Allen Ginsberg's poems, from "Howl" to "Kaddish" to "The Fall of
America," have influenced generations of writers and made him a defining
figure of the twentieth century. Ginsberg's Collected Poems, first
published in 1984, and expanded in 1997, was originally thought to
contain all of his poetic work. But now, for the first time, Ginsberg's
stray poems have been gathered and the result, Wait Till I'm Dead is a
landmark publication spanning five decades of Ginsberg's writing life.
The first new Ginsberg collection in over fifteen years, Wait Till I'm
Dead is edited by renowned scholar Bill Morgan, with a foreword written
by award-winning poet Rachel Zucker. Many of the poems collected in this
volume were scribbled in letters or sent off to obscure publications and
unjustly forgotten. Tracing the chronology of his life, Wait Till I'm
Dead follows Ginsberg from his high school days and earliest political
satire to his activism, spiritual maturation, and on-the-road
experiences worldwide. The collection concludes with his personal
thoughts on mortality as he watched his friends, and himself, grow old.
Throughout the collection Ginsberg pays homage to his contemporaries and
poetic icons, including Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Robert Creeley,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound. The
selection also features several of Ginsberg's collaborative poems, works
coauthored by Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett,
Gary Snyder, and Kenneth Koch, providing an inside view of famed Beat
poets and their relationships. Containing 104 previously uncollected
poems and accompanied by original photographs and extensive notes, Wait
Till I'm Dead is the final major contribution to Ginsberg's sprawling
oeuvre, a must-read for Ginsberg neophytes and longtime fans alike.
