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THE DAY THE FBI VISITED ALLEN GINSBERG'S COUSIN
A year ago September, at the very first performance we gave, a gentleman came up to John and me and introduced himself as Allen Ginsberg's cousin, Ed Levy. This past week Ed stopped by the Museum in Monterey and told me a story I asked him to share with all of you. Here it is:

"It was June 1954. My brother Eugene and I were
students at San Jose State College. I was in our
apartment when there was a knock on the door. A young
man in a suit and tie was standing at the door. He
gave me a name (I don’t remember it) asked if I was
Edward or Eugene Levy. I told him I was Ed and he said
he was from the FBI and had some questions to ask
about My uncle Max who lived in Riverside, Calif. I
was very nervous at this point. It was the era of the
Joe McCarthy witchhunts, although I think that the
Army-McCarthy hearings had just ended. Anyway I
invited him in and he started asking me questions
about Max. Max was a very liberal person, and at the
time subscribed to a couple of Communist Party
publications. I finally told my visitor that I did not
feel comfortable answering his questions.

"At that point he told me he wasn’t from the FBI but
was my cousin Allen Ginsberg from New Jersey (or New
York). I was stunned. I knew I had a cousin or two on
the East Coast, but am not sure I even knew their
names. Allen and his brother Eugene were born and
raised on the East Coast and my brother and I were
born and raised on the West Coast. Except for one or
two letters with Aunt Eleanor, I had no contact with
that part of the family. Allen was on his way to San
Francisco to start a job as an analyst with a stock
brokerage firm in the city. He had stopped in
Riverside to visit my uncle who told him about his
cousins in San Jose. We visited for awhile and went to
dinner. I had no inkling that he was on his way to
becoming a poet, let alone a world famous one. The
clean shaven, well dressed young man would look
totally different two years later when next I saw him."