Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) was born in Newark, New Jersey, and became one of the defining voices of the Beat Generation. His landmark poem Howl, first performed in San Francisco in 1955 and published by City Lights Books in 1956, challenged obscenity laws and transformed American poetry with its long, incantatory lines and unflinching social critique. His collection Kaddish and Other Poems (City Lights, 1961), a lament for his mother, is considered among his finest achievements. Deeply influenced by Walt Whitman and William Blake, Ginsberg was also a prominent activist, opposing the Vietnam War and advocating for civil liberties. He received the National Book Award for The Fall of America in 1974.