The white paper wrap-around label glued on the wrappers was used only for the first and second printings (Cook 4). Williams, in his introduction, describes how Ginsberg 'met a man named Carl Solomon with whom he shared among the teeth and excrement of this life something that cannot be described but in the words has used to describe it,' before he advises us to 'Hold back the edges of your gowns, Ladies, we are going through Hell.' First printing, with Lucien Carr's name on the dedication page. Ginsberg himself emerged as the youth movement's most visible guru, and his frequent public performances were more `happenings' than poetry readings, as he chanted, made music, smoked pot, and did not hesitate to strip naked' ( Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry, 187). Howl, published by poet and bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Bookshop, proved 'extraordinarily popular… its outrageous, Whitmanesque title poem a vers-libre anthem for the entire Beatnik revolt against middle-class mores and the political establishment's `death culture,' quite explicit anent Ginsberg's promiscuous homosexuality. Small quarto, black paper wrappers, mounted white wrap-around label, 44 pp., custom clamshell box.įirst edition, first printing, one of only 1000 copies, of Ginsberg's definitive anthem of the Beat generation, inscribed on the title page to his longtime friend, Helen Elliott, a member of the New York literati and an ex-girlfriend of Lucien Carr, on of the dedicatees of the volume: 'For Helen in memory of the mad female neighbor over Minettas-Alan.'

'IN MEMORY OF THE MAD FEMALE NEIGHBOR OVER MINETTA'S': EXTRAORDINARY FIRST EDITION OF HOWL AND OTHER POEMS, INSCRIBED BY ALLEN GINSBERG TO HIS LONGTIME FRIEND, HELEN ELLIOTT, A PROMINENT MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK LITERARY SCENE AND LUCIEN CARR'S EX-GIRLFRIEND

Carl solomon howl