Hear Ginsberg’s first “Howl”

It has long been thought that the earliest recording of Allen Ginsberg reading his breakthrough poem “Howl” was made in Berkeley in March 1956, but a tape has been discovered in the archives at Reed College in Portland, Oregon that was made a few months earlier, in the Reed dorms when Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg hitchhiked north to give two readings in mid-February, 1956.

from OregonLive:
“Books news: Earliest ‘Howl’ tape uncovered at Reed,” by Jeff Baker
“Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg hitchhiked to Portland in the winter of 1956. The two friends were poets, unknown outside the San Francisco area, and were on the front edge of the cultural movement that became known as the Beat Generation.... a box marked ‘Snyder Ginsberg 1956.’ In it was a 35-minute tape of Ginsberg reading the first section of ‘Howl’ and seven other poems.... This isn’t just any tape. Not only is it the earliest known recording of one of the most famous poems of the 20th century, but also the sound quality is excellent, and Ginsberg gives a strong, clear reading with enough textual variations in ‘Howl’ and the other poems to keep literary scholars busy for years.”

Starting on Friday, February 15, Reed College made the tape available for online listening (if you have Quicktime) at its Multimedia site. There’s the complete raw recording, which includes a hiccup where the reel-to-reel tape broke or ended and Ginsberg stopped and backed up a few lines after it was restarted, as well as separate edited recordings of:

• “Howl,” Part I only
• “Epithalamion”
• “Wild Orphan”
• “Over Kansas”
• “Dream Record: June 8, 1955”
• “Blessed be the Muses”
• “A Supermarket in California”
• “The Trembling of the Veil”

NOTE: Reed College has had some trouble posting these audio files so that every computer can play them over the Internet, but they’re working on them -- so if you can’t hear the poems, check back a day later.

More on Allen Ginsberg:
Allen Ginsberg, Beat American Buddha Bard, by Bob Holman
Our profile of Ginsberg
The Bard His Own Self: Allen Ginsberg says “That’s all Goodnight”
Encounters with Allen Ginsberg, by Bart Plantenga

On Ginsberg’s poetry:
Allen Ginsberg’s American Sentences, An introduction to his variation on haiku
Chorus of Poets Gather for “Howl” Celebration: the 50th anniversary, an account by Teresa Conboy
You can read the poem in print or listen to it on the Internet -- but you won’t hear it on the radio -- “Howl”