Allen Ginsberg Reads Howl & Other Poems Deluxe Edition

My freshman English teacher assigned every student in the class a different “classic” poem to read and write about, and naturally I got stuck with Howl. The teacher snickered and said something like, “here, you’ll appreciate this” (still not really sure what to make of that). I’d never heard of Ginsberg, had no clue what Beat poetry was; I was just pissed off that it was long as hell. But my young impressionable mind was blown by Ginsberg’s rich descriptives, the way he sized up entire swaths of the human population so smartly, leading me eventually to the god William S. Burroughs (my St. Louis roots require that I prefer Burroughs over the other Beats). This deluxe hardcover boxset commemorates the 60th anniversary of the landmark obscenity trial that made Ginsberg a household name, with a recording of the man himself reading HOWL at Chicago’s Big Table on January 29, 1959. Pressed on translucent red 180g vinyl housed in single pocket tip-on jacket with a replica of the original ‘pocketpoem’ and a ton of other bonus materials. Skip the Franco movie and get with this instead. Recommended.