SOURCE: Breslin, James. “Allen Ginsberg: The Origins of ‘Howl’ and ‘Kaddish.’” The Iowa Review 8, no. 2 (spring 1977): 82-108.

In the following essay, Breslin explores Ginsberg's life experiences as they are reflected in the subject matter and tone of “Howl” and “Kaddish,” two of Ginsberg's best known poems.

Most literary people have probably first become aware of Allen Ginsberg through the media, in his self-elected and controversial role as public figure and prophet of a new age. Ginsberg's public personality has changed over the years—from the defiant and histrionic angry young man of the fifties to the bearded and benign patriarch and political activist of the sixties and seventies—but the personality has remained one that most literary people find hard to take seriously. Compare Ginsberg's reception with that of Norman Mailer, another writer who is also a public figure and one who, like Ginsberg, wants to replace rational...