Talk:Gregory Corso/Archive 1

Ripped
At least the first part of the Life section is ripped straight from the biography on the Museum of American Poetics link. Max 097 00:23, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Incarceration made up
So, as written we're to assume that Corso's story about his incarceration was made-up later: the tale goes that he pulled off a successful robbery using surplus radio's to coordinate with his confederates, one of whom ratted on him, and he's picked up down in Florida strutting around in a zoot suit. I can easily believe that this was made-up, but if so we should probably say so: "Some accounts have it that ..., but this romanticized version of the story doesn't match the facts, as indicated in ...". But we really need some citations on all of this. -- Doom (talk) 22:17, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Year mother left him incorrect
It says Corso's mother left him in 1935, a month after he was born... but he was born in 1930. Hierarchitectitiptitoploftical (talk) 02:36, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Gregory in the Summer of 1953
Gregory Corso was an unlikely and hapless counselor at Camp Kiwago on Upper Twin Late in Harriman State Park in the summer of 1953. At that time he fancied himself a painter, not a poet. He seemed closer to thirty than twenty-three. I knew him fairly well at camp and later in the Village, especially at the San Remo and Fugazzi's. I do not know how accurate his autobiographical statements are, but he loved to put people on. For example, at the conclusion of our summer at camp, I was having a spaghetti dinner with Gregory at Fugazzi's. A girl who knew him came in, and Gregory, who had been shoveling the spaghetti down, suddenly began to twirl a single strand and look forlorn. When the girl asked what he had been up to, Gregory announced that he had just returned from Africa! He was a gentle soul, in my experience.  75.15.29.81 (talk) 16:09, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Return home - Date wrong?
The section on Childhood claims:


 * Corso spent the next 8 years in foster care at least five different states. His father declined to visit him. Corso went to Christian parochial schools, was an altar boy, and a gifted student. In order to avoid the military draft, his father brought Gregory home in 1953. His father was nevertheless drafted.

This can't be correct. Corso would have been 23 at the time, not the minor child that would have qualified his father for an exemption from the draft (in fact, he would have been of draftable age himself). I'm guessing that the year was 1943, when he would have been 13 and a minor. Please, someone, do the research and make the appropriate correction. Bill Jefferys (talk) 20:38, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

More discrepancies: The article says:


 * Corso spent the next 8 years in foster care at least five different states. His father declined to visit him.

However, it is not clear from the article where "the next 8 years" starts. Clearly it is not after the only previously mentioned event, in the previous paragraph, since that paragraph states that:


 * In April 1930, a month after he was born, Corso's mother abandoned him, leaving him in New York. Corso’s father, Gary "Fortunato" Corso, consistently told his son Gregory that his mother had returned to Italy and deserted the family. He was also told that she was a prostitute and was "disgraziata" (disgraced) and forced into Italian exile.

Here we learn that Corso was abandoned by his mother when he was one month old, and then his father "consistently" told him that she had been disgraced, and then he went into foster care with no contact from his father. First, a one-month-old baby would not remember this information from the father, and second, the probable date of his being reclaimed by his father is 1943, 13 years after his birth (q.v.). So this leaves 5 years unaccounted for.

But in an earlier version of the article, it was stated that Corso had been abandoned by his mother in 1935, at age 5 (see discussion at beginning of this talk pate). That would account for the 5 missing years, and if his father put him into foster care shortly later would also make the timeline consistent.

Alternatively, it could be that he was abandoned by his mother at age 1 month, and raised by his father for the next 5 years, and then put into foster care.

Someone please check this. The article is obviously wrong about his early childhood, and needs to be corrected. But I am not able to do it myself. Bill Jefferys (talk) 00:52, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Several apparently reliable sources disagree with the information in the article. The American Academy of Poets and Answers.com (a subsidiary of Encyclopedia Britannica) agree that he was in foster care at various facilities for the next 11 (not 8) years, and that he returned to his father in 1941 (not 1953). Britannica agrees that his father was draften nonetheless, and that after that he was "out on the street," in and out of trouble with the law.

I will modify this part of the article accordingly. Bill Jefferys (talk) 19:27, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Captions on image of Corso with Kerouac and others
The of Corso with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and Lafcadio Orlovsky is wonderful, but the caption does not identify any of the people there except for Corso. I think that Kerouac is the one in the upper left (I met Kerouac and Corso personally in '58 or '59 ...it's a long story...) and that it may be that the guy in the upper center is Ginsberg (looks like it could be him) but the guy in the upper right and the guy to the right of Corso look like they are brothers and could be the Orlovsky brothers, but which is which?

If anyone can supply more definitive identifications of the people in this photographs, that would be great! Bill Jefferys (talk) 04:32, 27 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Speaking of photos, the uploader who added these claims to own the copyrights to them. This seems unlikely in which case the images are subject to deletion. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 15:37, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Die On Me
I came here looking for information on a CD recorded shortly before his death (he died one week after recording ended) called Die On Me. I was surprised to find no mention of it in the article. I read of the CD, recorded by Hall Willner, in Marianne Faithfull's second volume of autobiography. Does anybody know of this? HairyWombat (talk) 20:14, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Marriage and children
This article makes no mention of his marriage, the daughter produced through it, or the other children he had outside of wedlock. I don't know any reliable sources - I'm only familiar with him at all because one of his children is my half-sister, and everything I know is through that side of the family - but it seems like this is a rather glaring omission. --Icarus (Hi!) 19:11, 24 August 2009 (UTC)


 * According to the second volume of Marianne Faithfull's autobiography, Corso's daughter cared for him at the end of his life. So this is a serious omission from the article. HairyWombat (talk) 20:17, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Dreadful
This a a dreadful article. Can someone familiar w/ the history of Corso and the beats fill it in. 30-40 years are missing. It's essentially a gloss. He lived a pretty lousy, exploitative life as I understand it. Tapered (talk) 01:35, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Late 80's/early 90's Corso lived in NYC with Roger and Irvyne Richards, and was an advid participant in downtown literary salon which centered around Richard's shop: The Rare Book Room. Gdnerval (talk) 04:06, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Hope Savage
Should be in article. Anyone know what has happened to her? 72.209.63.226 (talk) 19:36, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Poetry
This article on Gregory Corso makes the following claim: "Corso's first volume of poetry The Vestal Lady on Brattle was published in 1955 (with the assistance of students at Harvard, where he had been auditing classes). Corso was thus the first of the Beats to be published, despite being the youngest."

The last sentence here is false. Corso was NOT "the first of the Beats to be published." Jack Kerouac's The Town and the City was published in 1950, and Junky, by William Burroughs (aka William Lee), was published by Ace books in 1953.Jmartino2006 (talk) 21:14, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

"Marriage" Poem
I've wondered if it means that Corso was asexual.Gniob (talk) 03:12, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Cambridge
In the early 70s, my academic adviser & German instructor stated that he had roomed with Corso at Harvard (the Elliott House cited in the article?) & that Corso was fond of bringing big Germanic, Brunhilde-y-looking women to the room with him, where they would rock him in their laps, like a baby. Can't claim the veracity of that, but it is a startling image. 04:03, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

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Cemetery in which Corso is buried
Article incorrectly states that the cemetery in which he is buried is a "strictly protestant" "English cemetery"... This is not true. Although there are many English Protestants buried there, it is simply the cemetery in Rome for those who are not Catholic (hence its name, Cimitero Acattolico, Acatholic Cemetery). There are people buried there from all over the world (many epitaphs are written in German, Russian, Italian, etc.) and from all different faiths (mostly non-catholic Christians, but also Jews, Muslims and Atheists [such as Antonio Gramsci]). If there was difficulty in securing permission for his burial, it was probably due to the fact that it is an historical cemetery, no longer open for new burials, not because Corso was neither English nor Protestant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.28.253.120 (talk) 14:42, 22 April 2019 (UTC)