Search Results: howl by allen ginsberg

San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. Original wraps. Near Fine. A remarkable Association copy of the 1956 correct 1st edition. This copy not only conforms to all the original issue points but is in beautiful, near-pristine condition. Furthermore, THIS COPY IS SIGNED BY 5 OF THE KEY FIGURES IN THE BOOK'S GENESIS: 1) ALLEN GINSBERG (on the title page); 2) LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI (on the copyright page); 3) LUCIEN CARR (on the dedication page); 4) WILLIAM BURROUGHS (also on the dedication page); and 5) CARL SOLOMON (on the first blank endpaper). In other words, this copy is signed by the book's author, its publisher and by 3 of its 5 dedicatees (only Jack Kerouac's and Neal Cassady's signatures are missing from this copy). Notably, of the 5 signatures, all critically important to the birth and evolution of "Howl", Lucien Carr's appears to be the most elusive. We know that Carr's relationship with the Beats grew tense early on and that he insisted his name be removed from all subsequent… Read More

San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first issue with Lucien Carr listed on the dedication page and a period after Harlem on the rear cover. Signed by Allen Ginsberg and inscribed to a former owner on the title page; additionally signed by this book's publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti on the copyright page, and by William S. Burroughs, Carl Solomon and Gregory Corso on the dedication page. Bound in publisher's original stapled black wraps printed in grey with with white paste-on printed in black. Very Good with light toning and light rubbing to covers with a small abrasion to the top right of the front cover of the white paste-on. Pencil notations to text. The poem that defined a generation and an undisputed cornerstone of beat poetry, signed by five heavy-weights of that era.

Howl is considered to be one of the principal works of the Beat Generation. His influences included William Carlos Williams and Jack Kerouac and he attempted to speak in a spontaneous voice. The poem relates many of the stories and experiences of Ginsberg's friends and contemporaries, and is noted for its tumbling, hallucinatory style, and the frank address of sexuality, and homosexuality in particular, which was the basis for the obscenity charges. Much of his prompting in writing the poem was his sympathy for Carl Solomon, to whom he dedicated the book. Ginsberg met Solomon in a Psychiatric Hospital after he was arrested for having stolen goods in his apartment and vehicle. The poem uses the phrase "I'm with you in Rockland" as a refrain to each line in the third section. The first section of the poem immortalizes a few of Solomon's personal exploits, such as the line, "...who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps of… Read More

San Francisco, CA: City Lights, 1956. First Edition. Signed by the author Allen Ginsberg and dated by him in the year of publication: “Allen Ginsberg Sept. 8, 1956.” With an inscription just below from Ginsberg to Beat collector and photographer Marshall Clements: “For Marshall Clements much thanks for the relief. A.G. New Years Month, Jan. 7, 1964.” Also signed by Marshall Clements at the top of the same page, the book’s dedication page. City Lights Pocket Poets Series: Number Four. With the two page introduction by William Carlos Williams. Paperbound, stapled black and white wrappers. With a faint hint of dust soiling to the covers, else a fine copy. Price 75 cents on rear cover. Printed at the Press of Villiers Publications, Holloway, London, England. Enclosed in a custom slipcase with “Howl. Allen Ginsberg” on a paper label affixed to the front and with the same at the spine. Marshall Clements was a noted collector and scholar of Beat Generation works and was the photographer for… Read More

San Francisco: The City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. First edition. Very good plus.. Rare signed first edition of HOWL, inscribed in the year of publication, likely at one of Ginsberg's most infamous readings. The most likely opportunities for Ginsberg to sign copies of HOWL in 1956 were few and far between. First, the book was published late in the year. While Ferlinghetti sent Ginsberg "a few advance copies" in August of that year (Morgan, I GREET YOU, 5), and a small number of copies inscribed in September are known (the Sept. 17th issue of PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY lists the official publication date as Sept. 1st), HOWL seems to have only really begun to be distributed in October. Again, according to PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, "[t]he first edition passed through U.S. Customs in October, 1956" (April 29th 1957). In addition, both Gary Snyder and Louis Ginsberg report receiving copies they had ordered at the start of that month, likely from the earliest copies received at City Lights. Morgan's bibliography,… Read More

San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first issue with Lucien Carr listed on the dedication page and a period after Harlem on the rear cover. Signed by Allen Ginsberg and inscribed to a former owner on the title page, Ginsberg has also adorned the page fully with illustrations and written "Viva banjo". Bound in publisher's original stapled black wraps printed in grey with with white paste-on printed in black. Very Good with light toning, light rubbing to wraps and slight creases throughout. A lovely copy of the poem that defined a generation and an undisputed cornerstone of beat poetry.

San Francisco: City Lights Books “Pocket Poets Series, Number Four”, 1956. First Edition/First State (1 of 1000 copies) . Softcover. Very Good. 12mo (44 pages). This is a very good copy of the true First State of the First Edition (with the name “Lucien Carr” – later removed – on the dedication page). There is some faint staining to the white front cover panel and to the title page, which is SIGNED and dated in ink: “Allen Ginsberg, ‘74” beneath a drawing by Ginsberg of the sun and a large flower that utilizes the “O” in “Howl” as its corolla. Perhaps the most important volume of American poetry of the twentieth century, signed and uniquely decorated by the author.

San Francisco: The City Lights Pocket Bookshop,, 1956. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness... First published edition, first printing, with the spelling "Lucien Carr" in the dedication, and the eighth line of the second paragraph on the rear cover beginning "Harlem." (with a period rather than comma). A landmark collection, Howl is one of the principal works of literature that launched the Beat Generation. It was Ginsberg's first regularly published book, and was printed in a run of an estimated 1,500 copies. Duodecimo. Original stiff black wrappers, wire-stitched as issued, white hand-pasted wrap-around paper label printed in black. Wraparound label foxed, a couple of corners lightly creased, a very good copy.

San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first issue with Lucien Carr listed on the dedication page and a period after Harlem on the rear cover. Publisher's black wraps printed in blue with white wraparound printed in black. Near Fine with toning, light lifting to bottom corner of wrap-around band at rear cover, former owner name and date to title page, small area of wear at staple and verso of front wrap, pages lightly thumbed. An undisputed cornerstone of beat poetry, Ginsberg's initial inspiration came from a terrifying vision he had during a San Francisco peyote trip. The poem defined a generation.

San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first issue with Lucien Carr listed on the dedication page and a period after Harlem on the rear cover. Publisher's black wraps printed in blue with white wraparound printed in black. Very Good. toning and light soiling to wraps, bottom corner lightly bumped. An undisputed cornerstone of beat poetry, Ginsberg's initial inspiration came from a terrifying vision he had during a San Francisco peyote trip. The poem defined a generation.

San Francisco: Grabhorn-Hoyem, 1971. Limited edition. Fine. Limited edition. First thus, revised with a new introduction. One of 275 copies signed by Allen Ginsberg on the title page. [iv], 43, [3] pp. Bound in publisher's decorative tan linen, with wrap-around artwork in nine colors, edges untrimmed. Fine with prospectus laid-in at front. A beautiful production of the poem that defined a generation, printed by Robert Grabhorn and Hoyem on hand-made paper, and bound in cloth with a drawing by Robert La Vigne. Comprises the original text as it was published in 1956 with minute revisions by the author and the addition of a related poetic fragment, "The Names," written in 1957, and first published in the Paris Review, Spring 1966; here collected with "Howl" for the first time.

San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first printing, first issue with Lucien Carr listed on the dedication page and a period after Harlem on the rear cover. Publisher's black wraps printed in blue with white wraparound printed in black. Very Good. Wraps toned and slightly wavy, former owner name to copyright page, pages toned. An undisputed cornerstone of beat poetry, Ginsberg's initial inspiration came from a terrifying vision he had during a San Francisco peyote trip. The poem defined a generation.

San Francisco: Grabhorn-Hoyem,, 1971. The first fine press edition of Howl First edition thus, one of 275 copies signed by the author, printed by Robert & Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem on handmade paper from Goudy Modern type, with an illustrated cloth binding after a drawing by Robert La Vigne. Ginsberg's masterpiece was first published by City Lights in 1956 in a much-reproduced wrappers format, but this is the first fine press edition. It includes a new note by Ginsberg about the presentation here of Howl for the first time in tandem with the poetic continuation "The Names" (written 1957, published in the Paris Review 1966), his "autobiographical chronicle of Howl's same radiant persons living & dead adored to specify Names & deeds in extended eulogy - an embodyment [sic] of Howl's abstractions". Morgan notes that although the colophon states that 275 copies were produced, "several copies were misbound and about 20 sets of sheets were not bound due to a lack of adequate covers". Quarto. Original… Read More

San Francisco: Grabhorn-Hoyem, 1971. Published by Andrew Hoyem and Robert Grabhorn, this first signed limited edition of Ginsbergs Howl contains the original text as it was published in 1956 with minute revisions by the author with the addition of the related poetic fragment The Names, which Ginsberg wrote in 1957. The present volume is the first appearance of the two collected works. Ginsberg's Howl is regarded as the spearhead of the literary movement of the Beat Generation, as Ginsberg notes in his introductory note, "Howl's random catalogue of heroic archetype Seeker Persons generalized and abstracted their nature for poetic/surrealist imagery, sometimes with absurd humor I thought struck humane balance with the apocalyptic manners described.

(San Francisco): (Grabhorn-Hoyem), (1971). First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Folio (11" x 14") in pictorial tan linen decorated with a wrap-around skyline with fireworks accomplished in 9 colors and designed by Robert La Vigne. One of 275 copies printed on handmade paper and SIGNED on the title page by Ginsberg. The first fine press edition of this landmark 1956 poem with a few revisions by the author. Also contains the first book publication of "The Names," a poetic fragment written in 1957.

Tokyo: Nasu Shobo, 1961. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. First Japanese edition. Translated by Yasujiro Furusawa. 70pp. Octavo. Silver-gray cloth boards with gilt lettering on black leather that wraps around both boards and the spine. Housed in publisher's gray cardboard slipcase with white paper label and wrapped in original unprinted glassine. Near fine with some rubbing, remainder marks at the bottom of the text block and faint glue residue to the pastedown, along with remnant of the glassine dustwrapper; slipcase with some toning on the spine. Limited to 500 numbered copies; this is copy 234. Only the third foreign translation of this Ginsberg's work and notable for its accompanying commentary from fellow Beat Gary Snyder, whom by the time of this book's release, had lived in Japan for more than six years, pursuing the study of Zen Buddhism. An uncommon edition with *OCLC* locating three copies, one in Japan.

Berkeley: Pacific Tape Library, 1956. First edition. Record LP. Very Good. A rare reel-to-reel tape in original labeled box containing Ginsberg reading his poetry including his best known poem, HOWL. Per our research, the first historic reading of Howl took place at the historic 1955 reading at San Francisco's SIX GALLERY for which no known recordings exist. The second reading was a February 1956 reading at Reed College in Portland (of which one known copy exists in the college's institutional holdings); and then this third known public reading was done on October 25, 1956 and is offered here in the original reel-to-reel format and labeled box. It has become almost cliche to talk about the beats and their influence on the greater literary and cultural zeitgeist, but it is no stretch of the imagination to cite Howl as one of the most iconic poems of the 20th century and any early recording of his reading of it must be viewed with more than a little reverence. We have not played the tape, but it… Read More

San Francisco, : City Lights, 1956. First Printing. Paperback. GOOD+ covers are soiled, hinges have been repaired. First issue with Lucien Carr is listed on the dedication page and there is a period after the word 'Harlem' on the back panel. front cover has upper and lower tips missing. .

New York: Harper, 1986. Fine. Harper, New York 1986, 23x27,5cm, broché. - Nouvelle édition. Bel exemplaire. Envoi autographe daté et signé d'Allen Ginsberg à Jean-Claude Geisberg enrichi d'un petit dessin représentant une fleur poussant sur un crâne humain enterré. [ENGLISH DESCRIPTION ON DEMAND]

San Francisco: City Lights Books. 1973. First Edition; Twenty-Fifth Printing. Softcover. Very Good in wraps. Shelfwear on front and rear panel. Occasional underlining and margin notes in red ink throughout. ; Title page inscribed by Allen Ginsberg; Signed by Author .