Photo courtesy of Brenda Knight
Copyright Allen Ginsberg/Fahey Klein Gallery
As Elise got older, she lost interest in going to Florida with her parents and instead locked herself in her room reading the poetry of Ezra Pound and T.S Eliot. She smoked, and she did not care about her appearance, which caused her father and mother even more agony.
She attended Barnard
College, following her parents plan, but she did not take well to school.
She was an independent, unconventional thinker who struggled to follow rules
and formats that her English professors wanted. She did however meet many
influential friends like Joyce Johnson and Leo Skir. She also has an affair
with her philosophy professor, whom eventually introduces her �twin soul,�
Allen Ginsberg.
When Elise and Allen met, they connected instantly. They were very similar; they even looked alike with their dark hair and rimmed glasses. Allen was Elise�s inspiration; as Joyce states, �there�s something between Allen and my friend Elise, that instant knowing which can exist like a mysterious current between two people. He accepts her in her Crazy-Jane-ness, somehow encompasses her��he seems to think I�m very deep,� Elise remarked wryly afterward, shrugging it off because maybe it was safer not to believe it� (Minor Characters 75). They had an affair for awhile, but when Allen moved on, Elise struggled to let go. �Elise was a moment in Allen�s life. In Elise�s life, Allen was an eternity� (Minor Characters 78).
Elise was continually heartbroken from disappointing love affairs. When these relationships ended, she would go into deeper depressions and disappear from the community. She also tried to maintain a love affair with a woman named Shelia, whom she lived with for a brief period. Ironically, this was the same time that Allen was with Peter Orlovsky. Sometimes when Elise was severely low and with her parent�s encouragement, she would commit herself to a mental hospital. This only seemed to worsen her condition and she would come out of the hospitals even more discouraged.
Written
by:
Elisabeth Massie
Last updated: 22 July 2005