There is an argument as to whether knowledge of the artist should be needed to appreciate a work of art. I suppose that a great work should stand for itself to some extent but, surely all knowledge is valuable and, if additional wisdom is gained from the understanding of an author, then why should that be a bad thing?

This is an amazing biography; one of the most sensitive but, at the same time, honest that I have read for many a year. Ginsberg wasn't a saint and, neither is he so portrayed. It wouldn't ring true if there weren't areas of difficulty and, believe me, there are. Homosexuality is, rightly, viewed with less opprobrium than in the 1940's but, his penchant for young boys is questionable as is the fact that he never seems to have considered that some of his conquests in latter years must have been in awe of his reputation rather than enamoured of the aging body.

Further difficulties surround his Buddhist leader, Chogyam Trungpa. The man appears to have been an alcoholic bully but, because of his standing, Ginsberg was unable to question his actions and, indeed, continued to raise finances and support this brigand.

The last two paragraphs make Allen Ginsberg seem a monster: nothing could be further from the truth: perhaps such a good man had further to fall than we mere mortals. In general, he supported people, and causes, far beyond where you or I would have considered that we had done our bit and turned away.

The best recommendation for any biography is that it reignites one's desires to visit the subject's works: this book has that ability in spades. An excellent biography of a great poet. ( )

Miles makes it clear that he worked for Ginsberg for several years, and knew him socially before then, when Ginsberg walked into the bookstore in London Miles worked in, looking for a place to stay. In some ways, it is precisely this friendship that makes Ginsberg an informative read. It is also because of this friendship which allows for Miles to get in deep, and to pull no punches when the flaws and foibles of the people in this book come boiling up.

There's no real true ground covered here, but Miles lends a more friendly, "insider," look to Ginsberg's life than other biographers.

One notion this book solidified for me is that without Allen Ginsberg, there would have been no Beat Generation, no Poetry Renaissance in San Francisco, and someone other than William S. Burroughs would have been dubbed the godfather of the punk rock movement.

Although Jack Kerouac was the first published of the core group (Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Corso and Cassady), it was due to Ginsberg's efforts that his friends got published. He shopped their manuscripts around mercilessly, convincing publishers these writers were genius and needed to have their voices heard. I have quibbles with some of those voices "needing" to be heard, but that's personal taste, which cannot be measured objectively.

The thought that Naked Lunch and On the Road might never have been published is intriguing. What would the world of literature would have been without these seminal works of the Beat Generation?

Whatever problems had with Ginsberg, and there were many, they all agreed that he was gentle and kind, and generous, both of spirit and pocketbook. He seems to me to be the only writer of that generation bent on learning about himself, expanding his knowledge of the world and spirit of the world. He was ever expanding his consciousness by experimenting with drugs and traveling the world to learn of other peoples and cultures. Ginsberg's motivation to dig deep led to his activism and advocacy on behalf of a number of causes including equal rights for homosexuals, legalization of marijuana, fights against censorship and the Vietnam War. He often got himself in political trouble with his forthright opinions and was expelled from Cuba and Hungary for his views.

I'm sure there is much he probably regretted throughout his life, but he worked so hard to overcome with love and openness, that he really can be seen as one of the angels. ( )

The best biography of Ginsberg that I have read ( )