Putting Scrap Leaves on the Web was a labor of love by Steve Silberman and Alex Vigdor. It is for scholarly, poetic, inspirational, non-profit use only, to bring Allen's words and the beauty and humanity of his manuscript to those who can't locate a copy of this precious book.
Steve Silberman first met Allen Ginsberg in 1977 and became his student at The Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Allen was Steve's friend and teacher until the poet's death in 1997.
Steve helped edit the text for Allen's second collection of photographs, Snapshot Poetics, and has written about the Beats for national magazines. His essays "How Beat Happened," "Ginsberg: A Web Unto Himself," and related texts and interviews, are archived here. Steve also co-wrote Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads with David Shenk, and is the senior culture writer for Wired News.
Alex Vigdor received his B.A. in Multimedia Design from Indiana University in 1997. Besides web, CD-ROM and graphic design, Alex's interests include electronic music composition, philosophy, meditation, yoga, all things Macintosh, good poetry and literature, and generally living wary of societal assumptions and practices that hinder experiencing every moment peacefully. A long-time resident of Bloomington, Indiana, Alex has no specific plans for the future except to eat well, sleep well, love well, and persistently engage his mind towards its own amelioration. Alex is a freelance Web designer.
The photos of Allen are by Marc Geller, and should not be used without permission.
Scrap Leaves was published to the Web on 10 April, 1997.
Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi, svaha!