The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems, 1937-1952

by Allen Ginsberg, Juanita Lieberman-Plimpton, Bill Morgan

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) kept journals his entire life, beginning at the age of eleven. These first journals detail the inner thoughts of the awkward boy from Paterson, New Jersey, who would become the major poet and spokesperson of the literary phenomenon called the Beat Generation. The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice covers the most important and formative years of Ginsberg's storied life. It was during these years that he met Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, both of whom would become lifelong friends and significant literary figures. Ginsberg's journals--so candid he insisted they be published only after his death--also document his relationships with such notable figures of Beat lore as Carl Solomon, Lucien Carr, and Herbert Huncke. Conversations with Kerouac, his beloved muse Neal Cassady, and others have been transcribed from Ginsberg's memory, and information will be found here relating to the famous murder of David Kammerer by Carr--a startlingly violent chapter in Beat prehistory--which has been credited in New York magazine as "giving birth to the Beat Generation." It was also during this period that he began to recognize his homosexuality, and to think of himself as a poet. Illustrated with photos from Ginsberg's private archive and enhanced by an appendix of over 100 of Ginsberg's earliest poems, The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice is a major literary event.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Journal, American, Unfinished

544 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 2006

About the author

Allen Ginsberg was a groundbreaking American poet and activist best known for his central role in the Beat Generation and for writing the landmark poem Howl. Born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, to Jewish parents, Ginsberg grew up in a household shaped by both intellectualism and psychological struggle. His father, Louis Ginsberg, was a published poet and a schoolteacher, while his mother, Naomi, suffered from severe mental illness, which deeply affected Ginsberg and later influenced his writing—most notably in his poem Kaddish.
As a young man, Ginsberg attended Columbia University, where he befriended other future Beat luminaries such as Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady. These relationships formed the core of what became known as the Beat Generation—a loose-knit group of writers and artists who rejected mainstream American values in favor of personal liberation, spontaneity, spiritual exploration, and radical politics.
Ginsberg rose to national prominence in 1956 with the publication of Howl and Other Poems, released by City Lights Books in San Francisco. Howl, an emotionally charged and stylistically experimental poem, offered an unfiltered vision of America’s underbelly. It included candid references to homosexuality, drug use, and mental illness—subjects considered taboo at the time. The poem led to an obscenity trial, which ultimately concluded in Ginsberg’s favor, setting a precedent for freedom of speech in literature.
His work consistently challenged social norms and addressed themes of personal freedom, sexual identity, spirituality, and political dissent. Ginsberg was openly gay at a time when homosexuality was still criminalized in much of the United States, and he became a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights throughout his life. His poetry often intertwined the personal with the political, blending confessional intimacy with a broader critique of American society.
Beyond his literary achievements, Ginsberg was also a dedicated activist. He protested against the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation, and later, U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. He was present at many pivotal cultural and political moments of the 1960s and 1970s, including the 1968 Democratic National Convention and various countercultural gatherings. His spiritual journey led him to Buddhism, which deeply influenced his writing and worldview. He studied under Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa and helped establish the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
Ginsberg’s later years were marked by continued literary output and collaborations with musicians such as Bob Dylan and The Clash. His poetry collections, including Reality Sandwiches, Planet News, and The Fall of America, were widely read and respected. He received numerous honors for his work, including the National Book Award for Poetry in 1974.
He died of liver cancer in 1997 at the age of 70. Today, Allen Ginsberg is remembered not only as a pioneering poet, but also as a courageous voice for free expression, social justice, and spiritual inquiry. His influence on American literature and culture remains profound and enduring.

Reviews

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is difficult to write about this book in any coherent way. More than anything, this book has helped drive home the difference between the concept of a diary and the concept of a journal. Even though this book clearly states its identity as a collection of Ginsberg's journaling, I went in hoping for more of a diary. Be warned--the diary portions of the books are few and far between. If you, like me, are looking for passages where Ginsberg recounts day to day thoughts and encounters with Lucien Carr, Herbert Huncke, Neal Cassady, etc., this is not the book for you. (I suggest the novel ...And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks--though fictional, it will at least give you more of a sense of the daily interactions of the group around the time of David Kammerer's murder).
What's more, there is very little of Ginsberg's struggle with his sexuality because of the lack of diary material.
Still, this book is in no way a failure. For those that are interested in Ginsberg's evolution of process, in the sorts of material he not only was reading but considered important enough to read to make note of, this is a goldmine. If you are interested in his dreams, this is the exact book you want. The diary portions are here, but few and far between. I cannot help but suspect that there was quite a bit of editing.
The editors have done a fantastic job of including passages explaining what has happened to fill in the gaps between journal entries, as well. In fact, I often found their passages more helpful than Ginsberg's own words.
So, DO buy this book if you are interested in Ginsberg or the Beats. Know two things, though: if your interest is in the history of the Beats, use the index to read the book rather than attempting to read cover to cover, and two--you will wind up reading this book much more in installments, like poetry in a sense, than chronologically cover to cover no matter what your interest is.
Just don't go in expecting long passages of Ginsberg pouring his heart out about his Beat-mates. This isn't that book.

[Ocean · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 stars**

I really enjoyed reading these journals -what a surprise eh ? Not-. If you are looking to learn more about the Beat generation, this book might not be for you, while Ginsberg recalls certain moments he spent with his friends and fellow students and at times brings up his relationships with some of them, this is not your chance to dive into their uni dorm rooms (Shame, I would have loved that but let's not talk about what I wish this was...). Instead most of the entries are self analysing think pieces and recall of bizarre dreams. Bits of writing that came under such or such influence (drugs) and lists of books Allen Ginsberg read over time.

It doesn't make the book any less interesting. Although he often seem to have felt that he was too still, Allen Ginsberg was obviously an incredibly intelligent and a fairly productive person. He travelled and was quite social. All in all his adventures and his self discovery gave him a lot of material to write yet rather than what he thought about, how he put it down is what fascinated me most.

I guess as it often is the case with journals, this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you like Ginsberg's way with words in prose form as well as in poems and are generally interesting in his thought you might like this. It was very nicely edited as well, (not only in production, I mean well put together).

Overall it is lengthy but beautiful. I was thrilled by the poem portion of the book (about a 100 pages at the end) and cornered many, many pages..

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was just reissued in a paperback edition by Da Capo Press. Knowing I'm a Beat fan, my editor there gave me a copy. And this book is definitely for hardcore Beat fans. It starts with an adolescent and scarily precocious Ginsberg and stops before Ginsberg broke huge with Howl. So you really need a deep interest in Ginsberg and the origins of the Beat scene to get into this as heavily as it deserves. I think the best new insights in the book come when A.G. talks about the period when Herbert Huncke lived with him (again, this will mean very little if you don't know who Huncke is and his importance to the Beat scene). Bits and pieces of the Huncke cohabitation period come out in other Beat books by Kerouac, Ginsberg, and biographers, but they mostly focus on the arrest, the aftermath. But this book presents the story of that period in A.G.'s words and it is the clearest, most lucid description of where he was coming from at the time and how that situation developed. The Huncke section also presents some of the clearest, most straightforward writing by A.G. I've ever read, anywhere. He was obviously trying to explain his situaton to a "square" reader (a lawyer) and he did get it across. It balaces out the many pages of dream description and analysis that Ginsberg kept track of throughout his life. The book also delves deeply into Ginsberg's often conflicted feelings about his relationship with the great Beat and underground icon Neal Cassady. Anyway, this book certainly makes an important contribution to the canon of Beat literature. Highly recommended for connoisseurs.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Allen Ginsberg is the only one of the Beat trinity whose work I have not read. Wanting to start at the beginning, I picked up this book from the library. It started out interesting as an earnest and somewhat naive young Ginsberg makes his way out into the world on a journey of discovery. Once he arrives at Colombia College, however, things get so bogged down in a morass of the mundane that I felt as though I had to slug my way through to the end.

That is not to say this tome is without merit. Ginsberg does present thought provoking literary concepts and records some interesting anecdotes from his life, the best of which concern Kerouac and Burroughs, but these are overshadowed by the long-winded banal rumblings of a mind ill at ease.

Although there were one or two of Ginsberg's early poems in the final section of the book, they mostly left me wondering how Ginsberg ever became a famous and respected poet.

[Jennifer Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

He was so young and filled with so much unnecessary angst, morbidness, and pity-partying. If someone asked him in 1952 when the journals end that he was going to set the world on fire and change how people feel about poetry or that he would fall in love with someone who would really love him back - I don't think he'd have believed it for a minute. He sounds like he wants to give up on everything - but he really had his whole life ahead of him.
This book is one of those that would be good for a bright young person who is struggling to find his or her place in the world.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The earliest writings in Allen Ginsberg’s journals are the kind of things one might expect to find in a journal written by a pre-teen boy—comments on relations with his family, notes about teachers at school, mentions of a trip to a relative’s house or of an evening at the movies. One gets a sense in these passages of Ginsberg as a rather studious but otherwise typical youth. In later pages, as Ginsberg begins thinking of himself as a serious writer, his journal writings become both more detailed and more personal. He keeps a monthly record of the books he has read, for instance, while writing down his impressions with regard to the writers he most admires, including William Blake, Arthur Rimbaud and Fyodor Dostoevsky; in addition, he comments on the people around him, including his mother, whom he sees slipping gradually into madness.

In many passages Ginsberg comments explicitly on his search for the subjects with which he wants to work in his writing, and here one can trace how some of the themes with which his work is associated emerge in early form in his journals in the process of his working with them. Although there is not so much explicit discussion here of politics and religion as one finds in Ginsberg’s adult work, there is a lot of commentary on poetry and art, and on such topics as subjectivity, madness and mortality.

The journals represent an interesting period in Ginsberg’s life, and reflect how Ginsberg employs his personal experiences in his experiments with writing. In a variety of prose and poetic forms, Ginsberg writes of his experiences both as a sailor with the Merchant Marines and as a student at Columbia, from which latter he was expelled either for writing obscenities on his window and/ or for letting Jack Kerouac stay in his room overnight. He writes of his friendship with Lucien Carr, who is sent to prison for killing David Kammerer; of Bill Cannastra’s death in the New York subway; and of his mystical experience in 1948 when he claims to have heard the voice of William Blake speaking to him, reciting the poems “The Sunflower” and “The Sick Rose.” As well, Ginsberg writes about his experiences with other members of the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Neal Cassady. In particular, he describes in detail his relationship with Herbert Huncke, the petty criminal and heroin addict who lived with Ginsberg for a period, sleeping on his couch. I would have liked to have seen more about Ginsberg’s experiences in the New York State Psychiatric Institute, particularly with regard to his meeting with Carl Solomon; however, there is a long narrative (over 25 pages) in which Ginsberg describes for his lawyer the psychological and economic conditions that led to his becoming an “accessory” to burglary, and thus to his being sent to the Institute.

In addition to their portrayal of Ginsberg’s emergence as a confessional poet, the journals also supply a perspective on the development of his writing style. Passages early in the book reflect the awkward paratactic juxtapositions one associates with journals whose function is merely to record and chronicle events (while this sort of pragmatic approach is typically associated with the journal of the young person, one can find it in journals by older writers: the 52-year-old William Byrd, for instance, employs a similar approach in his The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712). In later parts of the book, one can see Ginsberg developing as a writer. For instance, there are some passages that seem artificial and overwritten, suggesting that Ginsberg is self-consciously working at writing in a “literary” style. With these self-aware attempts at forging a style comes a greater interest in descriptions of settings and people, and in experimentation with rhetorical forms and with imagery. Midway through the book there is a deeply introspective and complex passage of some length in which Ginsberg analyzes his dissatisfactions with desires for his relationship with Neal Cassady. Late in the book a mature style emerges that reflects the techniques and language Ginsberg employs in the poetic work for which he is best known.

In addition to his descriptions of his personal experiences, his experiments with prose fiction, and his early poems, Ginsberg’s journals include his descriptions of his dreams, outlines for novels and ideas for stories, and a few of his letters, for instance to his father and to one of his professors, the critic Lionel Trilling. As well, there is a lot of commentary on poetry, including Ginsberg’s analysis of some of his own poems and of the ideas about which he writes, such as the myth of the “Shrouded Stranger.”

The poems included in the book reflect Ginsberg’s work with language and form. Some imitate the imagery of Blake and Rimbaud, for instance, while in others Ginsberg experiments with poetic devices such as rhyme and meter. While many of the poems are lyric, he also works with other forms, such as the elegy, the satire and the ode. With multiple versions of “Pull My Daisy” (and early versions of other poems that appeared elsewhere in different forms) one can trace how Ginsberg revises his poetic work.

Acquired Jun 7, 2010
Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR

[Julio The Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allen describes himself in these first journals as "a self-absorbed monomaniac". Truer words were never typed. It's one thing to enter into a poet's emerging psyche for signs of early genius, and another to spend endless pages with him on his unrequited love for Neil Cassady. The very self-introspection that turned Ginsberg into a major American poet is precisely what makes much of these journals insufferable if not unreadable. His father and fellow poet Louis makes a guest appearance, along with Kerouac, Burroughs and early mentor William Carlos Williams, but only as backdrop. Allen's obsessions remain "drugs, boys, and publishing my first book of poems". My admiration for Allen is undiminished, but I wish we had less Allen in these pages of juvenelia.

[Arthur Cravan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm marking this as read like a year after reading it so idk, maybe it shoulda been a 5... I'll type up my notes & think about it.

(Marking it as a year prior to today for the heck of it, idk when it really was done.)

Come on Reading Challenge 2019... do it for Gil.

[brooklyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gold mine. I envy Allen Ginsberg’s effortlessly incredible mind, though I shamelessly relate to his self-pitying rambles. This is a portrait of an artist - an absolutely fascinating read.

[Param Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

That the author of these journals grew into the writer of Howl and Other Poems proves there is hope for us all.

[Laurane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucien Carr ill always love you

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should note I have this book, but haven't done much reading in it. It's fun for a casual pick up now and then as most books of this kind are. Early on though its quite humorous. Young Allen (at least amidst ages 12-17) loved to passively insult senators in newspaper letters to the editor all the while forecasting his own genius. Rather oddly, his father would jokingly ammend passages in his journal and even write some as "Allen". Quite strange. When it comes to Allen's college years, the journal turns into a recounted transcript of heavily-buzz-worded arguments on art & meaning with a few "friends" (Lucien Carr specifically) as well as verbose descriptions of his chaotic dreams...which is where I've started to wander off & read other things. This is not to say I don't enjoy it. The book is readable, but it doesn't quite hold me.

One time while at Cafetto, I was approached about looking something akin to a young Allen Ginsberg. There was a painfully awkward brief conversation that followed (I hate being told I look like someone. oh, and I'm really awkward). Then the girl posted a "missed connection" for me on Craig's-List shortly there after. strange.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to read anyone's journals, even if that person is as brilliant (and as important to me as an artist) as Ginsberg is. They just get rambly - that's sort of what a journal is for. This covers a period of his life (college and meeting Keroac, Carr, Cassady, Bourroughs etc.) which is really fascinating though, and I enjoyed the insights if it did take me forever to get through. (Plus it meant I knew the story of Kill Your Darlings before there was even a movie...)

[Ann M]

To read the 1947 section, after I finish the original On the Road, scroll version -- Kerouac is writing about Allen's journal-keeping of his grand experiment with Neal Cassady. I'd like to see those notes.

[Jay]

Excellent collection of journals. It is great reading from a young Ginsberg, age 11 into his 20's. It's not often we get to learn the early thoughts of a great writer. There is a lot of information given about the other Beats - Kerouac, Burroughs, Cassady, etc. The poems at the end of the book weren't very revealing, but they do show the early stages of poems to come.

[GK Stritch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating--provides an insightful look at those Columbia College years: Lucien, Celine, Jack, Edie, Bill, Joan, Kammerer and the murder, and a bit more information on Naomi, Louis, and Eugene, coming straight from the eyes and voice of a young Allen. Also noted is Allen's initial immature and funny student's reaction to his first assignment with William Carlos Williams (p. 145).

[Penelope · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is great reading from a young Ginsberg, age 11 into his 20's. It's not often we get to learn the early thoughts of a great writer. The poems at the end of the book weren't very revealing, but they do show the early stages of poems to come.

[Tristan Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ginsberg is such an interesting figure. Loved delving in to his early journals. The writing is so personal and authentic. His early poems were fantastic as well. I only wish I could have half the mind that he had at this age.

[Shane Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to read. Allen Ginsberg had some great gifts.

[bekah malik · Rating 4 out of 5]

ginsberg's diary is single-handedly getting me through my twenties. allen understands unrequited love like no one else <3

[Matthew Stolte · Rating 2 out of 5]

don't like this so much but like some poems at the end like "Paterson" & "The Poet for J.K."