Best Minds: Allen Ginsberg and the Poem That Shook the World
As Long As It Isn’t True: A Literary Scandals PodcastShow Notes
“You can’t translate poetry into prose. That’s why it’s poetry.”
At a poetry reading at a San Francisco art gallery in October 1955, Allen Ginsberg — one of the defining members of the Beat generation — debuted a poem called "Howl." Lauded for its portrayal of what it meant to be an outcast in 1950s society and for its depiction of drug use and sexuality, its success led to Ginsberg's first collection of poetry. Within five months of its publication, the U.S. government seized some 300 copies of it, only to drop the case fairly quickly. The San Francisco police department, however, was not impressed and launched a local, as opposed to a federal, effort to ban the book from city bookstores. Literary freedom of speech was being put on trial yet again, and the poem was about to have the last laugh.
Additional narrations were provided by Sharon Hyland. Theme music is credited to Wendy Marcini, Elvin Vanguard, and Jules Gaia.
Instagram: @literaryscandals
Selected bibliography: • "The 'Howl' Heard Round the World," Encyclopedia Britannica • Black, Joel (2003). "'Arrested for Selling Poetry!' or 'You Wouldn't Want Your Children Reading This': The Historical Significance of the 'Howl' Obscenity Trial," Concordia University
More from As Long As It Isn’t True: A Literary Scandals Podcast
After a long hiatus, As Long As It Isn't True returns for season two. In 1958, Truman Capote published his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, which would go on to become one of the most beloved pieces of literature of all-time. It would inspire the equally beloved film adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn in 1961, a film we're still talking about today. But Capote's inspiration for the character of Holly Golightly is a whole other story, as well as the flocks of women who started claiming they were the real Holly Golightly on which Capote based the character. Threats of libel lawsuits were made. But the true inspiration for Holly is something of a Freudian tale... Instagram: @literaryscandals Selected bibliography: • Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson • "Gay Pride Book: Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's - the Novel That Saved My Life" by Jamie Brickhouse, HuffPost • Capote by Gerald Clarke
"The people who believe in these lists are asleep. Anyone sitting up at three in the morning secretly has doubts."
After her writing career as a biographer was destroyed by a book that tanked, as well as her off-putting personality, Lee Israel fell into poverty and began forging letters and literary documents of prominent 20th-century authors. She was so good at slipping into the words and minds of others that some of her forgeries even made their way into an early edition of a 2007 biography on Noël Coward. But like all good career criminals, Lee's success would come to an untimely end. She would tell her story in her 2008 memoir Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger, which was adapted into a feature film starring Melissa McCarthy as Lee — for which she would be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
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