I Celebrate Myself - by Bill Morgan (Paperback)

About the Book

Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of "Howl," this is the first full biography of Allen Ginsberg, from birth to death. 36 photos throughout.

Book Synopsis

In the first biography of Ginsberg since his death in 1997 and the only one to cover the entire span of his life, Ginsberg's archivist Bill Morgan draws on his deep knowledge of Ginsberg's largely unpublished private journals to give readers an unparalleled and finely detailed portrait of one of America's most famous poets. Morgan sheds new light on some of the pivotal aspects of Ginsberg's life, including the poet's associations with other members of the Beat Generation, his complex relationship with his lifelong partner, Peter Orlovsky, his involvement with Tibetan Buddhism, and above all his genius for living.

Review Quotes

"The most intimate and revealing biography of the poet to date . . . deeply delves into . . . previously unexplored territory."
-San Francisco Chronicle

"No other biographer has given us such a totally straight three-dimensional picture of Allen Ginsberg. It is unembedded reportage at its very best."
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti

"Morgan's provocative and thoroughly researched new biography is a testament to the creative fruits and personal anguish of Ginsberg."
-The Washington Post

"By far the best researched and most thorough of the three major Ginsberg biographies."
-Los Angeles Times Book Review

About the Author

Bill Morgan is a painter and archival consultant. He is the author of The Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City, The Beat Generation in SanFrancisco: A Literary Tour, and edited Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays of Allen Ginsberg 1952-1995. Also for October 2006 publication, he has edited Ginsberg's The Book of Martrydom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems, 1937-1952, with Jaunita Lieberman-Plimpton, as well as Howl on Trial: the Battle for Free Expression.