LETTERS OF ALLEN GINSBERG, THE

The Letters of Allen Ginsberg, deftly selected and strung precisely on a narrative thread by Beat scholar Bill Morgan, Ginsberg's biographer and literary archivist, reads like a mutigenerational epistolary novel peopled by literati of all stripes. Ginsberg, whose "Howl," "Kaddish," and "Wichita Vortex Sutra" rearranged the DNA of American poetry, was a literary gadfly whose letters are lush with poetry-world gossip, travel musings, riffs on his various exploits and indiscretions, political commentary, and strong opinion.