GREGORY CORSO
Gregory Corso was born in New York City on 26 March 1930. His mother, sixteen
years old when Gregory was delivered, abandoned the family a year later and
returned to Italy. Afterwards, Corso spent most of his childhood in orphanages
and foster homes. His father remarried when Gregory was eleven years old, and he
had his son stay with him, but the boy repeatedly ran away. He was removed to a
boy's home, from which he also ran away. His troubled adolescence included a
stint of several months in the Tombs, the New York City jail, for a case
involving a stolen radio, and three months of observation in Bellevue. At
seventeen, he was convicted of theft and sentenced to Clinton State Prison for
three years. During his incarceration, he read avidly from the prison library
and began writing poetry. After his release in 1950, he met Allen Ginsberg,
through whom he also became acquainted with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac,
as well as other New York writers and artists. In 1952 he worked for the Los
Angeles Examiner and later served as a merchant seaman. In 1954 he unofficially
attended Harvard University, where students contributed to the publication of
his first collection of poems, The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems. Two
years later he joined Ginsberg in San Francisco, where Lawrence Ferlinghetti
published his volume of poems Gasoline. In 1957 Corso joined Kerouac and
Ginsberg for a series of unconventional readings and interviews. Since that time
he has traveled extensively, especially in Mexico and Eastern Europe. He taught
briefly at the State University of New York at Buffalo and occasionally during
summer sessions at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. His major
publications after Gasoline include The Happy Birthday of Death (1960), The
American Express (1961), Long Live Man (1962), Elegaic Feelings American (1970),
Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit (1981), and Mindfield (1991).
Gregory Corso was born in New York City on 26 March 1930. His mother, sixteen
years old when Gregory was delivered, abandoned the family a year later and
returned to Italy. Afterwards, Corso spent most of his childhood in orphanages
and foster homes. His father remarried when Gregory was eleven years old, and he
had his son stay with him, but the boy repeatedly ran away. He was removed to a
boy's home, from which he also ran away. His troubled adolescence included a
stint of several months in the Tombs, the New York City jail, for a case
involving a stolen radio, and three months of observation in Bellevue. At
seventeen, he was convicted of theft and sentenced to Clinton State Prison for
three years. During his incarceration, he read avidly from the prison library
and began writing poetry. After his release in 1950, he met Allen Ginsberg,
through whom he also became acquainted with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac,
as well as other New York writers and artists. In 1952 he worked for the Los
Angeles Examiner and later served as a merchant seaman. In 1954 he unofficially
attended Harvard University, where students contributed to the publication of
his first collection of poems, The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems. Two
years later he joined Ginsberg in San Francisco, where Lawrence Ferlinghetti
published his volume of poems Gasoline. In 1957 Corso joined Kerouac and
Ginsberg for a series of unconventional readings and interviews. Since that time
he has traveled extensively, especially in Mexico and Eastern Europe. He taught
briefly at the State University of New York at Buffalo and occasionally during
summer sessions at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. His major
publications after Gasoline include The Happy Birthday of Death (1960), The
American Express (1961), Long Live Man (1962), Elegaic Feelings American (1970),
Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit (1981), and Mindfield (1991).