What do you think?
Rate this book
Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg
Draws from eight years of research and full access to Ginsberg's journals to present a dramatic biography that depicts three centuries of vanguard popular culture, from the Beat Generation of the 1950s to the Buddhist revival of the seventies.
769 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
10 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Michael Schumacher
34 books28 followersA lifelong resident of the Great Lakes region, Michael Schumacher is the author of twelve books, including biographies of Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, and Eric Clapton, and the award-winning book Wreck of the Carl D. He has also written twenty-five documentaries on Great Lakes shipwrecks and lighthouses.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 29, 2017
This is a massive book for a figure that -like him or not- loomed large over 20th-century poetry. There's no denying the impact of poems like "Howl" or "Kaddish," but given such a prodigious and uneven output, it's difficult to rate him as a poet. But as Michel Shumacher points out in Dharma Lion, Allen Ginsberg was as much a cultural icon as he was a poet, and his work and life impacted more than just the world of literature.
In "Dharma Lion" we see a Ginsberg who was both insecure and egotistical, who considered himself a great poet even before he had written anything of substance. When he fell in with his well-known comrades (Burroughs, Cassady, Kerouac) in his early 20s his life was changed forever. Hanging out with his literary friends, and the petty criminals that were hangers-on to that crowd, Ginsberg found himself drawn into an underworld of crime and drugs, relationships that led to him being arrested and jailed.
But he was lucky. Instead of prison, Ginsberg found himself in a madhouse, and in this madhouse, he met Carl Solomon, a mentally disturbed but brilliant individual with whom Ginsberg immediately struck up a rapport. Ginsberg would go on to dedicate "Howl" to Solomon, who he considered one of the "best minds of his generation." The others in Howl are directly drawn from his experience, Kerouac, Cassady, and the many junkies and crooks he knew are incorporated into the poem.
Of course, Ginsberg's oeuvre includes far more than just "Howl." Readers of his poetry are almost always overwhelmed by the man's output. I have his "Collected Poems" that includes every single poem that Ginsberg published in his lifetime. The first time I read it, some poems fell flat to me. Going back to it with this fine biography brought depth to the autobiographical poems, knowing the backstory made them all the better.
Ginsberg was a poet, a Buddhist, an activist, an advocate of mind-expanding drugs, and a teacher. He was also an egoist, a huckster, and a self-promoter. But the Ginsberg that emerges from these pages is also generous, sincere and kind. He was fiercely loyal to his friends, even when his friends offended him. He was the vanguard for change, out ahead of the civil rights movement, the hippy/yippy movement, the women's movement, the ecological movement, the gay rights movement. In "Dharma Lion" Shumacher stops just short of saying that Ginsberg and the Beats transformed the world to be what it is today, that its influence made us better people, but that seems to be what he implies.
He's right, to some degree, but with every bit of good comes some bad. The Beats were drug-addled savants, talented fools, those of them that could write left behind a legacy, but those that didn't just died only remembered because of the texts the others left behind. Out of the bunch, Ginsberg emerges as the only one to have a moral core, but one that falters. If anything, "Dharma Lion" is a means to better understanding both Ginsberg and his poetry. It's a long book (707 pages), but well worth reading.
In "Dharma Lion" we see a Ginsberg who was both insecure and egotistical, who considered himself a great poet even before he had written anything of substance. When he fell in with his well-known comrades (Burroughs, Cassady, Kerouac) in his early 20s his life was changed forever. Hanging out with his literary friends, and the petty criminals that were hangers-on to that crowd, Ginsberg found himself drawn into an underworld of crime and drugs, relationships that led to him being arrested and jailed.
But he was lucky. Instead of prison, Ginsberg found himself in a madhouse, and in this madhouse, he met Carl Solomon, a mentally disturbed but brilliant individual with whom Ginsberg immediately struck up a rapport. Ginsberg would go on to dedicate "Howl" to Solomon, who he considered one of the "best minds of his generation." The others in Howl are directly drawn from his experience, Kerouac, Cassady, and the many junkies and crooks he knew are incorporated into the poem.
Of course, Ginsberg's oeuvre includes far more than just "Howl." Readers of his poetry are almost always overwhelmed by the man's output. I have his "Collected Poems" that includes every single poem that Ginsberg published in his lifetime. The first time I read it, some poems fell flat to me. Going back to it with this fine biography brought depth to the autobiographical poems, knowing the backstory made them all the better.
Ginsberg was a poet, a Buddhist, an activist, an advocate of mind-expanding drugs, and a teacher. He was also an egoist, a huckster, and a self-promoter. But the Ginsberg that emerges from these pages is also generous, sincere and kind. He was fiercely loyal to his friends, even when his friends offended him. He was the vanguard for change, out ahead of the civil rights movement, the hippy/yippy movement, the women's movement, the ecological movement, the gay rights movement. In "Dharma Lion" Shumacher stops just short of saying that Ginsberg and the Beats transformed the world to be what it is today, that its influence made us better people, but that seems to be what he implies.
He's right, to some degree, but with every bit of good comes some bad. The Beats were drug-addled savants, talented fools, those of them that could write left behind a legacy, but those that didn't just died only remembered because of the texts the others left behind. Out of the bunch, Ginsberg emerges as the only one to have a moral core, but one that falters. If anything, "Dharma Lion" is a means to better understanding both Ginsberg and his poetry. It's a long book (707 pages), but well worth reading.
May 3, 2016
Probably the longest nonfiction book I’ve read in my whole life, and one of the most engaging and well-written ones, too. It reads like a novel.
It is, in fact, a literary matryoshka in that it’s not only a comprehensive Ginsberg biography, but also a history of the Beat Generation as well as a brief history of American counterculture: hippies, anti-war movement, anti-nuclear movement, gay liberation, the fight against the demonization of certain drugs … Man, Ginsberg WAS counterculture!
This book is massive, but very rich in detail and rather wonderful.
It is, in fact, a literary matryoshka in that it’s not only a comprehensive Ginsberg biography, but also a history of the Beat Generation as well as a brief history of American counterculture: hippies, anti-war movement, anti-nuclear movement, gay liberation, the fight against the demonization of certain drugs … Man, Ginsberg WAS counterculture!
This book is massive, but very rich in detail and rather wonderful.
May 7, 2016
Michael Schumacher did such a good job writing ALLEN GINSBERG's life that often I felt as if I were with Allen ... as if Allen actually wrote this book through Schumacher. What a truly fascinating, gifted, talented, courageous man Allen Ginsberg is. I highly recommend this book to everyone. There is no one that would not benefit from reading this book ... your life ... your views ... your ideals will shift and morph and change ... you will be a more well-rounded person for it.
November 16, 2025
Dharma Lion is a breathtaking biography that covers the entirety of Ginsberg's remarkable life. Ginsberg was intimately involved with so many aspects of 20th century history that makes this an engaging read beyond just understanding him as a poet. From the Beats to the anti-war movement of the 60s to Western Buddhism to his travels all over the world to befriending musicians like Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and the Clash; reading Ginsberg's life is like reading a tour of mid-century American history.
My main critique is that Schumacher is too much of a fan. Much of the commentary on his poetry and artistic output is represented in glowing terms. Schumacher also clearly either frames negative aspects of Ginsberge life in more positive ones, or even shrinks the coverage of it to practically little more than a footnote. There was much more on this side that I feel like was omitted. It's clear this isn't as an objective of a biography as you'd want out of such a complicated character as Ginsberg.
Yet, for something that is eight hundred plus pages, Schumacher does the remarkable job of keeping your attention (it may help with a character as interesting as Ginsberg). His prose is lucid and engaging. The arrangement of the book and chapters is wonderfully done to keep the story flowing. All of it injected with careful selections of Ginsberg's own poetry and diary entries throughout.
Ginsberg poetry speaks to my aesthetic sensibility on a visceral level. Reading this alongside the biographical context makes this an even more enjoyable experience. I went to read Kaddish after the chapters where he published it, and it made for wonderful reading. Despite it's shortcomings, this is still an invaluable book to understand Ginsberg.
My main critique is that Schumacher is too much of a fan. Much of the commentary on his poetry and artistic output is represented in glowing terms. Schumacher also clearly either frames negative aspects of Ginsberge life in more positive ones, or even shrinks the coverage of it to practically little more than a footnote. There was much more on this side that I feel like was omitted. It's clear this isn't as an objective of a biography as you'd want out of such a complicated character as Ginsberg.
Yet, for something that is eight hundred plus pages, Schumacher does the remarkable job of keeping your attention (it may help with a character as interesting as Ginsberg). His prose is lucid and engaging. The arrangement of the book and chapters is wonderfully done to keep the story flowing. All of it injected with careful selections of Ginsberg's own poetry and diary entries throughout.
Ginsberg poetry speaks to my aesthetic sensibility on a visceral level. Reading this alongside the biographical context makes this an even more enjoyable experience. I went to read Kaddish after the chapters where he published it, and it made for wonderful reading. Despite it's shortcomings, this is still an invaluable book to understand Ginsberg.
April 14, 2021
With about 770 pages it is a difficult book to find yet really complete about Ginsberg and his influences.
5 stars because it also includes an index at the end of the book with the references marked on pages to make it easier to find the information you are looking for, this tool has been incredibly useful, indeed every book should contain it.
If you're looking for a Ginsberg's biography I would recommend this one as the most complete one and the Allen Ginsberg: Beat Poet by Milles (2010)
5 stars because it also includes an index at the end of the book with the references marked on pages to make it easier to find the information you are looking for, this tool has been incredibly useful, indeed every book should contain it.
If you're looking for a Ginsberg's biography I would recommend this one as the most complete one and the Allen Ginsberg: Beat Poet by Milles (2010)
October 15, 2007
EXCELLENT biography of Ginsberg - very comprehensive.
September 7, 2022
A strong biography of Allen Ginsberg.
Read
February 21, 2024DHARMA LION: A BIOGRAPHY OF ALLEN GINSBERG
By Michael Schumacher (St. Martin’s Press, hardback pub. 1992, paperback pub. 1994)
Comments by Jeff Keith, fall of 2020
[five stars] I consider this book to be a masterpiece, wonderfully readable and full of detail. A problem for me was precisely that it is so long and detailed--- 686 pages of text, covering from childhood to old age. Allen Ginsberg died in April, 1997, so I guess he lived to see this book in print. I hope he liked it. It might be easier on us readers if it could be divided into two volumes somehow. So far I have just read up to the 370s and then skipping to chapters 19 and 20, which are about the 1960s and describe things that I was involved in.
I found it inspiring during the first half of the book how Ginsberg was so focused in the 1940s and 50s on finding a male lover and soul mate to commit himself to. He finally got that in 1955 when he and Peter Orlovsky met and com-mitted themselves to each other, although it was kind of an open marriage. The book doesn’t mince words about the ups and downs of their relationship, or about how they would go in and out of heavy drug use, sometimes with psychedelics and sometimes with other things, including forms of “speed.” Since this is a biography of Ginsberg, sometimes the author says “Allen went [somewhere]” when he actually means “Allen and Peter went…”
Ginsberg had a checkered career of jobs working for money throughout his 20s, because he was always focused on writing poetry. His father Louis Ginsberg was also a well-known poet, but in traditional styles. A.G. was fortunate enough to be a prominent presence at the Sixth Gallery reading in San Francisco in 1956, where his reading of “Howl” made a big sensation.
The first half of the book has tremendous detail about the lives and activities of Beat Generation writers from 1946 on. Although some of the poetry of Ginsberg and others, and the famous novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac, were mostly written in the late 1940s, they didn’t come into the public eye until the last half of the 1950s. I started reading that stuff in 1960 and ’61, and it had a tremendous influence on me.
From the beginning, there was widespread use of alcohol and drugs. Some of it was self-destructive, such as in the cases of Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac. For other people including Ginsberg, drugs were often used to induce mind-expanding mystical experiences. After On the Road, Jack Kerouac wrote a second book called The Dharma Bums that explored Buddhism in a fairly deep way. Allen Ginsberg was in the group in the San Francisco Bay area that was exploring Buddhism. Ginsberg stayed with it for the rest of his life, but Kerouac eventually moved away from it for unknown reasons and got kind of lost in alcoholism. I loved reading The Dharma Bums and poetry along some of those lines. Around 1960, Allen and Peter made a trip to Morocco (visiting William Burroughs) and then India, and did a lot of exploration of both psychedelic drugs and non-drug mystical experiences. In India they hung out for a while with Buddhists Gary Snyder and his wife Joanne Kyger, who complained about their excessive drug use.
I skipped forward to chapters 19 and 20, which were about the mid-1960s “Summer of Love,” “Flower Power,” and lots of activity against the Vietnam war. He was in Chicago for the entire week of disturbances during the Democratic Party convention in August, 1968. (I was involved in a lot of that stuff myself, but not Chicago.)
This reminds me that Ginsberg and his friends were not involved in any meaningful way in the earlier Civil Rights movement where I got my social/political start as a teenager. There is no mention of anyone taking part in any of the hundreds of protests about the awful treatment that African Americans in this country had to live with. Some people through the years have noted that the Beat Generation writers were almost entirely White men, although some of them were from non-Anglo ethnic groups such as Ginsberg being Jewish, Kerouac being of French-Canadian descent, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso being orphans from Italian American backgrounds. Most of the women who played big roles were spouses of well-known men, although a few like Diane DiPrima were well-known by themselves.
Ginsberg lived on to a fairly old age, unlike his pals Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. He was still socially active during the rise of the Gay/LGBTQ liberation movement in the 1970s, and this book continues through that period. I look for-ward to reading those later chapters at some point, because I was active during all of that stuff.
By Michael Schumacher (St. Martin’s Press, hardback pub. 1992, paperback pub. 1994)
Comments by Jeff Keith, fall of 2020
[five stars] I consider this book to be a masterpiece, wonderfully readable and full of detail. A problem for me was precisely that it is so long and detailed--- 686 pages of text, covering from childhood to old age. Allen Ginsberg died in April, 1997, so I guess he lived to see this book in print. I hope he liked it. It might be easier on us readers if it could be divided into two volumes somehow. So far I have just read up to the 370s and then skipping to chapters 19 and 20, which are about the 1960s and describe things that I was involved in.
I found it inspiring during the first half of the book how Ginsberg was so focused in the 1940s and 50s on finding a male lover and soul mate to commit himself to. He finally got that in 1955 when he and Peter Orlovsky met and com-mitted themselves to each other, although it was kind of an open marriage. The book doesn’t mince words about the ups and downs of their relationship, or about how they would go in and out of heavy drug use, sometimes with psychedelics and sometimes with other things, including forms of “speed.” Since this is a biography of Ginsberg, sometimes the author says “Allen went [somewhere]” when he actually means “Allen and Peter went…”
Ginsberg had a checkered career of jobs working for money throughout his 20s, because he was always focused on writing poetry. His father Louis Ginsberg was also a well-known poet, but in traditional styles. A.G. was fortunate enough to be a prominent presence at the Sixth Gallery reading in San Francisco in 1956, where his reading of “Howl” made a big sensation.
The first half of the book has tremendous detail about the lives and activities of Beat Generation writers from 1946 on. Although some of the poetry of Ginsberg and others, and the famous novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac, were mostly written in the late 1940s, they didn’t come into the public eye until the last half of the 1950s. I started reading that stuff in 1960 and ’61, and it had a tremendous influence on me.
From the beginning, there was widespread use of alcohol and drugs. Some of it was self-destructive, such as in the cases of Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac. For other people including Ginsberg, drugs were often used to induce mind-expanding mystical experiences. After On the Road, Jack Kerouac wrote a second book called The Dharma Bums that explored Buddhism in a fairly deep way. Allen Ginsberg was in the group in the San Francisco Bay area that was exploring Buddhism. Ginsberg stayed with it for the rest of his life, but Kerouac eventually moved away from it for unknown reasons and got kind of lost in alcoholism. I loved reading The Dharma Bums and poetry along some of those lines. Around 1960, Allen and Peter made a trip to Morocco (visiting William Burroughs) and then India, and did a lot of exploration of both psychedelic drugs and non-drug mystical experiences. In India they hung out for a while with Buddhists Gary Snyder and his wife Joanne Kyger, who complained about their excessive drug use.
I skipped forward to chapters 19 and 20, which were about the mid-1960s “Summer of Love,” “Flower Power,” and lots of activity against the Vietnam war. He was in Chicago for the entire week of disturbances during the Democratic Party convention in August, 1968. (I was involved in a lot of that stuff myself, but not Chicago.)
This reminds me that Ginsberg and his friends were not involved in any meaningful way in the earlier Civil Rights movement where I got my social/political start as a teenager. There is no mention of anyone taking part in any of the hundreds of protests about the awful treatment that African Americans in this country had to live with. Some people through the years have noted that the Beat Generation writers were almost entirely White men, although some of them were from non-Anglo ethnic groups such as Ginsberg being Jewish, Kerouac being of French-Canadian descent, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso being orphans from Italian American backgrounds. Most of the women who played big roles were spouses of well-known men, although a few like Diane DiPrima were well-known by themselves.
Ginsberg lived on to a fairly old age, unlike his pals Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. He was still socially active during the rise of the Gay/LGBTQ liberation movement in the 1970s, and this book continues through that period. I look for-ward to reading those later chapters at some point, because I was active during all of that stuff.
January 4, 2024
I loved every page.
I hadn't realized how large it was (or how small the print was lol) when I ordered it, so I questioned whether I'd ever actually read it but as soon as I started it I couldn't put it down.
The author has such a unique insight into Ginsberg because of his access to and knowledge of his correspondence. I'm not sure there's another person on the planet that could have written this. Also: the author is just a really great writer.
Just going to add one thing here that made me go: huh. Ginsberg died in 1997 and, unless I missed the whole topic, not once does the book mentions Ginsberg's acknowledging the AIDS crisis in the 80s. Considering who Ginsberg was, I find this pretty surprising.
Anyway, I can't recommend this enough.
I hadn't realized how large it was (or how small the print was lol) when I ordered it, so I questioned whether I'd ever actually read it but as soon as I started it I couldn't put it down.
The author has such a unique insight into Ginsberg because of his access to and knowledge of his correspondence. I'm not sure there's another person on the planet that could have written this. Also: the author is just a really great writer.
Just going to add one thing here that made me go: huh. Ginsberg died in 1997 and, unless I missed the whole topic, not once does the book mentions Ginsberg's acknowledging the AIDS crisis in the 80s. Considering who Ginsberg was, I find this pretty surprising.
Anyway, I can't recommend this enough.
November 21, 2025
Allen Ginsberg (1926 - 1997), dieser bärtige Buddha der Beat-Generation, soll angeblich der Erste gewesen sein, der einer Blume erklärte, sie sei politisch. Aus seinem „Om“ wurde ein „Ohmmm… lass mal Liebe machen“, und plötzlich trugen ganze Generationen Sonnenblumen wie philosophische Ausrufezeichen. Wenn Krieg die Sprache der Angst ist, dann hat Ginsberg uns beigebracht, in Poesie zurückzuschreiben — und zwar mit Blütenblättern statt mit Patronen.
August 30, 2022
Our Kral Majales, Yea GOAT poet. We need you now as much as ever.
Well done! Schumacher kept me fascinated, even through Ginsberg's never ending note-taking, letter-writing, campaigning. AG found his way into most of the hearts of those he met.
Well done! Schumacher kept me fascinated, even through Ginsberg's never ending note-taking, letter-writing, campaigning. AG found his way into most of the hearts of those he met.
March 27, 2020
One of the best biographies ever written
Read
April 6, 2023770 pages and Gerd Stern who was with him and Carl Solomon in the psychiatric asylum in 1949 and helped him to publish the works of the Beat poets is not mentioned on any page. Strange
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews