This is Ginsberg in his Beat days, consorting with Kerouac, Burroughs and other kindred spirits, and undergoing passionate but painful affairs with Neal Cassady and Peter Orlovsky. The entries verge from being cryptic to wordy and "inspirational" and naturally there is a great deal of verse, some of it Poundian and much of it just typically Beat - that is to say, of its period. Ginsberg, whether or not he was an important poet, was a key cultural figure of this period in America, and he can be seen as the source of much which is now common currency - including the elevation of the poetry reading into a mixture of performance and public rite. The Journals have been capably edited by Gordon Ball.
By Brian Fallon
