Jack Kerouac, railroad brakeman’s rule-book in pocket, couch-pillows airing on fire-escape three flights up overlooking backyard clotheslines south. He’d already published The Town & the City and completed a treasury of half-dozen unprinted classic volumes including On the Road, Visions of Cody,_ Doctor Sax_, early books of Blues and Dreams, & had begun The Subterraneans’ adventurous love affair with Alene Lee, “Mardou Fox.” Alene typed for W. S. Burroughs then in residence editing Yage Letters and Queer mss., unpublishable that decade, censorship ruled. I scribed “The Green Automobile,” Gregory Corso visited that season, 206 East 7th Street near Tompkins Park, Manhattan, probably September 1953.

1953, printed later

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The image shows a man from the waist up, leaning against a brick wall. He stands sideways, looking to his right, and holds a cigarette near his mouth with one hand. The man has short, dark hair neatly combed back and a neutral facial expression. He is wearing a checkered shirt under a casual jacket, along with dark pants, and the jacket has large pockets. Around him, there is an industrial or urban setting indicated by the brick wall and the structure it supports. In the background, there are blurred outlines of buildings, suggesting an exterior environment.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary S. Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 34.8 x 23.5 cm (13 11/16 x 9 1/4 in.)
    sheet: 51.7 x 40.5 cm (20 3/8 x 15 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2009.103.7

  • Copyright

    Copyright (c) 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Ellen and Gary Davis, Greenwich, CT (through Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York); gift to NGA, 2009.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2010

  • Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, National Gallery of Art, Washington; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Grey Art Gallery & Study Center, New York University, New York; The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, 2010 - 2013, no. 47.

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: Jack Kerouac, railroad brakeman's rule-book in pocket, couch-pillows airing on fire-escape three flights up overlooking backyard clotheslines south. He'd already published The Town & The City and completed a treasury of half-dozen unprinted classic volumes including On The Road, Visions of Cody, Doctor Sax, early books of blues and dreams, & had begun The Subterraneans' adventurous love affair with Aileen Lee, "Mardou Fox." Aileen typed for W. S. Burroughs then in residence editing Yage [sic] Letters and Queer mss., unpublishable that decade, censorship ruled. I scribed "The Green Automobile," Gregory Corso visited that season, 206 East 7th Street near Tompkins Park, Manhattan, probably September 1953.

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