Who is Gregory Corso from The Portable Beat Reader and what is their importance? The_Portable_Beat_Reader English & Literature Gregory Corso | The Portable Beat Reader

Gregory Corso is a major Beat poet and also the basis for Jack Kerouac's romantic rival in his novel "The Subterraneans." Corso is born in 1930 in Greenwich Village and spends much of his youth in foster care and a home for juvenile delinquents after he steals a radio at 12. Corso meets Ginsberg in 1950, and Ginsberg encourages Corso in his writing. Corso publishes his first book of poems—"The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems"—in 1955. The collection includes "I Am 25," Corso's attack on older and more tradition bound poets.