Allen Ginsberg poems and letters

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0099-F0759

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The Allen Ginsberg collection contains typescript poetry, a published letter, a postcard, and items related to the article "The Sound of Beat" published in the July 1959 issue of Playboy.

The seventeen items in the collection span the dates 1959-1984 and include primarily typescript copies of poetry with handwritten notes published between 1962 and 1966. The typescript of "Chances R" includes a note and illustration by Robert Branaman. The postcard dated June 6, 1966, and addressed to Poets Press publisher, Alan Marlowe, contains Ginsberg’s forward to Herbert Huncke’s book entitled Huncke’s Journal, which is an account of his experiences with his Beat-poet friends, published in 1965.

The collection also includes items related to the July 1959 issue of Playboy, including typescripts of Ginsberg’s "To Lindsay," Gregory Corso’s "Made By Hand," and Kerouac’s "To Harpo Marx." The collection also has publisher's requisition of payment forms, a proof mockup, an interoffice correspondence sheet, the original Playboy filing envelope, and a copy of the July 1959 issue of Playboy.

Dates

Creation: 1959-1966, 1984

Creator

Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997 (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was born in Newark, New Jersey, and educated at Columbia University. Before achieving success as a writer, Ginsberg worked as a dishwasher, a welder and served in the Merchant Marine. Literary notoriety followed publication of Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems (1956) in the Pocket Poet Series of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Books. This collection, which includes "Supermarket in California," "Sunflower Sutra," and "America," distinguished Ginsberg as a leading poet of the Beat movement. After 1956, Ginsberg traveled extensively, became involved with civil rights campaigns and war resistance movements, and continued to write poetry. One of Ginsberg’s most celebrated later poems is "Kaddish," a poem on the death of his mother collected in Kaddish and Other Poems, 1958-1960. Ginsberg died on April 5, 1997.

Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins and Phillip Leininger. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.

Extent

17 item

Additional Description

Abstract

Typescript poems, a published letter, a postcard written by Allen Ginsberg, and items related to the article "The Sound of Beat" published in the July 1959 issue of Playboy.