Louis and Allen Ginsberg, Father and Son, Part 2

In this second half of an event held in Newark in 1968, 41-year-old Allen Ginsberg introduces his 72-year-old father, Louis, who wryly comments on current affairs of the day and reads his own poetry. The segment ends with audience questions, and both Ginsbergs venture from poetry into politics with growing contempt and hostility until the house shuts them down. Fascinating. See Part 1 for Allen Ginsberg reading. This program is courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives. (72 minutes)



Louis Ginsberg (1896-1976) was a poet, English teacher, and socialist. His writings appeared in the New York Times and The New York Herald as well as several poetry anthologies, including Modern American Poetry and Modern British Poetry (ed. by Louis Untermeyer). Louis Ginsberg and his first wife Naomi had two sons, Eugene Brooks and Irwin Allen Ginsberg. Eugene Brooks became a successful lawyer and a poet in his own right. Divorced in the mid-1940's Louis married Edith Ginsberg in 1949 with whom he spent the rest of his life.

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