Correspondence #30: Jonah Raskin

Author responds to comments

WE WERE pleased to feature an interview with critic and academic Jonah Raskin in our new series ‘Biographical Details’ in recent days, when the San Francisco-based writer talked about American Scream, his own 2004 book on Allen Ginsberg and ‘Howl’.

The account raised some reservations among some social media voices and Raskin requested the possibility of replying to those remarks. We are happy to offer him that opportunity below…

Email, October 31st, 2023

Replies to comments on my R&BG essay about my book about ‘Howl’ and the birth of the Beat Generation.

To the best of my recollection I never said that Allen Ginsberg had few friends late in life. He had no end of friends and fans and critics. I did say that I thought that he was a better performer late in life than the author of original work. In my view he tended to be repetitive, though he wrote some wonderful short poems at the end of his life, including ‘Autumn Leaves’.

I do realize I was fortunate to receive the documents about Allen Ginsberg’s time as a patient in 1949. I am grateful to the Ginsberg Trust for sharing them.

I also appreciate insights about Ginsberg’s connections to the Stones and Beatles and other rock groups. He did indeed see himself as a connector of cultures and poets and musicians.

Ginsberg had complex motives; one can see them in his relationship to his mother and to Kerouac. I do think that American Scream demonstrated that ‘Howl’ was/is a great poem, a classic which deserves to be read and reread.

Fortunately my book is not the only one about Ginsberg. If it’s not a reader’s cup of tea he or she has others to choose from and one can always go back to the poetry, which is the best way to get to know the poet and his work.

Jonah Raskin

See also: Biographical Details #2: Allen Ginsberg by Jonah Raskin’, October 29th, 2023