[Item #4341] Evergreen Review Vol. 5 No. 18 (May - June 1961). Barney Rossett, Brendan Behan, Alfred Chester, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Edward Field, Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg, Lysander Kemp, Octavio Paz, Martin Williams, Horace Silver.
Evergreen Review Vol. 5 No. 18 (May - June 1961)

Evergreen Review Vol. 5 No. 18 (May - June 1961)

New York, NY: Evergreen Review, Inc., 1961. First Printing. Softcover. This early vintage number of the legendary literary journal chiefly edited by Barney Rosset features the poem "Lysergic Acid" by Allen Ginsberg, Founding Father of the Beat Generation, a very early milestone of creative writing under the influence of LSD, much-predating & predicting the countercultural explosion of acid trips later in the 1960s decade. The poem is followed by facsimile of an ancient Indian "Elephant Mandala" referred to in the poem & explained by Ginsberg in an afterword-footnote. Also in this issue are more contributions of poetry by Lawrence Ferlinghetti ("One Thousand Fearful Words for Fidel Castro"), Edward field & others; memoir, essay & fictional prose by Brendan Behan ("Where We All Came Into Town"), Alfred Chester ("The Victory- A Fable"), Jean Genet (excerpt from Our Lady of the Flowers), Octavio Paz ("The Blue Bouquet" translated into English by Lysander Kemp) & more; & criticism/ reviews including "The Craftsmanship of Horace Silver" by Martin Williams. With notes on contributors, exemplary contemporary ads (including for the now-canonical anthology A Casebook on the Beat on inner back cover). Trade-format softcover in sewn binding, complete with intact subscription promotion including sheet of removable cards. A particularly rich & varied, Beat-&-Beyond issue in this most collectible series. In relatively near-fine-to-fine condition with mild rubbing, scratching & creasing to front, back covers & spine; very light wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; profuse but light, faint creasing to spine; light rubbing, browning & occasional spotting to edges of text block. Interior near-fine with spotting to mostly blank areas of inner covers & endpapers; miniscule bumps at corners of a few page leaves; some learned marginalia, underlining & encircling of words in blue ink on pgs. 81 (second page of Ginsberg's poem), 115, 116, 122 & 128- none of which effect legibility of any text. Near Fine- Fine. [Item #4341]

Price: $30.00