Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
In 1948, Allen Ginsberg had a "vision," in which he was visited by the (long-dead) English poet William Blake in his apartment in New York. The visit paid off. His work would be influenced by the experience for the next fifteen years. (Source.)
After getting arrested when he wrecked a car full of stolen goods (tsk, tsk), Ginsberg was sentenced to spend time in the Columbia Psychiatric Institute. (Source.)
The FBI had a file on Allen. Dun dun dun… (Source.)
Ginsberg is the co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. Try fitting all of that onto a diploma. (Source.)
Ginsberg's "momma," who took him to Communist Cell meetings, was Naomi Ginsberg. She suffered severe mental illness and was eventually institutionalized, and then lobotomized. (Source.)