Ginsberg, Allen (Glover, Albert)

Planet News 1961-1967

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1968. First Edition. Softcover. From the library of Albert Glover, with his ownership stamp. “In this collection, the shorter poems, with their impressive grip on exact description, are the best, and remind us of how Ginsberg sees everything-railroads, cloverleafs, Dino Sinclair signs, "tiny human trees" in the plains, newspaper stories and their reduction of the real to the verbal, football fields, J. Edgar Hoover, and above all himself. For his contemporaries, he is the biographer of his time-its high schools, its streets, its telephones, its monsters ('television was a baby crawling toward that deathchamber"), its bland head counts, its drugs, its cops, its cities, its freeways, and most of all its short-cut language. The publishers' ad for this book says "Celestial vulgar humor! Solemn experience! Blake & Whitman ride again! Hare Krishna! Waves of Queer Bliss! An ecological thrill!" and so on. The blurb-writer, whether it is Ginsberg or somebody or somebody aping him, is selling the book short. It hasn't the naïve joys and bitter accusations of "Howl," and there is no single piece in it as good as "Kaddish," but neither is it a book to be ashamed of. Touting it so nervously belies Ginsberg's own comic seriousness and embarrasses his apologetic honesty.” (Helen Vendler, New York Times, 1969) Planet News came out after what, for Allen Ginsberg [1926-1997], could be called an extended hiatus; The Yage Letters was published in 1963. This was his fourth appearance in the iconic Pocket Poets Series issued by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's [1919-2021] City Lights Books. Ginsberg dedicated this collection to Neal Cassady, who died in February 1968. ‘the greater driver’ and ‘secret hero of these poems’ Ginsberg writes of his friend and lover. While the copyright page states that this is the First American Edition, this is erroneous, per Bill Morgan’s The Works of Allen Ginsberg 1941-1994: A Descriptive Bibliography. It was first set to be published by Villiers Publication in London and distributed in May 1968, but there was a flood at the bindery and it was not available until Dec. 1, 1968. “The publisher had already ordered an offset edition printed in a much larger quantity by Edwards Brothers printers in Ann Arbor, MI. (Curator’s Note: This would have been printed just a few miles from our humble bookstore in downtown Ann Arbor.) This printing was ready for distribution in November. Other bibliographies incorrectly have given priority to the English printing.” (Miller, A15, pgs. 24-25) Thus, this is the true first edition of Planet News. Smaller-format softcover in perfect binding, No. 23 in the PPS as noted on front cover. From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who is the foremost living authority on literary giant Charles Olson. Glover has stamped the title page with his ownership symbol, a glove with a capital “A” underneath. First Edition, First Printing. In Fine condition with light rubbing, scratching, and smudging on front, back covers & spine. Inside Very Fine with light age-toning throughout. Fine. [Item #8135]

Price: $100.00 save 15% $85.00