A tribute to Ginsberg's signature work, which stirred a generation of angel-headed hipsters to cultural rebellion.In 1956, City Lights, a small San Francisco bookstore, published Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems with its trademark black-and-white cover. The original edition cost seventy-five cents, but there was something priceless about its eponymous piece. Although it gave a voice to the new generation that came of age in the conservative years following World War II, the poem also conferred a strange, subversive power that continues to exert its influence to this day. Ginsberg went on to become one of the most eminent and celebrated writers of the second half of the twentieth century, and "Howl" became the critical axis of the worldwide literary, cultural, and political movement that would be known as the Beat generation. The year 2006 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of "Howl," and The Poem That Changed America will celebrate and shed new light on this profound cultural work. With new essays by many of today's most distinguished writers, including Frank Bidart, Andrei Codrescu, Vivian Gornick, Phillip Lopate, Daphne Merkin, Rick Moody, Robert Pinsky, and Luc Sante, The Poem That Changed America reveals the pioneering influence of "Howl" down through the decades and its powerful resonance today.

PrefaceIntroduction"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg: 1956 Mimeographed CopyVivian Gornick, "Wild at Heart"Mark Doty, "Human Seraphim: 'Howl,' Sex, and Holiness"Amiri Baraka, "'Howl' and Hail"Marjorie Perloff, "'A Lost Battalion of Platonic Conversationalists': 'Howl' and the Language of Modernism"Bob Rosenthal, "A Witness"Andrei Codrescu, "'Howl' in Transylvania"Talking Howl 1: Jack Kerouac, Louis Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, M. L. Rosenthal, John Hollander, Judge Clayton HornRick Moody, "On the Granite Steps of the Madhouse with Shaven Heads"Sven Birkerts, "Not Then, Not Now"Eileen Myles, "Repeating Allen"Gordon Ball, "Wopbopgooglemop: 'Howl' and Its InfluencesBilly Collins, "My 'Howl'"Alicia Ostriker, "The Poet as Jew: 'Howl' Revisited"Kurt Brown, "A Thirteen-Year-Old Cadet"Phillip Lopate, "'Howl' and Me"Talking Howl 2: James Dickey, Kenneth Rexroth, Kenneth Patchen, Donald Justice, Richard Eberhart, Anaïs Nin, Reed Whittemore, Czeslaw MiloszAllen Ginsberg, "I've Lived With and Enjoyed 'Howl'"Jane Kramer, "The Best Mind"David Gates, "Welcoming 'Howl' into the Canon"John Cage, "Writing Through Howl"Eliot Katz, "Radical Eyes: Political Poetics and 'Howl'"Marge Piercy, "The Best Bones for Soup Have Meat on Them"Talking Howl 3: Paul Zweig, Lewis Hyde, Bob Dylan, Michael McClure, Vaclav Havel, Cynthia Ozick, Denise Levertov, Andy Clausen, Antler, Ann Charters, Stanley KunitzLuc Sante, "The Ballot of Eternity"Robert Polito, "Holy the Fifth International"Carol Muske-Dukes, "'Howl' in and out of Prison"Frank Bidart, "A Cross in the Void"Robert Pinsky, "No Picnic"Anne Waldman, "Premises of Consciousness"ChronologyAbout the ContributorsAcknowledgments