.

In 1956, City Lights, a small San Francisco bookstore, published Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems with its trademark black-and-white cover. The original edition cost seventy-five cents, but there was something priceless about its eponymous piece. Although it gave a voice to the new generation that came of age in the conservative years following World War II, the poem also conferred a strange, subversive power that continues to exert its influence to this day. Ginsberg went on to become one of the most eminent and celebrated writers of the second half of the twentieth century, and Howl became the critical axis of the worldwide literary, cultural, and political movement that would be known as the Beat generation.

The year 2006 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Howl, and The Poem That Changed America will celebrate and shed new light on this profound cultural work. With new essays by many of today's most distinguished writers, including Frank Bidart, Andrei Codrescu, Vivian Gornick, Phillip Lopate, Daphne Merkin, Rick Moody, Robert Pinsky, and Luc Sante, The Poem That Changed America reveals the pioneering influence of Howl down through the decades and its powerful resonance today.

Author Biography

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.