Gregory Corso was not born a poet—he made himself one. Abandoned by his mother, raised in foster homes, and hardened by reform schools and prison, Nunzio Corso seemed destined to disappear into the machinery of the state. Instead, he reinvented himself as Gregory Corso—one of the most singular voices of the Beat Generation and the author of poems that would help redefine American poetry. In The Poem Human , Kurt Hemmer offers the most searching and authoritative biography of Corso to date. Drawing on prison records, foster-care files, court documents, letters, interviews, and firsthand encounters, Hemmer traces Corso’s transformation from an illiterate teenage thief into a poet whose work fused humor, terror, lyric beauty, and metaphysical ambition. Rather than smoothing over Corso’s contradictions, Hemmer places them at the center of the story, revealing how instability, reinvention, and mythmaking became the engine of Corso’s art. Moving beyond Beat legend and caricature, The Poem Human shows Corso not merely as a member of a movement, but as a self-created figure—someone who understood that poetry and poet were inseparable. This is not just the life of a writer, but the story of a human being who became a poem. "No one has delved more thoroughly into the life of Gregory Corso than Kurt Hemmer. The fascinating story of a very troubled man and a born, self-made American poet, who like Jack Kerouac came from an immigrant family." -- Joyce Johnson , author of Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir and The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac “An accessible overview of the Beat Generation’s ‘best, most famous, and most innovative’ works, offering concise entries on major contributors and their lasting influence.” ― Booklist on Encyclopedia of Beat Literature "This excellent, user-friendly resource offers succinct, scholarly analyses of the best works of Beat literature, spanning iconic figures like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to a wider circle of artists associated with the movement." ― School Library Journal on Encyclopedia of Beat Literature Kurt Hemmer is a literary scholar and critic whose work focuses on American poetry and the Beat Generation. He is the author of The Poem Human: A Biography of Gregory Corso and has spent decades researching Corso’s life through archival materials, prison and foster-care records, letters, interviews, and firsthand encounters. Hemmer teaches literature at Harper College and lives in Illinois.