Gregory Corso, his attic room 9 Rue Gît-le-Coeur, wooden angel hung from wall right, window looked on courtyard and across Seine halfblock away to spires of St. Chapelle on Ile St. Louis. Gregory’s Gasoline was ready at City Lights, in attic he prepared “Marriage,” “Power,” “Army,” “Police,” “Hair” and “Bomb” for Happy Birthday of Death book. Henri Michaux visited, liked Corso’s “mad children of soda-caps” phrasing Burroughs came from Tanger to live one flight below, shaping Naked Lunch manuscript, Peter Orlovsky and I had window on street two flights downstairs, room with two-burner gas stove, we ate together often, rent $30 a month. I’d begun Kaddish litany, Peter his “Frist Poem.”, 1957, printed later

Not on View

Medium

gelatin silver print

Dimensions

image: 35.6 x 35.5 cm (14 x 14 in.)

sheet: 50.2 x 40.5 cm (19 3/4 x 15 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Gary S. Davis

Accession Number

2008.131.10

Artists / Makers

Allen Ginsberg (artist) American, 1926 - 1997

Image Use

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Copyright

Inscription

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: Gregory Corso, his attic room 9 Rue Git-de-Coeur, wooden angel hung from wall right, window looked on courtyard and across Seine half-block away from spires of St. Chapelle on Ile St. Louis Gregory's Gasoline [underlined] was ready at City Lights, in attic he prepared "Marriage," "Power," "Army," "Police," "Hair" and "Bomb" for Happy Birthday of Death [underlined] book. Henri Micheaux visited, liked Corso's "Mad Children of Soda-Caps" phrasing. Burroughs came from Tanger to live one flight below, shaping _Naked Lunch_ manuscript, Peter Orlovsky and I had window on street two flights downstairs, room with two-burner gas stove, we ate together often, rent $30 a month. I'd begun Kaddish litany, Peter his "Frist Poem." [sic] Allen Ginsberg [signature]; on verso, by unknown hand, across lower center in graphite: GD-AG-018; across lower right: GDC-604

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Ellen and Gary Davis, Greenwich, CT (through Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York); gift to NGA, 2008.

Associated Names

Davis, Gary S.

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. 64.