Howl, and Other Poems by Ginsberg, Allen; Williams, William Carlos (intro.) - 1956

San Francisco: City Lights, 1956. First Edition. The Pocket Poet Series, Number 4. Paperback. Near Fine. Staple-bound wraps; small 8vo; pp. 44. Spine and cover lightly toned; else fine. The scarce first edition of Ginsberg's first book; subsequent printings remove Ginsberg's dedication to Lucien Carr -- "Lucien Carr, recently promoted to Night Bureau Manager of New York United Press" -- as Carr wanted to more publicity following his charge of second-degree murder for the killing of David Kammerer. A presentation copy, inscribed on the title-p., "For Helen in memory of the mad female neighbor over Minettas. Allen."

Ginsberg's Howl was one of the key works of the Beat Generation and its debut at the famed Six Gallery in 1955 marked the coming out of a new dissent in American poetry and culture. The Beats' critique and departure from the stufling conformity of the 1950s represented the start of the cultural revolution of the 1960s and provided the initial glimpses of the radicalism that would become prominent during the decade of the sixties. The Beats were profoundly influenced by the realities of the 1950s -- they lived in the shadow of the nuclear bomb and were haunted by the possibility of death at the hands of nuclear machinery and by the state of the world. The major themes identified in "Howl" -- madness, nakedness, and secrecy -- were omnipresent features of the United States in the 1950s and the Beats took it upon themselves to recognize and challenge these themes through art. The Beats hoped that they could foster a generalized awakening of the populace and ginsberg specifically sough to "jolt America awake" with the content and form of "Howl," and in many ways, "Howl" would both echo cultural changes already under way and usher in new ones as the 1950s moved into the 1960s. Helen Elliott met Allen Ginsberg while they were undergraduates at Columbia University in the late 1940s, and remained friends during the decades that followed, with Elliott introducing Ginsberg to her literary circles in New York, providing him with a place to stay, and occasionally writing him checks. While Elliott was friends with other Beat writers, such as Jack Kerouac, she and Ginsberg were closest. "Minettas" in his inscription refers, of course, to the Minetta Tavern, the great Beat haunt located at 113 MacDougal Street, where Ginsberg reportedly sipped alcohol for the first time in the 1940s.