Family Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and a Son

FAMILY BUSINESS is not only a personal glimpse into the life of one of the great US poets, but also the moving story of a relationship between a father and a son set against the turbulent world of postwar America. As a literary portrait of a father and son, little can match the eloquence and honesty of this collection of letters, written between the years 1944 and 1976. The illuminating correspondence between Allen Ginsberg and his father, Louis, begins when Allen is a precocious, rebellious college student and charts his ascension as a revolutionary icon in poetry. Their letters are filled with affection, respect, and a healthy dose of argumentative zeal – they debate every major political and artistic issue that faced America in over three decades of extraordinary change. Their correspondence also reveals the defining moments that shaped Allen’s art – his experimentation with LSD, his various love affairs and obsessions, his travels around the globe. We see, from this unique perspective, the crucial process of a poet’s widening experience of the world, and how these experiences are transformed in his art.