The pirated edition of Howl - photo 1

The pirated edition of Howl

Lot 12
22.04.2021 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 11 250
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 517658
Lot 12 | The pirated edition of Howl
Estimate value
$ 7 000 – 10 000
GINSBERG, Allen (1926-1997). Howl, for Carl Solomon. [New York: Gotham Book Mart, c.1979.]

The unauthorized 1979 re-issue of Ginsberg's Howl, later inscribed by him and six of the other poets present at the fabled 1955 reading. Howl was first published in May 1956 in an edition of only 25 copies; this issue was produced–without Ginsberg’s permission–from the original ditto masters around 1979, when Gotham Book Mart was in the process of appraising Ginsberg’s literary archive. Upon learning of the second issue, Ginsberg asked for all copies to be surrendered and was told that most were destroyed and none were sold. Of surviving copies, some bear a Gotham Book Mart stamp while some do not; they are also often without the tell-tale staple found in the first issue of 25. The present copy is inscribed by Ginsberg at head of title: "The original mimeo sheets were typed by Robert Creeley & printed off by Martha [sic] Rexroth at S.F. State where she was secretary. Allen Ginsberg." Below the title, Marthe Rexroth has written: "I cranked the ditto master at SF State first time around-and I went to the reading. Marthe Rexroth." On the verso of the title, McClure has written the lengthy note: "This first long poem of Allen's was read at the Six Gallery in San Francisco in October 1955. I was 22 years old and gave my first reading also that night. I read a poem titled FOR THE DEATHS OF 100 WHALES and other poems of consciousness. Our co-readers that night were Whalen, Snyder, & Lamantia. Kenneth Rexroth was M.C. I met Jack Kerouac that night. The group of us – minus Lamantia – read again in Berkeley, March 1956, on a rainy evening. It was a fine evening for poetry and I remember my pleasure in Allen's comic 'America.' I read mostly from a huge notebook of experimental poems of consciousness. Michael McClure." On the dedication page are the signatures of Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and an inscription by David Meltzer: "When Allen first read Kaddish in SF, I read too. I was 22." Snyder and Whalen read at the Six Gallery the same night Ginsberg read "Howl," and Ferlinghetti published its first trade edition through his City Lights Press in 1956. The signatures and inscriptions in the present copy were obtained by Peter Howard of Serendipity Books in Berkeley, California in the mid-1990s after he acquired four copies of this unauthorized issue. Allen Ginsberg gave the venture his blessing on the condition he could keep one for himself. The wording of the inscriptions by Ginsberg, Rexroth, and McClure vary somewhat from copy to copy. Morgan A1.a2.

17 mimeographed leaves unstapled, 278 x 215mm. Quarter morocco box. Provenance: Peter Howard, Serendipity Books.
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