Gregory Corso papers
Gregory Corso's notebook with editing
Collection area: Literature
Collection dates: 1973-1975
Ten spiral notebooks, consisting of holograph poems and drawings, and typescript drafts of poems, stapled or glued to pages in the notebooks. Many of these have notations by Corso.
Born Nunzio Corso in 1930 in New York City, Gregory Corso's life began inauspiciously. Abandoned by his mother when he was still an infant, he lived in a succession of foster homes, orphanages and reform schools, and only finished grammar school. Sent to prison for robbery in 1947, Corso educated himself, began reading widely in art and literature, and developed many of the themes he would later express through poetry, such as his vision of poetry as a means of societal change.
Shortly after his release from prison in 1950, he met poet Allen Ginsberg, and through Ginsberg began his association with the Beat Generation poets. Gregory Corso has published several books, primarily poetry but including a novel and plays.
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