Beat movement icon and visionary poet, Allen Ginsberg was one
of the most influential poets of the twentieth century, and broke
boundaries with his fearless, pyrotechnic verse. The apocalyptic
Howl", originally written as a performance piece, became the
subject of an obscenity trial when it was first published in 1956.
It is considered to be one of the defining works of the Beat
Generation, standing alongside that of Burroughs, Kerouac, and
Corso. In it, Ginsberg attacks what he saw as the destructive
forces of materialism and conformity in the United States at the
time, and takes on issues of sex, drugs and race, simultaneously
creating what would become the poetic anthem for US
counterculture.