Allen GinsbergSteven TaylorAllen GinsbergSteven Taylor
Allen GinsbergLynne Wildey, Bob Kaufman, City Lights Book Shop, book signing, Ferlinghetti right rear.
Allen GinsbergDorothy Norman in her house East 70th street Manhattan. We'd met in late 1950's, I'd known of her (b. 1903) as 1930's Civil-libertarian editor/ Publisher of _Twice-A-Year_ journal. Same decade she'd been Alfred Steiglitz' love, he'd photographed her face and hands. New York City, January 3, 1987. Still alive May Day 1995!![Robert Frank, his Bleeker [sic] Street house New York January 1984, old Polaroid 195 gives negative, portrait for my _Collected Poems 1947-1980_ back-jacket--Peter Orlovsky present snapped us both that hour., Allen Ginsberg, 1984](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/76333592-2835-44e9-9082-88e8b84ef654/full/!400,400/0/default.jpg)
Allen GinsbergRobert Frank, his Bleeker [sic] Street house New York January 1984, old Polaroid 195 gives negative, portrait for my _Collected Poems 1947-1980_ back-jacket--Peter Orlovsky present snapped us both that hour.
Allen Ginsberg"Head bowed on his shoulder, now and then, he listened." My father Louis Ginsberg in his velvet chair 1976 the year he died. See poems in "Don't Grow Old" series for further explanation.
Allen GinsbergPoet Michael & Joanna McClure, Cafe Roma a block up Columbus from City Lights Bookstore, October 11, 1984 San Francisco
Allen GinsbergFather Pierre Riches at kitchen table December 4, 1992
Allen GinsbergW.S. Burroughs in his London Burberry raincoat purchased by B.B.C., here March 30, 1985 at opening of Francesco Clemente’s painting show Castelli Gallery — the artist’s figure hand outstretched behind Bill’s left shoulder.
Allen GinsbergJoe Richey poet Crosslegged on Floor, St. Marks Poet Bob Holman eyeglassed leaning back, Tom Savage standing cross-armed, Jose CORONEL Urtecho in Beret elder Nica poet modernist, Sandinista Bluefields poet Carlos Rigby at Table, host smiling in head chair, Nicaraguan Poetry brigade folk listening to sound poem on cassette by Dr. Fernando Silva, "Cici" Fernandez' house, Granada, Nicaragua, January 26, 1986.
Allen GinsbergPoet Larry Eigner, National Poetry Week, Cowell Theater, Fort Mason San Francisco mid-October 1989.
Allen GinsbergI’d asked Robert Frank to take portrait for Selected Poems dust jacket, he showed up late Sunday afternoon, truck parked across from my apartment, yelled up, he had no camera. I came down with Leica & Fuji 6×9, he took some photos midstreet by his car, I snapped him thus, then with my Fuji he said, “This’ll be it,” as long lambent orange sunlight rayed down East 12th Street from Hudson River horizon, it worked fine for book, he was relaxed, accidentally unerring. N.Y. June 9, 1996.
Allen GinsbergRob MacKercher asleep on futon, living room floor N.Y. January 3, 1986, visiting city for New Year’s adventures, he’d hosted me with his English class Canton Michigan High School a year before, later visited Naropa.
Allen GinsbergLou Reed, poet-musician (hero to avant-guard Czechoslovak intellectual rock-band dissident "Plastic People of the Universe" defended from government persecution by playwright Vaclav Havel and his Charter 77 friends) at make-up table in green room, public Theater Lafayette Street New York, invited by impresario Rose Lesniak (above) to Master Ceremonies, Premiere of Poetry- Music Video Clips by Anne Waldman ("uh! oh! plutonium") and myself ("Father Death Blues"), September 1984.
Allen GinsbergGeoffrey Manough, day after 18th birthday, Poet visiting New York from College Chapel Hill, North Carolina, pasta salad on 1st ave. "I feel like I could Walk / into a forest / and start a fire with every footprint / ...I have found a me long buried / beneath sludge, gripe, and scabs / beneath discrimination and self-hate. / All devices aside, / I can now say that the race is won. / I'm over the line." From _Mystic's Fists_ pamphlet. March 21, 1995.
Allen GinsbergJimmie Schuyler dining with artist Bill Katy and friend Raymond Foye from Chelsea Hotel, November 7, 1987 in Soho, Chanterelle Restaurant.
Allen GinsbergPoet Gregory Corso addressing cross atop the Grey Nuns’ Orphanage grotto Kerouac immortalized in book 4 Chapter 1, _Doctor Sax_, a “gigantic pyramid of steps upon which the Cross itself poked phallically up with its poor burden the Son of Man all skewered across it in his Agony and fright – undoubtedly this statue moved in the night.” Lowell, Massachusetts, March 17, 1986.
Allen GinsbergRaymond Foye, who age 8 was Kerouac's newspaper delivery boy in Lowell, Mass. later working for City Lights edited Bob Kaufman's books (also for New Directions) & John Wieners' _Selected Poems_ for Black Sparrow; then senior Editor Hanuman books, arranged my collaborations with Francesco Clemente & catalogued my photo negatives '47-'85, curated first photo show. Xmas 1986 in Japanese restaurant 1st Ave + 10 Street Manhattan.
Allen GinsbergFrancesco Clemente looking over hand-script album with new poem I’d written out for his Blake-inspired watercolor illuminations, we’d done two books before; entrance corner of his loft overlooking Great Jones Street Manhattan, October 1984. He liked this picture.
Allen GinsbergPhilip Whalen, sensei in his peaceful chair, my apartment living room, East 12th street New York March 1984. He was visiting East Coast to give readings N.Y. and Buffalo, Calm Poet. "What are you reading?" -- "I'm not reading I'm just turning the pages."
Allen GinsbergRussian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko 3 A.M. at kitchen table after long night drinking and taped conversation re great unpublished Soviet writers & mss., February 18, 1986.
Allen GinsbergWilliam Burroughs ready to leave "the Bunker" for supper, he was visiting New York staying in his former Bowery loft, maybe back from Europe where he was awarded rosette Chevalier des Arts, visible below the round American Institute of Arts & Letters pin on his lapel, very distinguished gentleman, March 26, 1985, just beginning his late additional career as a painter.
Allen GinsbergWade Walton’s barbershop, Clarksdale, Mississippi—Walton an old blues musician, Harry Smith came to record rhythmic clicking of his barber scissors, April 19, 1987
Allen GinsbergLita Hornick in her dining room, dessert for our lunch, Richard Boseman’s “The Norseman” on her north wall, we thought to visit Franz Klein exhibit at Whitney Museum a few blocks from her Park Avenue apartment. Writer, critic, excellent art & poetry patron. February 2, 1995.
Allen GinsbergKay MacDonough, their son Nile, and Gregory Corso at home, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco October 12, 1984… “and she gives birth to a child and I am sleepless, worn, / up for nights, head bowed against a quiet window / the past behind me…” _Marriage_, 1958.
Allen GinsbergGregory Corso grounded serious straightforward looking at me Boulder, Colorado, Jane Faigao's Patio, hot tub behind him. Teaching that summer, Naropa Institute's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, earlier in the day he'd taken psychedelic "Ecstasy" powder, July 29, 1985. "Empathy" would be more accurate name.
Allen GinsbergGary Snyder, Masa and youngest son Gen, Kitkitdizze household, May 30, 1988, Nevada City California, San Juan Ridge.
Allen GinsbergJim Carroll backstage, Public theater N.Y. September 1984
Allen GinsbergI got conscious of my kitchen breakfast-table window backyard’s seasons’ daily view, here morning snow-dropped window-sill, white roofed tool-shed, bare branched “trees of Heaven” (ailanthus), fences & fire-escapes lined with snow, N.Y. Times January 23, 1987.
Allen GinsbergTokdhan Rimpoche from Eastern Tibet had given oral Transmission of whole Kanjur "Three Baskets" collection, original Buddhist texts, twice or thrice in India.. For Gelek Rimpoche's annual summer retreat for a hundred or so of us students, he visited to transmit Prajnaparamita Sutra, Chanting one-volume short version for several days in succession: "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!" Highest Perfect Wisdom Sutra: "All Gone All Gone All overgone all Gone stay-high Now Old Mind so ah~" we'd rowed across nearby lake to swim, he sat and watched, Yankee Springs State Park, Michigan, August 27, 1993
Allen GinsbergListeners at Poetry reading, coffee-loading truck shed in hills, Nicaragua, January 23, '86
Allen GinsbergSelf-Portrait on my seventieth birthday in Borsalino hat and black cashmere-silk scarf from Milan & Dublin Thornproof-tweed suit, Oleg Cassini tie from Goodwill shirt same source, kitchen window mid-day, I stayed home & worked on _Selected Poems 1947 – ’95_ proofs after returning from Walker Art Centre reading — Beat exhibition weekend. Monday, June 3, 1996, N.Y.
Allen GinsbergPoet John Giorno & Bill's secretary Jim Grauerholz aghast at William S. Burroughs' whip-fast draw of flexible blackjack- - Bowery junkies try to steal his wallet watch out Muggers! Age 71 Burroughs'd returned to his old "Bunker" (formerly gym locker-room) in N.Y. with mss. _Place of Dead Roads_, second novel of trilogy. Scar on Giorno's belly from cancer operation decade earlier; Giorno by then resident had set up wall black- clothed with stage-lights for his poetry rock & roll rehearsals. March 26, 1985.
Allen GinsbergHarry Smith talking to Scotch folk-singer English Professor at University of Mississippi who drove me to visit Ike's Barber Shop in Clarksdale-- Ike had played in Black rhythm & Blues bands around the 40's Country & his shop was legendary social center after he'd returned to his home town-- Harry came to record the rhythm of his barber scissors & razor strapping as we spent the afternoon hanging out & listening to the jukebox by the bar, back of the Barbershop. Later we drove across the Mississippi River & returned to "ole' Miss" at Oxford by midnight, April 19, 1987.
Allen GinsbergW. S. Burroughs at rest in the sideyard of his house looking at the sky, empty timeless Lawrence Kansas May 28, 1991. But “the car dates it” he noticed when he saw this snapshot.
Allen GinsbergHarry Smith, Film-maker, folklore archivist, ethnomusicologist, hermetic painter, alchemist & Bishop of O.T.O. erasing some note in his calendar, Packing boxes of books and rare phonograph records in his room prior to departure from Hotel Breslin 28th St. & Broadway where he lived several years. Some boxes were stored in basement of Film-Maker's Archive, some at my apartment. January 12, 1985.
Allen GinsbergHerbert E. Huncke age 69 retired from the street on methadone program, head tilted wise-eyed for wry conversation, about to say something charming, flattering or honest at the kitchen table New York March 1984.
Allen GinsbergLois Snyder Hennessy in her living-room Grass Valley California, her son the Poet Gary Snyder found her a house in town near his Sierra Mountains homestead, we visited together, her 82'nd year, Robert Frank liked this snapshot.
Allen GinsbergGregory Corso serious, straightforward looking at me on Jane Faigao's patio, hot tub behind him, he'd taken psychedelic "Ecstasy" powders earlier in the day-- "Empathy" probably be a more accurate name--we were teaching at Narapa Poetics School
Allen GinsbergJohn Hammond ill, his apartment on Sutton Place December 4, 1986
Allen GinsbergPeter Orlovsky (b. 1933 –) visiting his family — Lafcadio then age 47 had lived with us S.F – N.Y. 1955 – ’61 & intermittent years later on; Mother Katherine aged 78 totally deaf lip-reading some after botched mastoid operation N.Y. Eye & Ear Hospital 1933, drunken surgeon; Laff’s twin sister Maril who’d roomed with Peter & me East 2’nd Street Lower East Side 1959 while attending baby-nurse school in Jersey, later a half-dozen years she quit hospital job angry hearing other nurse voices’ “filthy gossip” she said about Me and My Brother, Robert Frank’s film on Orlovskys— all this two decades before this moment. From second floor flat on lonely Cottontail Road they needed taxi for any heavy shopping with monthly Social Service Indemnity checks at Supermarket a mile away in Center Moriches, Long Island. July 26, 1987.
Allen GinsbergI sat for decades at morning breakfast tea looking out my kitchen window, one day recognized my own world the familiar backyard, a giant wet brick-walled undersea Atlantis garden, waving ailanthus (“stinkweed”) “Trees of Heaven,” with chimney pots along Avenue A topped by Stuyvesant Town apartments’ upper floors two blocks distant on 14th Street, I focus’d on the raindrops along the clothesline. “Things are symbols of themselves,” said Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. New York City August 18, 1984
Allen GinsbergGregory Corso, my room Hotel Metropole Brussels May 20, 1984
Allen GinsbergEllie Dorfman in her big breakfast room, holding up a Xerox copy of N.Y. Times _White Shroud Poem_, January 1985. _Elsa's House Book_ photos fixed many Cambridge Poetry visitors.
Allen GinsbergWandering Motel rooms San Francisco Portland Seattle & Kenyon College one month, poetry readings, book signings, interviews, I snapped self-portraits in clothes closet & bathroom mirrors midnights before bed whenever I saw full length views & doubled reflections. Sometime September 1991.
Allen GinsbergDedication of museum to Poet Titsian Tabidze shot in Stalin purges 1937—evening at theater on main street, Tbilisi, Georgia (Tiflis), state dignitaries & writer’s union officials reading proclamations of rehabilitation, harps & medieval ladies on stage, portrait of the flower-lapelled Poet in place of honor—I visited Tbilisi at Bella Achmadulina’s suggestion, Picking visa renewal to stay in Moscow, late November 1985.
Allen GinsbergLouis Auchincloss at Dostoevsky writing desk, Dostoevsky House Museum, Leningrad November 30, 1985
Allen GinsbergPaul Bowles in bed with Christmas presents brought by biographer Virginia Carr of Atlanta, his apartment Immeuble Itesa Tangier, several days before his 83'd birthday at month's end. December 24, 1993 xmas day.
Allen GinsbergDr. R. D. Laing, his residence office study, Poet Tom Pickard in chair, Hampstead, London April 25, 1985.