For defining the anguish of society’s outsiders with his 1955 poem “Howl," Allen Ginsberg became a characteristic voice of the Beat Generation. He continued as an influential figure in the ’60s counterculture and survived to become a cultural elder statesman. First Thought collects 18 interviews with Ginsberg from 1960 through 1997 and contains previously unpublished material. He emerges as a thoughtful yet sensual man grappling with issues of his day, sometimes with prescience. He was talking about global warming and the digitalization of information in 1978! Editor Michael Schumacher, a Kenosha writer who authored a biography of Ginsberg, included one of his discussions with the poet--1986 interview on recurring dreams, growing old and intimations of death.
