GINSBERG, Allen.
Howl and Other Poems.
San Francisco: The City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956.
$14,000.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-152530
+$500
First Edition, First Issue of Howl and Other Poems; Signed by Allen Ginsberg
First edition, first issue of the incendiary poem that became the manifesto of the Beat Generation, signed by Allen Ginsberg. Square duodecimo, publisher’s original printed wrappers, the fourth title in the Pocket Poets Series. First issue, with the Lucien Carr present in the dedication and in the eighth line of the second paragraph on the rear wrapper. Boldly signed by Allen Ginsberg on the title page. The first printing of Howl was limited to only 1,000 copies. Following the release of the second printing in March 1957, copies of the work were seized by U.S. Customs and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was arrested on obscenity charges. Ferlinghetti was ultimately acquitted of these charges during his 1957 trial at which he was represented by the ACLU. Morgan A3 a1.1. In near fine condition. Early inscription on the copyright page. Housed in a custom velvet-lined half morocco slipcase. An exceptional example, desirable signed.
Howl and Other Poems, published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights in 1956 as the fourth title in its Pocket Poets Series, is one of the most important and influential works of American poetry of the twentieth century and the defining literary document of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg first read Howl aloud at the Six Gallery in San Francisco in October 1955, in a legendary performance that announced the arrival of the Beats, and its raw, incantatory lines, beginning “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” broke open the subject matter and language of American verse. Its frank treatment of sexuality led United States Customs to seize copies of the second printing and Ferlinghetti to be arrested and tried on obscenity charges in 1957, a landmark First Amendment case in which he was defended by the ACLU and acquitted when the court ruled the poem to be of redeeming social importance. Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) became one of the most celebrated and recognizable poets of his age, and Howl remains his masterpiece and one of the touchstones of postwar American literature.
Howl and Other Poems.
$14,000.00
In Stock
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