Elise Cowen

Elise Nada Cowen ( born 1933 in Long Iceland, New York, † February 1, 1962 in Washington Heights (New York City ) ) was an American poet of the Beat Generation.

Life

Elise Cowen was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family. She began writing poetry in her school days. At Barnard College, she met Joyce Johnson (then glass man) know. Their philosophy professor she met Allen Ginsberg. They noted that they had a mutual acquaintance from psychiatry: Carl Solomon; the Ginsberg poem Howl be devoted. Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky shared an apartment with Elise and her friend Sheila.

Cowen put her life to an end in 1962 by jumping through a closed window at her parents' house. After her death, her parents destroyed the bulk of her poetry; however, some were owned by Leo Skir, which took care of their publication.

Work

• Sustain Me in Despair, Poems ( English), Søren Jensen Lille Press ( Denmark), 2013