Rainy night on Union Square, full moon. Want more poems? Wait till I'm dead. Allen Ginsberg, August 8, 1990, 3:30 A.M. The first new Ginsberg collection in over fifteen years, Wait Till I'm Dead is a landmark publication, edited by renowned Ginsberg scholar Bill Morgan and introduced by award-winning poet and Ginsberg enthusiast Rachel Zucker. Ginsberg wrote incessantly for more than fifty years, often composing poetry on demand, and many of the poems collected in this volume were scribbled in letters or sent off to obscure publications and unjustly forgotten. Wait Till I'm Dead, which spans the whole of Ginsberg's long writing career, from the 1940's to the 1990's, is a testament to Ginsberg's astonishing writing and singular aesthetics. Following the chronology of his life, Wait Till I'm Dead reproduces the poems together with extensive notes. Containing 104 previously uncollected poems and accompanied by original photographs, Wait Till I'm Dead is the final major contribution to Ginsberg's sprawling oeuvre, a must-read for Ginsberg neophytes and longtime fans alike.
"Ginsberg's importance is unquestionable. Among his many roles in 20th century culture; 60's protest jokester, Zen ambassador, literary lion; he was also, for many, the gateway poet. These are not unlike other Ginsberg poems (fierce, funny, libidinous, subversive) but here they afford a fresh chronological tour of Ginsberg's life, which is also one version of the story of the second half of the 20
