Published by San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1980, 1980
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
First Edition Signed
First edition, first printing, letter O of 26 specially bound copies signed by Ginsberg and Orlovsky. This is publisher and editor Winston Leyland's own copy of the deluxe issue, additionally signed by him on the title page, and with two unpublished autograph letters signed from Ginsberg to Leyland laid in. The first letter, dated 26 November 1982, praises the present publication, mentions meeting John Rechy, and discusses other matters of gay publishing. The second, with the signed envelope dated 7 September 1990, sends Leyland a postcard of the famous photograph Ginsberg took of Neal Cassady and Natalie Jackson in 1955. Winston Leyland (b.1940) was a leading figure in American LGBT publishing and won the Stonewall Book Award in 1980. He established the Gay Sunshine Press in 1975, which was notable for its pioneering anthologies of gay writing from other cultures, and his Gay Sunshine Journal (1970-82) was particularly influential for its interviews with prominent gay writers of the era, including Ginsberg himself. Gay Sunshine A14c. Octavo. Photographic portrait frontispiece, and other illustrations. Original blue patterned quarter cloth, title label to spine with titles in orange, light brown paper sides with titles to front in orange, dark blue endpaper. With the original acetate jacket. But for some minor marks to acetate, fine.