Allen Ginsberg is a person.
Irwin Allen Ginsberg ( [ ˈɡɪnzbərɡ ] June 3 , 1926 -- April 5 , 1997 ) was an American poet of Jewish origin , and one of the leading figures of both the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the counterculture that soon would follow . He was one of many influential American writers of his time known as the Beat Generation , which included famous writers such as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs . At Trungpa 's urging , Ginsberg and poet Anne Waldman started The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics there in 1974 .