Early life and family

Ginsberg was born into a Jewish[17] family in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Paterson.[18]
He was the second son of Louis Ginsberg, also born in Newark, a schoolteacher and published poet,
and the former Naomi Levy, born in Nevel (Russia) and a fervent Marxist.[19]

As a teenager, Ginsberg began to write letters to The New York Times about political issues, such as
World War II and workers' rights.[20] He published his first poems in the Paterson Morning Call.[21]
While in high school, Ginsberg became interested in the works of Walt Whitman, inspired by his
teacher's passionate reading.[22] In 1943, Ginsberg graduated from Eastside High School and briefly
attended Montclair State College before entering Columbia University on a scholarship from the
Young Men's Hebrew Association of Paterson.[19]

In 1945, he joined the Merchant Marine to earn money to continue his education at Columbia.[23] While
at Columbia, Ginsberg contributed to the Columbia Review literary journal, the Jester humor magazine,
won the Woodberry Poetry Prize, served as president of the Philolexian Society (literary and debate
group), and joined Boar's Head Society (poetry society).[22][24] He was a resident of Hartley Hall, where
other Beat Generation poets such as Jack Kerouac and Herbert Gold also lived.[25][26] Ginsberg has
stated that he considered his required freshman seminar in Great Books, taught by Lionel Trilling, to be
his favorite Columbia course.[27]

According to The Poetry Foundation, Ginsberg spent several months in a mental institution after he
pleaded insanity during a hearing. He was allegedly being prosecuted for harboring stolen goods in his
dorm room. It was noted that the stolen property was not his, but belonged to an acquaintance. [28]
Ginsberg also took part in public readings at the Episcopal St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery which
would later hold a memorial service for him after his death.[29][30]