Corso, Gregory

The Happy Birthday of Death

New York, NY: New Directions, 1960. First Printing. Softcover. “Should I get married? Should I be Good? / Astound the girl next door with my velvet suit and faustaus hood? / Don't take her to movies but to cemeteries / tell all about werewolf bathtubs and forked clarinets / then desire her and kiss her and all the preliminaries / and she going just so far and I understanding why / not getting angry saying You must feel! It's beautiful to feel! / Instead take her in my arms lean against an old crooked tombstone / and woo her the entire night the constellations in the sky —“ ("Marriage," p. 29). Truly one of Beat Literature’s great works, offered here is Gregory Corso’s (1930-2001) thunderous & epochal third book of verse — 1960’s “The Happy Birthday of Death.” In this writer’s opinion, it contains the best and most accessible works of poetry by any writer of “The Beat Generation,” — the great Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), included. While Ginsberg’s “HOWL” (1956) and “Kaddish” (1961) will always categorically ‘tower over’ the Beat Generation, — (and inform it as a literary, historical, & cultural phenomenon) — Corso, here easily rivals him. This is true insofar as the poems are concerned, at least: and it says a lot about Ginsberg that this sense of having been "one-upped" was something he himself giddily recognized. While it's not at all required to enjoy the poems in this book (something almost anyone can do), all one has to do to garner a sense of Beat Poetics' development arc is read a very fun, short biography by Barry Miles. The book ("The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs & Corso in Paris 1957-1963,” TMB Item No. 5058) tells the story of how "Bomb" was composed in the aforementioned "Beat Hotel," and the excitement and tumult surrounding its creation. As Miles reveals, the years ’57-63 were a mind-bendingly prolific & productive sequence of years for the Beats: & doubly so for the four most famous of the movement's many authors: William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and the aforementioned Ginsberg & Corso. One famous, much-favored epistolary fragment or anecdote (one often quoted by scholars in both the cafe & classroom) records Allen as writing of a "Great Golden Period" in the life of Corso's mind-&-art; and the letters from Allen that describe this are perfect examples of that 'magic of friendship' which buoyed the Beat phenomenon then as now. For a brief, bright moment it all came together: he'd "transcended the bullshit" of a troubled adolescence & the interpersonal limitations that resulted. From a twisted "day-care" ran by "angels" (the "angels of Clinton Prison") to these burning, English Romantic triumphs under the eye the Eiffel Tower. In the music business there exists a maxim: "You only have to be right ONCE." While not applicable, of course, to every consideration in business and life -- (in real-estate, for example, you have to be right again-&-again-&-again-&-again). Corso became an American Shelley during the Beat Hotel period: and even if he never wrote another word (like Rimbaud at 19), we'd still be citing him; & excitedly sharing his work with our poet-friends. In this short sequence of time — (this “personal literary epoch") — Corso wrests forth an almost peerless sequence of masterworks; a sequence matched only (to We Burroughsians at Third Mind Books) by the Jordanesque streak of William S. Burroughs, who had a different arc but was certainly innovating concurrently & with equal impact. E.g., CORSO CLASSICS like “Marriage,” “Bomb” “Power,” “Police” and "DEATH" begin to appear in startlingly rapid succession; & the book almost gallops to the printer, in essence. While other Corso works do occasionally measure up to this most seismic of volumes — (for ex., poems earlier composed and collected in “Gasoline,” -- like “I AM 25,” -- or certain passages in the award-winning “Elegiac Feelings American" can glove-up beside the best in this volume). At the end of the day, however, “The Happy Birthday of Death” is Corso’s strongest showing…a volume that enriches & delights all who read it. What are you waiting for? Get hip (or get hipper) while you still can! Softcover Original: First Edition, though not explicated as such on copyright page; First Printing, with no indication of subsequent printings thereon. In strong near fine condition with only mild-to-moderate shelf-wear, rubbing, & variously enunciated light-bumping to /along fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; recent successful conservator-grade repair to binding (a “minor” surgery as opposed to a “major” one, if you’ll humor the qualifying simile); otherwise remarkably well-kept and clean—a feat for a volume as truly “Beat” as this! Near Fine. [Item #6626]

Price: $60.00