Gregory Nunzio Corso, a central figure of the Beat Generation, epitomized the turbulent yet vibrant spirit of the era. His life mirrored his art: raw, unconventional, and filled with both struggle and inspiration. Emerging from a challenging upbringing, Corso's journey into poetry was as tumultuous as it was transformative.

Early Life and Loss

Born to impoverished Italian immigrants in New York City, Corso's early years were steeped in hardship. His mother passed away when he was still young, leaving him with a deep sense of loss. This absence of maternal affection profoundly affected him, as he poignantly expressed, "I do not know how to accept love when love is given me. I needed that love when I was motherless young and never had it." His childhood was marked by instability; at eleven, he was placed in an orphanage, and by thirteen, found himself in the Children's Observation Ward at Bellevue Hospital. Reflecting on this period, Corso remarked, "I was alone in the world—no mother and my father was at war... to exist I stole minor things and to sleep I slept on the rooftops and in the subway." Despite describing his thirteenth year as a "strange hell," Corso believed such experiences birthed his poetic sensibilities.

Path to Poetry Through Adversity

Corso's teenage years were spent navigating the harsh realities of New York's streets, where he moved between five foster homes. His life took a pivotal turn at sixteen when he and two friends were caught attempting to rob a store. Instead of a boys' reformatory, he was sentenced to three years at Clinton Prison. Surprisingly, Corso viewed this incarceration as one of his life’s most significant events. It was there that he began writing poetry, dedicating his second book, Gasoline, to "the angels of Clinton Prison," who pushed him to shed "the often silly consciousness of youth" and confront maturity.

Emergence as a Poet

Upon his release in 1950, Corso embarked on a series of transient jobs across the country—manual labor, reporting for the Los Angeles Examiner, and working as a merchant seaman. His travels even led him to Mexico. Eventually, he settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where an editor from the Cambridge Review and a supportive circle of Harvard students encouraged his literary pursuits. In 1955, he published his first poetry collection, The Vestal Lady on Brattle, and Other Poems.

Rise to Prominence

Corso quickly gained recognition through poetry readings across the East and Midwest. With the publication of The Vestal Lady on Brattle, and Other Poems and his association with fellow Beat icons Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder, Corso's work began appearing in esteemed journals like Esquire and Partisan Review. In 1958, Lawrence Ferlinghetti published Corso's renowned poem "Bomb" and the book Gasoline through City Lights Bookshop. After a tour through Europe, Corso returned to the United States in 1961 and taught poetry temporarily at New York State University at Buffalo. His personal life also evolved with his marriage to Sally November in 1963.

Creative Shifts and Personal Challenges

The 1960s saw Corso navigating both creative and personal upheavals, including a divorce. His 1960 publication, The Happy Birthday of Death, featured acclaimed works such as "Bomb," "Power," "Army," and "Marriage," but later works often veered towards sentimentality. This period of fluctuation is evident in collections like Long Live Man and The Mutation of the Spirit. With the release of Elegiac Feelings American in 1970 and Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit in 1981, Corso's approach to poetry evolved, reflecting a more meticulous and crafted style, contrasting with the spontaneous writing of his Beat contemporaries.

Later Years and Legacy

Corso's life remained peripatetic, with journeys to Eastern Europe and teaching stints in Boulder, Colorado, in addition to his time at Buffalo. He married three times and fathered five children. In his later years, he withdrew from the public eye, occasionally participating in tributes. Notably, he attended Allen Ginsberg's funeral in 1996, bidding farewell to an old comrade. Health issues eventually led him to move to Minneapolis, where he lived with his daughter until his death in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, on January 17, 2001, at seventy years old.