Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs).
Life
Corso's mother, sixteen years old when Gregory was born, abandoned the family a year later and returned to Italy. Corso spent most of his childhood in orphanages and foster homes. His father remarried when he was eleven years old, and he had his son stay with him, but Corso repeatedly ran away. He was sent to a boy's home, from which he also ran away. His troubled adolescence included a stint of several months in the Tombs, the New York City jail, for a case involving a stolen radio, and three months of observation in Bellevue. At seventeen, he was convicted of theft and sentenced to a three-year term in Clinton State Prison in Dannemora, New York. While serving his sentence Corso dove into literature in the prison library and began writing poetry. He returned to New York City after his release in 1950.
Meeting Allen Ginsberg
Gregory Corso met Allen Ginsberg, in the Pony Stable Bar, one of New York's first openly lesbian bars. Corso only 20 and recently released from prison, was supported by the Pony Stable patrons. Coros was writing poetry there the night of their meeting. Ginsberg arrived, cruising bars and was immediately attracted to Corso, who was straight but understanding of homosexuality after three years in prison. Ginsberg was even more struck by reading Corso's poems, realizing Corso was "spiritually gifted." Ginsberg introduced Corso to the rest of his inner circle - Jakc Kerouac, William Burroughs and other. . In their first meeting at the Pony Stable, Corso showed Ginsberg a poem about a woman who lived across the street from him, and sunbathed naked in the window. Amazingly the woman just happened to be Ginsberg's girlfriend during one of his forays into heterosexuality. Ginsberge introduced the young and virginal Corso to the sunbathing woman, and in a panic, Corso ran from her apartment. Ginsberg and Corso remained life-long friends and collaborators.
To Paris and the 'Beat Hotel'
In 1957, Ginsberg surprised the literary world by abandoning San Francisco and, after a spell in Morocco, he and Peter Orlovsky were led to Paris by Gregory Corso. Corso introduced them to a shabby lodging house above a bar at 9 rue Gît-le-Coeur that was to become known as the Beat Hotel. They were soon joined by William Burroughs and others. It was a productive, creative time for all of them. It was a haven for young painters, writers and black Jazz musicians. There, Ginseberg finished his epic poem "Kaddish", Corso composed "Bomb" and "Marriage", and Burroughs (with Ginsberg and Corso's help) put together "Naked Lunch", from previous writings. This period was documented by the photographer Harold Chapman, who moved in at about the same time, and took pictures constantly of the residents of the 'hotel' until it closed in 1963. Ginsberg and Orlovsky left for travels to india in 1967. Corso returned to New York in 1958. Burroughs stayed on in Europe.
Return to New York - The "Beatniks"
In late 1958, Corso reunited with Ginsberg and Orlovsky. Burroughs returned eventually. They were astonished that before they left for Europe they had sparked a social movement, which San Francisco Columnist Herb Caen call, "Beat-nik", a parody of Sput-nik. The originals of the inner circle of Beats, could not afford to dress in decent sports clothes and resorted to army - navy surplus and work clothes. They were amazed to see young middle class people "dressing beat" - Khakis, jeans, tight black pants, torreadors, peddle pumpers, flats, beards, goatees, comprised the "Beat" wardrobe. Accoutremont were bongos, street guitars,
Columbia University Reading
Columbia recognized at least the social change that "The Beats" had unwittingly wrote and organized a welcome home reading in 1959
Corso died in Minnesota of prostate cancer on January 17, 2001. He is buried just as he wanted, next to the grave of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in the Cimitero Acattolico, the Protestant Cemetery, Rome. He wrote his own epitaph:
- Spirit
- is Life
- It flows thru
- the death of me
- endlessly
- like a river
- unafraid
- of becoming
- the sea
Poetry
Gregory Corso was the first of the inner circle of "The Beats" to be published H's first volume of poetryThe Vestal Lady on Brattle and other poems. was published in 1952 (with the assistance of associates at Harvard, where he had been auditing classes) and quickly distributed by City Lights. This was the year before the publication of Allen Ginsberg's first collection of poetry, and six years before Kerouac's On the Road. In 1958, Corso had an expanded collection of poems published as number 8 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series: Gasoline/Vestal Lady on Brattle. His notable poems are many: Bomb (a "concrete poem" formatted in typed paper slips of verse, arranged in the shape of a mushroom cloud), "Elegaic Feelings American" of the recently deceased Jack Kerouac, and Marriage, a humorous meditation on the institution. A passage from that poem:
- But I should get married I should be good
- How nice it'd be to come home to her
- and sit by the fireplace and she in the kitchen
- aproned young and lovely wanting my baby
- and so happy about me she burns the roast beef
- and comes crying to me and I get up from my big papa chair
- saying Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple deaf!
- God what a husband I'd make! Yes, I should get married!
- So much to do! like sneaking into Mr Jones' house late at night
- and cover his golf clubs with 1920 Norwegian books
- Like hanging a picture of Rimbaud on the lawnmower
- like pasting Tannu Tuva postage stamps all over the picket fence
- like when Mrs Kindhead comes to collect for the Community Chest
- grab her and tell her There are unfavorable omens in the sky!
- And when the mayor comes to get my vote tell him
- When are you going to stop people killing whales!
- And when the milkman comes leave him a note in the bottle
- Penguin dust, bring me penguin dust, I want penguin dust--
Ted Morgan described Corso's place in the beat literary
world (in Literary Outlaw, the Life and Times of William S. Burroughs): If Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs were the Three Musketeers of the movement, Corso was their D'Artagnan, a sort of junior partner, accepted and appreciated, but with less than complete parity. He had not been in at the start, which was the alliance of the Columbia intellectuals with the Times Square hipsters. He was a recent adherent, although his credentials were impressive enough to gain him unrestricted admittance ...
Quotes
Other than Mr. Corso, Gregory was all you ever needed to know. He defined the name by his every word or act. Always succinct, he never tried. Once he called you "My Ira", or "My Janine" or "My Allen", he was forever "Your Gregory". — Ira Coehen
References
- Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0140151028 (hc);
Bibliography
- The Vestal Lady and Other Poems (1955)
- This Hung-Up Age (1955) (play)
- Gasoline (1958)
- Bomb (1958)
- The Happy Birthday of Death (1960)
- Minutes to Go (1960)(novel) w/ Sinclair Beiles, William S. Burroughs, and Brion Gysin.
- The American Express (1961) (novel)
- Long Live Man (1962)
- There is Yet Time to Run Back through Life and Expiate All That's been Sadly Done (1965)
- Elegaic Feelings American (1970)
- Egyptian Cross (1971)
- Ankh (1971)
- The Night Last Night was at its Nightest (1972)
- Earth Egg (1974)
- Writings from OX (1979) (with interview by Michael Andre)
- Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit (1981)
- Mindfield: New and Selected Poems (1989)