Gregory Corso (1930-2001) was an American poet and a key member in the Beat poetry movement that helped transform the United States culturally and politically leading into the 1960s.

Corso had a troubled childhood, which was spent in fosters homes, orphanages, and even prison. After his release from jail in 1950, Corso secured different jobs in labor around the world. Working in New York City, he met another poet, Allen Ginsberg, a major influence in his life.

In 1954, Corso moved to Boston where many other influencial poets were at the time, and he published his first poems in Harvard Advocate. Corso went on to achieve great success and publish many more works, including his collection Gasoline, where jazz and bop influences were noticeable. Preparations were made to publish a great collection of poems in the 1970s titled "Who I am- Who I am," but before he could, the only copy of the manuscript was stolen. Corso published a couple more volumes of poetry in the 1980s and early 1990s, including Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit (1981) and Mindfield: New and Selected Poems (1989).

Though Corso did not publish or write much in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he never lost his appreciation of poetry and his belief in its power.