What You Find Digging Around

So while I was trying to answer this increasingly frustrating reference question, I did stumble upon something very interesting.

In the 1960s renowned poet Alan Ginsberg came to Indiana University. He gave a lecture and read a poem. Those who know of Ginsberg's work know that he was famous for pushing convention aside and directly commenting on the state of society. Well, apparently most people at IU did not know this. Ginsberg created a tremendous stir.

I found literally dozen of articles proclaiming that IU had allowed "obscenity" on campus. The papers called Ginsberg "unwashed" and that he had embarrassed the great institution of IU.

They even started a committee to look into this situation to deem if officials had knowingly exposed IU students to "obscenity".

It is surely a sign of the times, but still a very interesting part of IU history that I might have missed were it not for that tough reference question.

Side note: I have to say that as an English major that focused on the Beats, I am profoundly jealous that I couldn't see Ginsberg speak.