Milan, Italy: Adelphi Edizione, 2010. First Italian Translation. Softcover. This is the first Italian translation of "The Yage Letters Redux," first published in the U.S. in 2006, a greatly expanded, reorganized edition, edited & with a lengthy, most skullerly introduction by top WSB authority Oliver Harris. A very rare version of the latest & most comprehensive edition of this WSB/AG classic. Text in Italian, translated by Andrew Tanzi. As new..... More
[Item #1609]
New York, NY: Three Rooms Press, 2018. First Edition. Hardcover. "The fathers of the Beat movement, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, converse about deeply intimate and personal history in this free flowing, days-long dialog, edited by longtime Ginsberg collaborator Steven Taylor. Topics include literature that influenced their writing, shamanism and its usefulness in modern society, favorite punk rock musicians, and the need for art to counter oppressiveness. They also..... More
[Item #3488]
Berkeley, CA: Creative Arts Book Company, 1976. First Trade Edition. Softcover. "An intimate portrait of life off the road with Jack Kerouac & Neal Cassady. What times were really like for the heroes of the Beat Generation in early fifties San Francisco, including letters from Kerouac, Cassady and Allen Ginsberg." (front cover) the short memoir by Carolyn Cassady (1923-2013), wife of Neal & intimate member-enabler of the founding Beat Generation..... More
[Item #3374]
Berkeley, CA: Oyez Press, 1971. First Softcover Edition. Softcover. "I don't want anyone who's interested in contemporary poetry to be put off by any sense of formality in these studies of a group of poems and poets out of the last twenty years of the American poetic experience...What I've tried to do in these studies is to get down some of my own responses to writing that seems to have..... More
[Item #1155]
New York, NY: That New Magazine, Inc., 1988. First Printing. Staplebound. This number of the pioneering LGBT magazine is the "Tenth Anniversary Issue" (somewhat confusing as it had been published for more than a decade up to this point). Featuring a portfolio of literary icons by Robert Giard ("Portraits of Gay Writers") including Allen Ginsberg holding up his own portrait of William S. Burroughs, Quentin Crisp, James Purdy, Edmund White..... More
[Item #2441]
San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1987. First Edition. Softcover. The first issue of the eclectic anthology series of poetry, fiction, commentary, art, etc. published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's legendary City Lights Books. As stated in the first page introduction, "Just as City Lights Bookstore is a literary meeting place, this Review aims to furnish a similar kind of locale in print, an "open space" for people who have a mind..... More
[Item #1449]
Paris, France: Christian Bourgois Editeur, 1972. First French Edition. Softcover. Originally published in 1963 as Number Eighteen in the iconic Pocket Poets Series of City Lights Books, this is the first French edition, first printing of March 1972. With English text on left pages, & French text on right pages. The translators are Mary Beach & Claude Pelieu, the important wife-husband team in art, writing & publishing. They knew &..... More
[Item #2240]
Flushing, NY: Drue Heinz, 1993. First Printing. Softcover. This number of the venerable literary journal famously edited by George Plimpton includes a portfolio with reproductions of photographs by Beat Generation founding father Allen Ginsberg, including his trademark hand-written captions in margins below the images, entitled "Cosmopolitan Greetings." The year after this issue (1994), Ginsberg would publish a volume with the title poem of the same name, composed in 1986. The..... More
[Item #2997]
New York, NY: Totem Press/Corinth Books, 1961. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. Signed (very uniquely) by Allen Ginsberg. A first printing of Empty Mirror, a compilation of early poems by Allen Ginsberg published in 1961, with an introduction by William Carlos Williams. On the title page is a most bizarrely unique, collectible autograph with citation by the poet: At the upper right corner, in thick black marker, someone has written "To..... More
[Item #2051]
San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books; Christian Bourgois Editeur, 1970; 1976 (1961). Later USA Printing; First French Edition Thus. Softcovers. 1970 eleventh printing signed & dated by Allen Ginsberg. Two rare editions of Kaddish, Allen Ginsberg's Beat Generation masterpiece alongside Howl: (1) An eleventh USA printing published in February of 1970 in the original Pocket Poets Series format by City Lights Books, which the poet has hand-signed & dated "2/14/85"..... More
[Item #2050]
New York, NY: Samuel Pitts Edwards & Jack Rennert, July 1961. First Printing. Staplebound Wraps. The second issue of this important literary magazine, featuring "when the mode of the music changes the walls of the city shake," the first appearance of a prose work by Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), described by the great Beat poet in his contributor's blurb as "...not an essay--they're irritable notes written in 1959 at the height..... More
[Item #1676]
New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1961. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. This number of the literary journal published at Columbia University features five early poems written by Allen Ginsberg in 1948, with an introduction by the poet written when he submitted them in 1961. Ginsberg famously attended Columbia, & some of his earliest published appearances are in earlier numbers of this journal. As he notes in his introduction, these poems..... More
[Item #2052]
London, England: Love Books, 1965. First Edition. Soft Cover. Long Hair Number 1 was published in 1965 by Love Books in London by Barry Miles, manager of the Indica Bookshop & Gallery in London & later bibliographer & biographer of William S. Burroughs. Featuring contributions from notable Beat, New York School poets and others, Long Hair was one of the first mimeo literary magazines to help pave the way from..... More
[Item #1152]
Milan, Italy: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1965. First Edition. Softcover. An early essay on the work of Allen Ginsberg by the great Italian translator, critic & scholar Fernanda Pivano (1917-2009). Written in spring 1964 & published in this stated first edition of December 1965. Pivano translated Ginsberg's major poems into Italian, including Howl, which ushered the Beat Generation into popular consciousness & from which the term "Hydrogen Jukebox" is taken for..... More
[Item #2249]
Pleasant Valley, NY: Kriya Press, 1967. Limited First Edition. Single Sheet. Signed & with hand-written information by Bob Wilson. An illustrated broadside (13"x18") featuring a short poem by Allen Ginsberg, composed under the influence as indicated in the title, in June 1966. Ginsberg was in full hippie bloom a decade after his groundbreaking arrival on the scene as one of the most important members of the original Beat Generation. Issued..... More
[Item #2169]
Portland, OR: Dick Bakken & Lee Altman, 1967. First Printing. Stapled Sheets. This issue of the short-lived literary journal from the heyday of the 1960s independent-underground press features the poem "Stotras to Kali Destroyer of Illusions" by Allen Ginsberg, an inspired work composed in Bombay (now Mumbai), India during his famous sojourn there in 1962. Also a poem by Charles Bukowski, "Answer To a Note found In the Mailbox:"; four..... More
[Item #2054]
Toronto, Canada: The House of Anansi, 1968. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed with note by Allen Ginsberg. This is the very first edition of a compilation of journal excerpts written by Allen Ginsberg & described by him in a note preceding them as "...compositions from Journals kept decades 1948-1968, a few solid fragments typed up published out of context, not exactly poems, nor not poems: journal notations put together conveniently, a...... More
[Item #1811]
n/p (distributed by City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA: Beach Books, Texts & Documents, 1968. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. Published the year after T.V. Baby Poems (item #1809), this is a facsimile of Allen Ginsberg's original 1961 hand-typed manuscript, with subsequent hand-written corrections & notations, of the first & longest poem in that previous volume, where it is titled "Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Death Chamber." It is..... More
[Item #1810]
Bellingham, WA: Western Washington State College, 1968. First Printing. Softcover. This second number of the venerable literary journal, published by Western Washington State College under the sponsorship of its Department of English, features contributions of one poem each by Allen Ginsberg & his father, Louis Ginsberg. Allen Ginsberg's poem is untitled, with the first line "O Future bards." This poem was later reprinted in the major anthology, Allen Ginsberg: Collected..... More
[Item #2242]
San Francisco, CA: House of Anansi/City Lights Books, 1969. First American Edition. Soft Cover. First published in Canada and exported to the USA where it was seized and destroyed by U.S. Customs, this is the first U.S. edition that escaped the clutches of the establishment. Contains journal excerpts by Allen Ginsberg written from 1948-1968. In near fine condition with only minor wear to covers & spine, small highlighter markings on..... More
[Item #1153]
San Francisco, CA: Dave Haselwood Books/City Lights Books, 1970. First Softcover Edition. Softcover. A compilation of journal entries by Allen Ginsberg, which he describes as including "...the bulk of writing (except for letters) done by the author during 1962-3 stay in India & are that portion of otherwhere unpublished journals begun in 1945 continuing to present 70's decade..."(from back cover). Now a widely regarded classic of insight into the raw..... More
[Item #2830]
New York, NY: Portents, 1970. First Edition. Stapled Pamphlet. Published as Portents 17 by Samuel Charters. One of 300 un-numbered copies. 4-page stapled pamphlet with the title work, a transcript of Allen Ginsberg’s notes that reads like prose-poetry. Card stock covers with William Carlos Williams 1952 holograph reproduced on the front cover. Oblong format. A beautiful Ginsberg rarity in very fine condition. Very Fine. More
[Item #1154]
New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1970; circa 1997. First Softcover Edition; original ephemera. Softcover. "...the image of the man is so delightfully clear and impressive....That Ginsberg takes the book away from itself is proof of Kramer's skill and Ginsberg's magnificent personality..."(from back cover blurb by John Greenya) Two rarities relating to the early, acclaimed biography of Allen Ginsberg by Jane Kramer: (1) First softcover edition of February 1970 as stated..... More
[Item #2244]
Buffalo, NY: Intrepid Press, 1971. First Edition. Stapled. Edited by Allen De Loach and published as part of the Beau Fleuve Series, this scarce booklet features long poem by Peter Orlovsky and back cover photograph of nude Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky by Richard Avedon. In very fine condition except for a very small red felt-tip pen mark on mid-upper right of front cover. Fine. More
[Item #1156]
New York, NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1972. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. This is a larger chapbook with the title poem by Allen Ginsberg, produced for NYC's legendary, now-gone Gotham Book Mart by Profile Press in August 1972. First printing as stated. With beautiful black & white photographs by William webb; & a color reproduction of a painting of Bixby Canyon by Emil White, tipped-in to the front cover. The Canyon..... More
[Item #1815]