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About Gregory Corso

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Gregory Corso, Marin Headlands, 1978 © Larry Keenan
Gregory Corso, Marin Headlands, 1978 © Larry Keenan
Gregory Corso passed away on January 19, 2001 at the age of 70, after a long illness. Corso was one of the major figures of the Beat Generation. He was a poet, painter, traveler, and occasional lecturer. His vibrant, vital, authentic poetry celebrates the mystery of life and death through everyday detail and mystic visions.

Though he never gained the truly widespread fame that his fellow Beats Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs enjoyed, his work had an impact on contemporary poetics that continues to this day.

His poetry has earned praise from many. Jack Kerouac is quoted as saying (on the back cover of Corso’s “Gasoline”) “I think that Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg are the two best poets in America and that they can’t be compared to each other. Gregory was a tough young kid from the Lower East Side who rose like an angel over the rooftops and sang Italian songs as sweet as Caruso and Sinatra, but in words. ‘Sweet Milanese hills’ brood in his Renaissance soul, evening is coming on the hills. Amazing and beautiful Gregory Corso, the one & only Gregory the Herald. Read slowly and see.”

Gregory Corso - Mindfield
Bob Dylan has spoken about how the early Beat writing, and particularly Ginsberg’s Howl Ferlinghetti’s Coney Island of the Mind, and Corso’s Gasoline awakened him to new possibilities of the written word.

Corso was born in Greenwich Village, New York, on March 26, 1930. He had a turbulent childhood, his mother abandoning the family to return to Italy, and his father unable to offer much support. Gregory was a chronic runaway, and was in and out of jail during his adolescence.

He began reading & writing poetry while serving time in prison for theft. Shortly after his release, he met Allen Ginsberg in a Greenwich Village bar, and, after showing Ginsberg some of his poems, the two became close friends. Allen Ginsberg introduced Corso to Kerouac, Burroughs, and his other literary friends. Thus was the beginning of a great literary career.

Some of Gregory Corso’s major publications are:

  • “The Vestal Lady on Brattle & Other Poems, 1955
  • Gasoline, 1958
  • The Happy Birthday of Death, 1960
  • The American Express, 1961
  • Long Live Man, 1962
  • Elegaic Feeling American
  • 1970
  • The Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit, 1981
  • Mindfield: New and Selected Poems, 1989

Here’s some more info on Gregory Corso:

  • tributes to Gregory by fellow poets in Woodstock Journal, 2000 – 2001
  • Robert Creeley’s remembrance of Gregory Corso. Includes some links too.
  • Gregory Corso’s page at the Modern American Poetry site

News stories:

  • Steve Silberman, San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 2001
  • Kyle Roderick,LA Weekly, January 26, 2001
  • The Village Voice, January 24, 2001
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Empty Mirror

Empty Mirror publishes new poetry, criticism, essays, book reviews, and art every Friday.

Author: Empty Mirror Tags: Beat Generation, Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso Category: Beat Generation February 16, 2012

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Lonely? You better believe it.

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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