Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary and Ellen Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2011.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

signed and captioned by artist, across bottom in black ink: Lafcadio & Peter Orlovsky at kitchen table, Peter's apartment 5 Turner Terrace, a veteran's housing Pro- / ject near a gigantic gas tank on Potrero Hill. 23 year old Peter brought Lafcadio age 15 to Bay Area to stay / with us, relieve his mother Kate in Northport, L.I., where Lafcadio knew Kerouac, and had visions of becom- / ing a millionaire (and building a private space-ship to get off Nuked Planet Earth to another world) / by answering dozens & dozens of get-rich-quick home-sales ads ("Earn $800.00 a day selling special / Fish-bait oil by Telephone!") in pulp magazines' back pages. next Laf quit Jr. High School to bicycle / downtown S.F. for dishwashing job--"One of the best periods of his life, getting his first whiff of work, / money, independence, he was sparking up, got three social security cards, the F.B.I. came round to in- / vestigate," Peter recalls. Later that year we all took off with Gregory Corso by bus to visit Den- / ise Levertov in Guadelajara & join Kerouac in Mexico City--J.K. wrote about these "Darlovsky Bro- / thers soon after in [underline] Desolation Angels. Summer 1956, San Francisco. Allen Ginsberg; on verso, by artist, on post-it note, lower left in blue ink and graphite: BEST CAPTION / as of 9/16/95 AG; by unknown hand bottom center in graphite: GD-AG-101; bottom right: 30/415 6/55 / [check mark] 3/3 / GDC-862