Ginsberg, Allen (Ball, Gordon (Editor); Cupidi, Richard)

Allen Ginsberg Journals: Early Fifties Early Sixties

ISBN: 0802141560
New York, NY, USA: Grove Press, 1978. First Evergreen Edition. Large-Format Softcover. Signed by Allen Ginsberg to Richard Cupidi. "As these journals begin, Ginsberg has established himself in a small furnished room on 15th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues opposite the Port Authority building..." (excerpt, Reader's Guide, pg. xv). Allen Ginsberg Journals: Early Fifties Early Sixties (Morgan, a2.1, pg. 48) offers a profound insight into Beat Generation Founding Father Allen Ginsberg's (1926-1997) creative process and personal experiences during a transformative period in American literature. The collection, edited by Ginsberg's one-time East Hill Farm manager Gordon Ball (b. 1944), includes entries from eighteen notebooks that reveal Ginsberg's thoughts, poems, dreams, reflections, and diary notes. These entries cover a wide range of topics, from his encounters with other literary figures like William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) and Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) to his political views and drug experiences. The journals also reflect Ginsberg's travels across various locations, including Mexico, San Francisco, and New York, and his first impressions of notable works such as William S. Burroughs' (1914-1997) "Naked Lunch." These journals reveal a poet trying to objectively change the culture in which he lives, while simultaneously coming to terms with a self that fears change and is constantly in search of the security of identity and love. Ultimately, the Ginsberg that is most convincing is the man: the highly intelligent, self-questioning critic of his country who, perceiving himself and his countrymen running head-long into destruction, desperately seeks for a shared freedom and peace. An utterly fascinating revelation of one of our most important poets, it is a remarkable work. With many candid photographs of Ginsberg & Co. that compliment the entries, & facsimile pages of his drawings from the journals. The entries are preceded by Ball's lengthy & informative "Reader's Guide." From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed mate in the UK who managed the fabled Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England for founder Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate bookseller & publisher). From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Unicorn proffered & published many outstanding productions by WSB, J.G. Ballard et al., some of which have become the scarcest, all-but-unobtainable Beat-&-Beyond collectibles (see for example our Item No.s 8217 & 8366). After prevailing against censorious harassment efforts, Unicorn closed & Butler died in short order. Cupidi went on to found the Public House Bookshop in Brighton, which had a long & successful run but is also now closed, & he still resides there. We have been honored to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining treasures of Unicorn & Public House, some of which have become the stuff of myth. On the title page, Ginsberg has hand-written his signature in jet black ink ("Allen Ginsberg") below his printed name, and beneath Gordon Ball's printed name he has inscribed: "for Richard Cupidi." Large-Format Softcover: First Evergreen edition, first printing per copyright page. An exemplary Ginsberg collectible in one of its rarest contemporary forms, greatly enriched by Ginsberg's signature and short inscription, with utmost relevant association & very distinguished provenance. In relatively fine-to-very fine condition with mild rubbing & scratching to front, back covers & spine; light bumping & rubbing to fine edges & corners of same; mild-to-moderate age-toning to text block; an occasion of moderate scratching to bottom of same, near spine. Interior fine-to-very fine with mild verging on moderate age-toning mostly to blank margins & fine edges of page leaves; bumping of corners to some of same. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #8624]

Price: $125.00 save 15% $106.25