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Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile introduction to the poem and the era
Review: A worthwhile treatment of the history of the writing of an important American poem. However, this book is not a history of the Beat Generation. It covers Cassady, Kerouac, and Burroughs, but only insofar as they intersected with Ginsberg. This is mostly a literary biography of Ginsberg. That doesn't diminish its value, but it does point to the book's main focus.
The book is best in its focus on Ginsberg's formative years and the themes of alienation and fear that went into the creation of "Howl." The book has less to say about the poem's aftermath: the infamous reading in San Francisco, the seizure of the book by customs officials, and the susequent obscenity trial are dispensed with in a chapter, and Ginsberg's subsequent life is summarized in a few pages.
The book is also written in what is frequently a bloodless, dry style that fails to do justice to the feverishness of the times and the people involved. You never get away from the fact that you are reading a book written by an academic, albeit a thoughtful and sympathetic one. There are other books out there that capture the times more passionately. However, if you are intrigued by the era and are looking for a jumping-off point to explore other work about the Beats, you could do a lot worse than using this book as an introduction.
Rating:
Summary: Raskin Uncovers Some Remarkable Information
Review: AMERICAN SCREAM is a well-done precis of everything that was happening in American culture at the time Ginsberg wrote HOWL and in the months that succeeded his breakthrough.
Better yet, Raskin has had quite a coup and he has persuaded Ginsberg's psychoanalyst (Dr Hicks) to talk about the mental and emotional torments Ginsberg had first to overcome before he could begin the writing proper, and he has ventured into the dusty file bins and uncovered for us the actual records of Ginsberg's stays in mental hospitals and psychiatris facilities. Heretofore such records were only vaguely guessed at. Raskin uses the new information wisely, much as Diane Wood Middlebrook was able to use the testimony of Anne Sexton's analyst when writing her biography some years ago of Sexton.
There are a few places where I disagree with Raskin's implications. Regarding the now-notorious "6 Gallery" reading in San Francisco where AG premiered HOWL, Raskin states, "Many of the notable local poets--Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, and Robin Blaser--were not included in the program, and so the gala event at the Six Gallery was a cultural snub of sorts to the poets who thought they embodied the best of Bay Area poetry." This is disingenuous, as Raskin knows: neither Duncan, Spicer nor Blaser was living in the Bay Area at the time. Duncan was at Black Mountain College, Spicer living in NYC, and Blaser in Boston. How is this a "cultural snub"? It's also a shame that such a classy book should be spoiled by the numerous typos. On one page alone the names of two poets who spoke at Ginsberg's funeral are mis=spelled, so we have Andrew "Shilling" instead of Schelling, and Robert "Haas" instead of Hass. They show up in the index thus abused as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Get it from the horse's mouth
Review: Excellent. The very best in book on the beat movement that I have read and, regarding Ginsberg with the main, but not only, focus on his pivitol mid-twentienth century poem 'Howl' there has never been and most probably never will be a more detailed understanding and appreciation of that great poem.
This book is absolutely essential for anyone interested in poetry and in the major movements in the written arts during America's critical mid-century political and artistic upheavals.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Book on the Myth of the Beat Generation
Review: The myth of the Beat Generation has become cliche. That's what author Jonah Raskin has to say in this new book. According to Raskin, the likes of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs were not devoted artists who shunned fame and fortune. Instead, Ginsberg actively sought fame and fortune, but did so in an unconventional way. Specifically, Ginsberg's epic poem Howl was purposely written to create controversy which lead to notoriety and eventually a lot of money. Ginsberg also set up a Bhuddist institute in Colorado to capitalize on his fame. The institute also served Ginsberg's need to cultivate publicity and raise large amounts of money without appearing to "sell out." The institute also ran a school for aspiring writers that included a faculty consisting of many other leading Beat Generation writers. In recognizing fact that so many Beat Generation writers praised poverty while enjoying quite materialistic lives, author Raskin has shattered the myth of the Beat Generation. If anything, the Beats's writing had more in common with the hackneyed horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft than with anything truly original. This book is an excellent contribution to the literature about the Beat Generation.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Book on the Myth of the Beat Generation
Review: The myth of the Beat Generation has become cliche. That's what author Jonah Raskin has to say in this new book. According to Raskin, the likes of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs were not devoted artists who shunned fame and fortune. Instead, Ginsberg actively sought fame and fortune, but did so in an unconventional way. Specifically, Ginsberg's epic poem Howl was purposely written to create controversy which lead to notoriety and eventually a lot of money. Ginsberg also set up a Bhuddist institute in Colorado to capitalize on his fame. The institute also served Ginsberg's need to cultivate publicity and raise large amounts of money without appearing to "sell out." The institute also ran a school for aspiring writers that included a faculty consisting of many other leading Beat Generation writers. In recognizing fact that so many Beat Generation writers praised poverty while enjoying quite materialistic lives, author Raskin has shattered the myth of the Beat Generation. If anything, the Beats's writing had more in common with the hackneyed horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft than with anything truly original. This book is an excellent contribution to the literature about the Beat Generation.
Rating:
Summary: The beat goes on
Review: This vignette of the poetic birth of the now classic _Howl_ by Allen Ginsberg puts those radical years in cameo and also provides biographical wherewithall leading up to the seminal moment, the same moment as that of the beats, thence the brouhaha of the sixties generation, so dearly beloved of current cultural conservatives, now gone to the dogs and deserving all howling echoes still reverberating. Interesting is the early Ginsberg, and the discombobulation of his neuroses maturing into a creative tide.
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