Item #815 Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow. Allen Ginsberg.
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow
Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow

Archive of Signed Letters and Signed Books to Elbert Lenrow

"After Elbert’s death in 1993, I received a box of folders containing all of the original Ginsberg letters which appear in Elbert’s memoir and several he did not include but to
which he refers. These items date from March 1949 through June 1980. What makes this material particularly interesting is the fact that Elbert kept copies of every letter or postcard he ever wrote, so reading the collection seems more like hearing a conversation than reading letters."-Katherine H. Burkman, from the preface to
Kerouac Ascending: Memorabilia of the Decade of On the Road

AN EXTRAORDINARY GINSBERG ARCHIVE, comprised of:

-three typed letters, signed and annotated by Allen Ginsberg, and three post cards written by Ginsberg; all to Elbert Lenrow

-three signed and inscribed books of poetry from Ginsberg to Lenrow: Kaddish and Other Poems, Planet News, and Reality Sandwiches

-ten file copies of letters from Lenrow to Ginsberg

-two file copies of early Ginsberg poems sent by Lenrow, and a copy of Ginsberg ALS responding to literary and biographical questions from Professor Tibor Kun, typed and sent by Lenrow.

A notable and revealing correspondence spanning two decades between Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his former professor at the New School, Elbert Lenrow. Ginsberg had often accompanied Jack Kerouac to Lenrow’s lectures, resulting in a friendship that lasted until Lenrow’s death in 1993. Dating from 1958, when Ginsberg and his lover Peter Orlovsky had moved to Paris amidst the tumult of the “Howl” obscenity trial, the letters mostly deal with the literary scene of the time, from emerging writers to Ginsberg’s circle of Beat generation friends and what became of them. Ginsberg writes briefly of Paris, mentioning his travels with Peter across Europe and their visit to Tangiers to see William S. Burroughs, as well as the nature of literary circles back home (“Do you know the other new poets? There are a lot of them, not yet reached the surface, tho their great classics already been written... New school people should dig their books. There has been a revolution.”) A decade later, Lenrow writes of Ginsberg’s continuing popularity with young students (“Last year, one of our Fieldston students was really digging your poetry----carried various small volumes like Howl and Kaddish all around the school and prodded the librarian to get with them.”) In Ginsberg’s corresponding letter, he answers queries about Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady (“Kerouac’s... seeing ashes and sorrow deeper than anyone I know... Neal died in San Miguel Allende this last Feb 4, exhausted and feeling lone and lost...”).

Included are two file copies of early poems by Ginsberg (“Stanzas: Written at Night in Radio City” and “Fie my Fum”), sent by Lenrow in a 1968 letter to which Ginsberg never responded. Also included is Lenrow’s typed copy of Ginsberg’s responses to a set of questions from a Hungarian professor, Tibor Kun, who Lenrow met while traveling. The questions deal with the changing nature of the Beat movement and of writers like Ginsberg himself, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William S. Burroughs, and Gary Snyder.

From 1971 onward, the remainder of Ginsberg’s writing is in the three postcards, going up to 1980, which describe his efforts at recording a tape of his collected works (“I’m preparing a... set of complete works recorded at readings from tapes I’ve collected...”). In his final postcard, he mentions his and Orlovsky’s teaching at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Naropa, founded by Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.

These letters, with mentions of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, and Peter Orlovsky, carry the story of the first Beat writers to its conclusion, in many cases all the way up to their deaths or burn-outs, while also telling the little-known story of Allen Ginsberg’s friendship with “a man who took the young artists [Ginsberg and Kerouac] seriously from the beginning” (Howard Cunnell, introduction to Kerouac Ascending: Memorabilia of the Decade of On the Road).

Included are three books of poetry owned by Elbert Lenrow and inscribed by Allen Ginsberg. In the later letters, Lenrow repeatedly urges Ginsberg to visit and sign the books ("Having bought your books for a long time, I now have more than a dozen by or about you, and it's my hope that you will sometime add to their uniqueness by inscribing them with appropriate 'Blakean' reflections or drawings"). As the inscriptions are dated 1980, Ginsberg apparently fulfilled his friend's wish. As for the "Blakean" drawings, the front endpaper of Kaddish and Other Poems is drawn on by Ginsberg. Within the books are pencil markings of Lenrow's corrections to the poems--a habit of his known to anyone who sent him works of theirs to read. Also, included in Planet News is a newspaper clipping dated 1972 with a short paragraph on Ginsberg's acquittal in an Italian obscenity trial in regards to his poem "Whom to Be Kind To", underlined by Lenrow.

These books offer a singular look into these two friends' lives outside of the letters, giving a more complete picture of their friendship than is usually possible to construct so many years after the fact.

Letters in fine condition; copies of poems slightly tattered, but very well-preserved.

BOOKS:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1970, 1968, 1970. Kaddish and Other Poems: Eleventh Printing, February 1970; Reality Sandwiches: Tenth Printing, February 1970; Planet News: First trade edition, November 1968. All books near-fine with minor wear.

Check Availability:
P: 212.326.8907
E: info@manhattanrarebooks.com

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