ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Title Allen Ginsberg Collection
Collection Number SC 332
OCLC Number 1035197631
Creator Various
Provenance Books and magazines (approximately 90 items) were donated by Harry Cuttler in 1989.
Un the 1990s, the department added related materials to the collection. It was not
possible to separate the materials by provenance, so it has remained as one collection.
Extent,Scope, and Content Note The collection is comprised of 8.3 linear ft. of materials authored by and about Allen Ginsberg: literary magazines, correspondence,
recordings, posters, and broadsides.
Arrangement and Processing Note Processing completed by Special Collections in December 2005. Finding aid updated and revised in June 2019.
The collection is arranged in five series: Series 1: Literary Magazines Series 2: Newspaper Articles Series 3: Writings - Correspondence and Manuscripts Series 4: Recordings Series 5: Photographs Series 6: Literary Broadsides, Posters and Oversized Print Materials
Language English
Restrictions on Access The collection is open to researchers without restriction.
Rights and Permissions Stony Brook University Libraries' consent to access as the physical owner of the collection
does not address copyright issues that may affect publication rights. It is the sole
responsibility of the user of Special Collections and University Archives materials
to investigate the copyright status of any given work and to seek and obtain permission
where needed prior to publication.
Citation [Item], [Box], Allen Ginsberg Collection, Special Collections and University Archives,
Stony Brook University Libraries.
Historical Note Acclaimed poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was born in Newark, N.J. and was raised
in Paterson, N.J., where his father, Louis Ginsberg, himself a poet, taught high school
English. Allen Ginsberg's mother was confined for years in a mental hospital. He mourned
for her in his long poem titled Kaddish (1961). In 1943, while attending Columbia
University, Ginsberg befriended Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, who later established
themselves as significant contributors to the Beat Movement. After leaving Columbia
in 1948, Mr. Ginsberg traveled widely and worked at a number of jobs, including cafeteria
floor mopper to market researcher. In 1956, Allen Ginsberg's first published book
of poetry, Howl and Other Poems, lamented what he believed to have been the destruction
by insanity of the "best minds of [his] generation." Expressive and raw with honesty,
the poem revealed Ginsberg's opinions on homosexuality, drug addiction, Buddhism,
and his revulsion from what he saw as the materialism and insensitivity of post-World
War II America. Ginsberg began a life of ceaseless travel, reading his poetry at campuses
and coffee bars, traveling abroad, and engaging in left-wing political activities.
Empty Mirror, Kaddish and Other Poems and Reality Sandwiches were all published in
the early 1960s. He became an influential guru of the American youth counterculture
in the late 1960s. He acquired a deeper knowledge of Buddhism, and increasingly a
religious element of love for all sentient beings entered his work. His later volumes
of poetry included Planet News (1968); The Fall of America: Poems of These States,
1965-1971 (1972), which won the National Book Award and White Shroud: Poems 1980-1985
(1986). Allen Ginsberg died of a heart attack while suffering from liver cancer on
April 5, 1997 in New York City. (Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica Online and the Gale
Literary Database Contemporary Authors)
Subjects Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997. Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Correspondence. Ginsberg, Louis, -- 1895-1976. Ginsberg, Edith. McReynolds, David. Orlovsky, Peter, -- 1933-2010. Targ, William, -- 1907- Poets, American. American literature -- 20th century. Beats (Persons) American literature.
INVENTORY
Series 1: Literary Magazines
Box 1: A through Caterpillar
American Review, 16, 1973 Big Sky, No. 1, 1971 / Big Sky, No. 2, 1972 Big Table, 2, 1959 Big Table, 3, 1959 Big Table, 4, 1960 Birth, No. 3, Bk. 1, 1960 Boss, Summer, 1966 Boston University Journal, XXVI, 1977 Bust, No. 1, 1968 The Cambridge Review, No. 6, 1956 Caterpillar, 3/4, 1968 Caterpillar, 13, 1970
Box 2: Chirmo through Damascus
Chirmo, 1968 City Lights Journal, No. 1, 1963 City Lights Journal, No. 2, 1964 City Lights Journal, No. 4, 1978 The Coldspring Journal, n.d. El Corno Emplumado, 17, 1966 The Cottonwood Review, Nov. 1966 The Cottonwood Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1967 Coyote's Journal, 5&6, 1966 Damascus Road, 1, 1961
Box 3: Evergreen through New Departures
Evergreen Review, No. 2, 1957 Evergreen Review, No. 4, 1957 Evergreen Review, No. 8, 1959 Evergreen Review, No. 10, 1959 Evergreen Review, No. 11, 1960 Evergreen Review, No. 18, 1961 Hika, Vol. 28, No. 3, Spring/Summer, 1966 Hudson Review, Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring, 1979 Kulchur, Spring, 1960 Madness: Poems of Ray Bremser, Intro by Allen Ginsberg, 1965 Naropa Institute Newsletter, 1977 New Departures, Nos. 2/3, 1960
Box 4: New York through Stony Brook
New York Quarterly, No. 6, Spring, 1970 Nomad New York, 10/11, 1962 Olympia, No. 1, 1962 Pa' Lante New Writing: Cuba/Ivan/USA, 1962 Partisan Review, Summer, 1959 The Paris Review, 37, 1966 The Paris Review, 50, 1968 Pennsylvania Literary Review, 1960 Poetry, Vol. 103, No. 4, 1964 Residu, 1:1, Spring, 1965 Some/thing, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1966 Stony Brook, 1/2, Fall, 1968
Box 5: Underdog through Yugen
Underdog, No. 7, 1965 Unmuzzled Ox, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1972 Unmuzzled Ox, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1975 Wagner, Spring, 1950 West Hills Review, Issue No. 1, 1979 Yugen, 5, 1959 Yugen, 7, 1961 Assorted Articles, Publications, Magazines, Etc. Assorted Oversized Literary Magazines
Box 6: Avant through F*** You
Avant Garde, 14, 1971 Bananas, No. 20, April 1980/Bastard Angel, Spring 1972 Bastard Angel, Spring 1972 Brown Paper: An Occasional Magazine of Poetry, 1966 Columbia College Today, Spring/Summer 1981 The Dessert Review, Spring 1964 East Side Review, Jan/Feb 1966 Evergreen Review, No. 36, June 1965 Evergreen Review, Vol. 10, No. 40, 1966 Evergreen Review, No. 42, Aug. 1966 Evergreen Review, Vol. 11, No. 46, 1967 The Free A & A, No. 1, 1969 The Floating Bear, No. 21, 1962 F*** You Magazine of the Arts, No. 5, Vol. 7, Sept. 1964 Grist, No. 8, 1966
Box 7: Intrepid through WIN
Intrepid, 10 and 11/12, 1968 & 1969 Journal for the Protection of All Beings, No. 4, Fall 1978 Klacto, 23, 1967 Latitudes, Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 1967 Mediterranean Review, No. 2, Winter 1971 The Paris Magazine, October 1967 New Age, Vol. 8, No. 11, June 1983 Playboy, January 1967 Saturday Morning (NYC Issue), Vol. II, No. 1 & 2, Summer 1978 The Second Coming Magazine, July 1961 Neurotica, Spring 1950 A Shout in the Street, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1976 Sinapse, 3, January 1965 Win, March 3, 1977
Series 2: Newspaper Articles
Box 8
"Ginsberg in Warsaw," International Herald Tribune, Saturday & Sunday, September 13
& 14, 1986 "& Violets Are Blue: On Father's Day, The Ginsberg's 2," The New York Times, Sunday,
June 16, 1974 "A Reading and a Mourning," The New York Times Book Review, October 23, 1977 "Allen Ginsberg: Some Things Have Changed," San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, August
31, 1978 "Poet as Mirror of Our Age," The New York Times, n.d. "Come all Ye Brave Boys," The Toy Sun, January 1, 1976 "Ginsbergs in Great Neck: An Odd Night, A Good Class," North Shore Community Section
(of Great Neck Record, Port Washington News, Manhasset Press, Roslyn News, and Glen
Cove Record Pilot), Thursday, November 27, 1969 "Ginsberg Visited Too Late," Artist's Forum, Vol. 1, No. 1, April 1977 "Times Past at the Beat Hotel," The Paris Metro, August 16, 1978 "Ginsberg Asks 44 Questions About Leary," Berkeley Barb, Vol. 20, No. 10, Issue 475,
September 20 to 26, 1974
Series 3: Writings - Correspondence and Manuscripts
Box 9
Cuttler, Harry McReynolds, David, 1977 Ginsberg, Edith (Allen Ginsberg's stepmother) Postcard from Allen Ginsberg, 1976 Postcard from Allen Ginsberg, 1988 Ginsberg, Louis (Allen Ginsberg's Father) Newspaper Clipping of Poem, "Emily" by Louis Ginsberg Clipping of Poem, "Atlantis" by Louis Ginsberg, Minnesota Review, Winter 1966 Newspaper Clipping of "Keep An Open Mind" by Louis Ginsberg, Paterson Eve News Leary, Timothy Uncorrected proofs of Epilogue inserted in second printing of "The Politics of Ecstasy"
by Timothy Leary. Essay reached publisher too late for inclusion in the first edition.
Postcards from Allen Ginsberg to William Targ (2) Original typed copy of A. Ginsberg's "Remarks Concerning Timothy Leary's Politics
of Ecstasy," with Allen Ginsberg's seal at close McReynolds, David, War Resisters League Gallery Announcement of Wynn Chamberlain, with an essay by Allen Ginsberg Letter on Naropa Institute letterhead 3 postcards Copy of Plutonian Ode Copy of undated material from F.B.I. files Letter to Harry Cuttler on back of a photograph Correspondence with Bill Morgan Letters (2) and postcard (1) from Allen Ginsberg regarding the War Resisters League;
1 Letter to Harry Cuttler Letter to Harry Cuttler including envelope with "No Nukes!" with a doodle by A. Ginsberg
over Einstein stamp Orlovsky, Peter (A. Ginsberg's partner) Naropa Institute Postcard from Allen Ginsberg to David McReynolds, mention of P. Orlovsky,
1979 Gotham Book Mart Postcard from Peter Orlovsky to David McReynolds, 1978 Letter to Ralph (?), with copy of "Love Poem" to A.J. Muste Letter to Peter Orlovsky from David McReynolds (?), and letter from David McReynolds
to H. Cuttler Assorted letters and papers 3 Letters; 2 addressed to Bill (?), and 1 without address Assorted correspondence (2 letters in leather folio) Letter to "Mr. Targ" Letter to "Bill" (?) Printing plate. Vietnam "Vote McGovern." Chain letter from David McReynolds and The
War Resisters League.
Series 4: Recordings
Box 10
"Howl". 1 sound disc : analog, 33 1/3 rpm ; 12 in. Edition recorded: the author's work of the same title, and his Kaddish and other poems
(San Francisco, City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956 and 1959). Recorded in Chicago, Jan. 1959, and in San Francisco, June 1959. Autobiographical note on slipcase. [Berkeley, CA] : Fantasy, [1959]
Untitled television program. New York Channel 13 (PBS), on magnetic tape includes
Samuel Beckett (McGowran) sec. cliches (about halfway).
"Pull My Daisy" (from the "No More Walls" album); includes "Going North" by David
Avram (from the "No More Walls" album).
Series 5: Photographs
Photographs Poster Card, 1967 Photograph, 1978? Photographs (3) from David McReynolds of Allen Ginsberg at book signing (?) with letter
to Harry Cuttler Miscellany
Series 6: Literary Broadsides, Posters, and Oversized Print Materials
"A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley." Literary broadside. Allen Ginsberg (signature),
from an edition of 300 copies printed at the Grabhorn Press, San Francisco. Woodcut
by Robert La Vigne (signature).
"Consulting I Ching Smoking Pot Listening to the Fugs Sing Blake." Literary broadside.
Allen Ginsberg, June 1966
"Entering Kansas City High." Literary broadside. Allen Ginsberg. Formula Series No.
5, 1967. T. Williams, Publisher
"Guerilla Lovefare." Event poster. Reading by Allen Ginsberg in Detroit Michigan,
Feb. 26, 1967. (encapsulated)
"It's War on All Fronts," Literary Broadside, Allen Ginsberg, March 6, 1966
"Kral Majalesb" Literary broadside. Allen Ginsberg, May 7, 1965.
Robert La Vigne, "Art Exhibition at The Lion," San Francisco. Promotional poster by
Allen Ginsberg, 1958.
"Who Be Kind To." Literary broadside. Allen Ginsberg, June 10, 1965.
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