Howl: Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography

Allen Ginsberg; Edited by Barry Miles

ISBN 10: 0060156287 / ISBN 13: 9780060156282

Published by Harper & Row, New York, 1986

About this Item

First Edition Stated, First Printing with complete number line intact. Full cloth hardcover binding is clean and holding tight. Previous owner's gift inscription on the front endpaper, otherwise the book's interior and text are clean and unmarked. The dust jacket price remains unclipped ($22.50), and the jacket is attractive and whole with light wear to two of the corner folds. NOT ex-lib. A clean, solid copy in jacket. Indexed. xiv, 194pp. This book is over-sized, so it will likely require additional shipping charges on all priority and international orders.

Seller Inventory # 007836

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Howl: Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography
• Publisher: Harper & Row, New York
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060156287
• ISBN 13: 9780060156282
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Published in 1956 as the title poem of Allen Ginsberg's first collection, "Howl" is a prophetic masterpiece that overcame censorship trails to become one of the most widely read poems of the century. The annotated Howl is the poet's own re-creation of the long process of composition of a revolutionary poem that broke new ground in America poetry through its expansive poetic form, tonal range, and freshness of spirit.

From the Back Cover

The prophetic poem that launched a generation when it was first published in 1956 is here presented in a commemorative 40th Anniversary Edition. When the book arrived from its British printers, it was seized almost immediately by U.S. Customs, and shortly thereafter the San Francisco police arrested its publisher and editor, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, together with the City Lights Bookstore manager, Shigeyoshi Murao. The two of them were charged with disseminating obscene literature, and the case went to trial in the Municipal Court of Judge Clayton Horn. A parade of distinguished literary and academic witnesses persuaded the judge that the title poem was indeed not obscene and that it had "redeeming social significance". Thus was Howl and Other Poems freed to become the single most influential poetic work of the post World War II era, with over 800,000 copies now in print.