Seventy two years ago, on this day, October 17th, 1954,
According to Ginsberg’s bibliographer and archivist Bill Morgan, it was a terrifying peyote vision that was the principal inspiration for Howl. This occurred on the evening of October 17, 1954, in the Nob Hill apartment of Sheila Williams, Ginsberg’s girlfriend at that time, with whom he was living. Ginsberg had the terrifying experience of seeing the façade of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in the San Francisco fog as the monstrous face of a child-eating demon. As was his wont, Ginsberg took notes on his vision, and these became the basis for Part II of the poem.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 313ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was the so-called McCarthyite terror of the late 40s and early 50s. It actually predates and postdates McCarthy (he was just a useful avatar) and had rendered the United States an even more conformist and authoritarian place than previously (see also the immediate aftermath of World War One) and people like Allen Ginsberg were trying to find a way of thinking and being and doing that didn’t end up with them capitulating and lobotomizing themselves. This also involved drugs.
What I think we can learn from this is that Howl came from drugs. This will come as a shock to you, I am sure.
What happened next Howl was an enormous success of sensation, and it made Ginsberg’s name. Hey, in 1967 Ginsburg was in London and got switched on to the climate issue, carbon dioxide build up, and in a letter to Gary Snyder referred to it as a general lemming situation.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
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