Earliest Known Recording Of 'Howl' Found At Reed College
Seattle, WA February 15, 2008 8:54 a.m.
It was one of the influential poems of the 20th Century. And Reed College in Portland is home to the first known recording of Alan Ginsberg’s Howl.
Howl Reading: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn, looking for an angry fix...."
A literary scholar discovered this reel-to-reel recording in the Reed archives last summer.
It’s Ginsberg, reading Howl in a dormitory lounge in February 1956.
The poem is considered one of the principal works of the Beat Generation of writers.
Ginsberg’s spontaneous writing style and sometimes violent words were breakthrough at the time. Howl’s frank address of sexuality sparked an obscenity trial.
You can find the entire 35 minute reading on the Reed College website.
Online:
Reed College Recording of Howl
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© 2008 KUOW
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