TWA Poets: Allen Ginsberg

1926 - 1997

Today is the birthday of poet Allen Ginsberg (1926). He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Paterson. His father, Louis, was a poet and high school teacher; his mother, Naomi, was a communist and a paranoid schizophrenic. Naomi and Allen were very close; when she was in the grip of her delusions, he was the only one she trusted, and he often …