“…rubber booted in soft grass, mind moveless, /breath trembles in white daisies by the roadside, Heaven breath and my own symmetric/ Airs wavering thru antlered green fern
drawn in my navel,/ same breath as breathes thru Capel-Y-Ffin..” (from “Wales Visitation”)
Eco-watch – They’re thinking of putting a telecommunications mast in one of the most beautiful parts of the Llanthony Valley. Read more about the resistance here
Allen Ginsberg and William Blake (sic) – Luke Walker, at Hell’s Printing Press (the blog of the Blake Archive and Blake Quarterly), provides an extensive and informative review of Pat Thomas’ recent CD-production of Allen Ginsberg – The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience. (This piece will be appearing in the Fall 2018 issue of Blake Quarterly but it is also, right now, available on-line – read it here)
Dave Lordan reviews The Best Minds of My Generation – A Literary History of The Beats – here
& – Ginsberg meta-scholarship – Gina Baber’s “A Paratextual and Bibliographical Study of Howl by Allen Ginsberg” (don’t be put off by that title!) is available as a pdf file and is a riveting read
“Comparing the first and second printing of Howl and Other Poems,” (Baber notes), “it becomes apparent that the typesetting is considerably different. Without later texts to compare it with, it could be assumed that the first printing is the correct printing; what the author intended. On comparison with the original mimeograph version however, it becomes clear that the rhythm and long-line style that Ginsberg originally typed, is printed incorrectly..”
Getting down to the nitty-gritty. Read more of this study – here
We, of course, salute and lament the noble mimeo – ( the “mimeo revolution”)
Rick Dale over at The Daily Beat has been going through his books – item 136 – Howl and Other Poems, item 137 – Kaddish and Other Poems 1958-60. He’s calling it his “Kerouac bookshelf” so he’ll certainly be interested in this (we’ve mentioned it before), the just-recently-released Skira edition of Jack Kerouac’s Beat Painting
Gregory Corso – don’t miss (if you happen to be in New York this weekend) an event taking place Sunday night at the Howl Happening Gallery. (6 East 1st Street, 7-9) – “A Gregory Corso Tribute” – Film, poetry, and interview with Gregory’s lifelong friend, editor and translator, George Scrivani, organized by the irrepressible (and invaluable) Raymond Foye
also, don’t miss this – Kaye McDonough on Gregory Corso in the current Los Angeles Review of Books
Remembering Gregory (impossible to forget him!)
Today (Friday) is the anniversary of the death of Julian Beck, founder, (along with Judith Malina) of the fabled Living Theater. We remember with fondness another great pioneering spirit
