Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg

(Paperback)

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With the sweep of an epic novel, Michael Schumacher tells the story of Allen Ginsberg and his times, with fascinating portraits of Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and William Burroughs, among others, along with many rarely seen photographs.

Reviews

"Given access to Ginsbergs private archives and having interviewed more than 100 people in 10 years of research, Schumacher weaves a monumental cultural biography."Publishers Weekly

"The man, the poet visionary who created the beat generation single-mindedly out of the whole cloth of his dharma brothers is here embodied whole."Lawrence Ferlinghetti

"Michael Schumachers critical biography of Allen Ginsberg is a brilliant study of the poet, his work, and his times. Clear, candid, cogent, and complete, Schumacher has produced a marvelously balanced portrait, accessible to all lovers of American poetry."Ann Charters, author of Kerouac: A Biography and The Portable Beat Reader

"Dharma Lion is a thorough, detailed, painstaking, monumental, comprehensive, encyclopedic account of the life of our Poet Laureate, Allen Ginsberg."Timothy Leary

"Allen Ginsberg is our magnanimous mountain, generous giant of living American poetry. He deserves a book as expansive and embracing as this."John Tytell, author of Naked Angels: The Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation

"Strong, wonderfully absorbing life of Beat bard Allen Ginsberg that breaks new ground in its critical analyses of the poets work. Schumacher goes over the events in Ginsbergs life with an intelligence that bonds us to the emotionally battered poet. Rings the doorbell on your heart, your brain, and your love of great verse."Kirkus Reviews

"Sensory and engrossing. [Schumachers] life of Ginsberg is a broad landscape replete with idiosyncratic detail (rooted in a complete study of the Ginsberg archives, as well as interview transcripts) that demands close examination and, largely, holds up to such scrutiny."The Arts Fuse

Author Bio

Michael Schumacher has written extensively about Allen Ginsberg and the Beat Generation. His articles, reviews, and essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country. He is editor of Family Business, a collection of letters between Allen and Louis Ginsberg, and The Essential Ginsberg, a volume of the best of Ginsbergs poems, essays, songs, letters, journal entries, interviews, and photographs. He lives in Wisconsin.