A Guide to the Allen Ginsberg Papers Ginsberg, Allen, Papers 7883-a

A Guide to the Allen Ginsberg Papers

A Collection in
The Clifton Waller Barrett Library
Special Collections
The University of Virginia Library
Accession number 7883-a

Special Collections, University of Virginia Library

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
USA
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Reference Request Form: https://small.lib.virginia.edu/reference-request/
URL: http://small.library.virginia.edu/

Processed by: Special Collections Staff

Repository

Special Collections, University of Virginia Library

Collection Number

7883-a

Title

Allen Ginsberg Papers

Physical Characteristics

The collection consists of 57 items.

Location

Language

English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Allen Ginsberg Papers, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Accession #7883-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection was purchased from James S. Jaffe, 2003 November 4.

Funding Note

Scope and Content

The collection contains two typescripts by Ted Wilentz "The Kaddish manuscript" explaining his purchase of the Ginsberg manuscript and "Some words on Allen Ginsberg who deserves many."

The collection contains three brief letters to Ginsberg from Charles Plymell, Bob Rosenthal, and Theodorre Willentz, 1968-1984, mention a contract, and Peter Orlovsky.

The collection consists chiefly of letters to Ted Wilentz, 1962-1990, discussing his current writing and other activities. Specific topics include trip to India, current crises in Cuba and India, finances, music, Buddhism, conferences and readings. He mentions William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr, Robert Frank, Peter Orlovsky, Bertrand Russell, and Anne Waldman.

Letters to Willentz from James E. Breslin, Louis Ginsberg, Cordula [Koschembahr?] and Bill Morgan discuss permission to quote, a festschrift in honor of Ginsberg's 60th birthday, and Morgan's work on Ginsberg. A photograph of Ginsberg with [Amiri Baraka?] is enclosed in the letter from Cordula. There is a brief note from Ginsberg on the verso of the Breslin letter.

The collection also contains photographs and sketches, chiefly of Ginsberg and Orlovsky, and also a Viet Nam war protest. Additional miscellaneous materials include a review of "Kaddish and other poems, 1958-1960, by Harvey Shapiro; a newsletter concerning the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Coloradlo, and The Jack Kerouac Poetics School; and a broadside from the Neptune Theatre Liverpool advertising an Allen Ginsberg poetry reading.

Contents List

Manuscripts

Box-folder 1:1
1967 September 29 Typescript "The Kaddish Manuscript" by Theodore Wilentz, explains how he came to purchase the manuscript by Allen Ginsberg at an auction, held on May 2, 1961, to benefit "The Living Theatre and its European Tour" at the studio of Larry Rivers. At the bottom of this carbon copy, Wilentz has written "Copy of note given to N.Y.U. Library together with invitation and catalog to the Living Theatre Auction."

TMsS, 1 page, carbon copy
Box-folder 1:2
n.d. Typescript "Some Words on Allen Ginsberg Who Deserves Many" by Ted Wilentz, with some changes and corrections in pen,

TMsS, 3 pages on 3 leaves

Correspondence

Box-folder 1:3
1983 September 6 James E. Breslin, University of California, Berkeley, to Totem/Corinth Press, c/o Ted and Joan Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, asks permission to quote, in full, two poems from Empty Mirror for his book From Modern to Contemporary ; has Ginsberg's signed permission "form" attached. ,

TLS, 1 page, and TDS, with AN on bottom back from Ginsberg, telling him to also secure permission from Totem/Corinth
Box-folder 1:4
1962 September 28 Allen Ginsberg, Calcutta, India, to Ted Wilentz, New York City, has been ignoring his correspondence because of his work on a book for City Lights containing uncollected magazine poems from 1953-1960, to be called Reality Sandwiches ; has no money worries at this time; Durga holidays approaching; plans to go to Benares where he will work on "another book mostly paranoiac poetry about politics… writings over the last 4 years every time I wanted to let off steam about Cuba [and] Laos." He also mentions correspondence from Bertrand Russell warning about the faulty atomic network, and Creeley concerning an invitation to a poetry seminar at Vancouver next summer offering a free round trip ticket; the receipt of the Totem/Corinth books; comments about Calcutta, India, "Yes people sleeping in streets by millions. But everybody good natured in suffering, compared to USA. Still there'll be an explosion here too sooner or later. I guess. I wander around at night on streets a lot, & taking photos of begging lepers etc. "; and discusses his article Pa' Lante New Writing : Cuba/Ivan/USA, 1962.

TLS, 1 page, with envelope
Box-folder 1:4
1962 November 3 Allen Ginsberg, Calcutta, India, to Ted Wilentz, New York City, both he and Peter [Orlovsky] have received checks; describes the week he spent in Tarapith, India, "lush country village miles from road, center for Tantrik holymen pilgrimage, to worship goddess Tara a form of Kali-used to be famous madman holyman Bama Kape naked drunk & high on pot lived there -saddhus come from all over India to meditate on his grave & smoke ganja all day. I stayed high for 4 days running with gangs of half naked ascetics passing the pipe around in their huts. Turns out that the whole holyman scene is almost exclusively a hip pot smoking scene for the last 2,000 years, that's all they do-some meditation, breathing exercises, austerities, wandering, poverty, & good cheer-and continuous ritual pot smoking-most lovely gang of hepcats I ever met. Just like North Beach except carried to logical extreme. I should have known it all along. For advanced yoga however ganja, sex, meat, & travel is verboten." Ginsberg goes on to discuss events in Cuba [the Cuban Missile Crisis?] and the Indo-China War of 1962, summarizing "these crises are artificial nerve-wars organized by government & mass communication."

TLS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1963 September 12 Allen Ginsberg, City Lights Books, San Francisco, to Ted Wilentz, New York City, asks for an address and sends regards to Esther and Kathy,

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:4
[1963] September 20 Allen Ginsberg, City Lights Books, San Francisco, to Ted Wilentz, New York City, sends Peter's address in Benares, India, where he will be until October 8 when he will fly home; asks if they can borrow two hundred dollars if he needs it to get home quickly; Robert Frank flying to San Francisco next week to work on a movie of Kaddish ; and has found an apartment in a basement on Horatio Street.

TLS, 1 page with envelope, on City Lights Books stationery
Box-folder 1:5
1973 February 5 Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Discovery Bookshop, New York City, asks about some book orders, mentions his broken leg, and Lucian Carr (1925–2005), who has a broken leg as well, suggesting books to be sent to him,

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1973 March 21 Allen Ginsberg, New York, to Ted Wilentz, Discovery Bookshop, New York City, asks him to bill the Committee on Poetry for some books to be sent to Bonnie Bremah, who is studying some Buddhist matters, APCS,

1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1973 September 21 Allen Ginsberg, Teton Village, Wyoming, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, New Haven, Connecticut, has heard about their move to Yale, "They've always been slow literarily and it'll be a blessing to have an intelligent bookshop there after all these decades."

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1973 September 25 Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, New Haven, Connecticut, asks for help in finding an article about psychoanalytical study of childhood.

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1975 March 16 Allen Ginsberg, New York City to Ted Wilentz, New Haven, Connecticut, just returned from a trip to Chicago where he gave his first reading with William S. Burroughs,

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1975 December 28 Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, New Haven, Connecticut, has been attending various Buddhist retreats and Rolling Thunder Dylan Carnivals; has a new apartment; First Blues now out from Full Court Press; and will teach the Naropa Sumer Institute again with Anne Waldman, A

PCS, 1 page, with copy of his poem "Returning to the Country for a Brief Visit" on the other side
Box-folder 1:4
1978 August 13 Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, New Haven, Connecticut, writes note on bottom of typed letter from Erich Linder, International Literary Agent, to Ginsberg requesting permission for Guanda to publish a small book containing "Empty Mirror" and "Ankor Wat" which is addressed to the Wilentz couple, giving permission as long as Fernanda Pivano translates and he contacts them for the contract.

ANS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1980 March 10 Allen Ginsberg, Boulder, Colorado, to Ted Wilentz, New York City, sends birthday greetings,

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1982 September [18?] Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, writes he will be at the Folger Library in Washington on Feb 20-21, 1983, and is on return from Kerouac Conference in Europe, "a happy gas."

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1985 December 27 Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, just back from month -long trip to Vilna, Minsk, and Moscow, etc. saying, "Soviet [Union] still a grudging nightmare bureaucracy but people full of soul like 200,000,000 Orlovskys. Working on next poetry book."

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
1989 December 22 Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, writes about his new temporary roommate, a 29 year old Chinese mainland doctoral student, and "a new album "The Lion for Real" poetry, jazz, and me."

APCS, 1 page, with printed poem "Homework" by Ginsberg on other side
Box-folder 1:5
1990 May 11 Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, has returned from Prague to find their tape and furnishes his itinerary through August. APCS,

1 page
Box-folder 1:5
[n.y.] Christmas Day Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, sends Christmas greetings and inquires about his leg,

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:5
n.d. Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted and Joan Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, will go on reading tour March 15-May 1 and will ask his agent to send a list of the places he goes, in case Wilentz can sell copies of his book, Empty Mirrors to bookstores in those areas,

APCS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:4
n.d. Allen Ginsberg and Peter [Orlovsky] to Ted Wilentz, sends a greeting card designed by Ruth F. Sasaki, saying "We played the Greek records - ate blintzes went to R. Frank's"
Box-folder 1:6
n.d. Allen Ginsberg and Louis Ginsberg to [Ted Wilentz?] , writes "We came by to pay our respects respecting your worship"

ANS, 1 page
Box-folder 1:7
1963 February 1 Louis Ginsberg, father of Allen Ginsberg, Paterson, New Jersey, to Ted Wilentz, Eighth Street Bookshop, New York City, asks him to omit his order for The Sullen Art and send him Allen's copy instead, as he is "storing his things here for him until he returns. I surmise he'll make his base of operations here until he gets restless for new horizons." He then mentions a few of his recent published poems. Enclosed is a copy of a news clipping about Louis Ginsberg,

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:8
1962 February 17 Cordula [Koschembahr?], Embassy Hotel, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, apologizes for not mailing the enclosed photographs sooner. ALS, 1 page with one photograph of Allen Ginsberg playing the bongo drums with a friend [Amiri Baraka, formerly LeRoi Jones?] dated December 1959
Box-folder 1:9
1983 July 2 Bill Morgan, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, former proprietor of the Eight Street Bookshop in New York, asks Wilentz to contribute something new about Ginsberg and his accomplishments, for a festschrift in honor of Allen Ginsberg's 60 th birthday, organized by himself and Bob Rosenthal. Their purpose was "to show Allen how much his efforts - poet, political activist, gay pioneer, songster, mediator, etc., -- have been appreciated over the years. Your participation will help insure that this festive anthology pays tribute to a significant voice in American Poetics."

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:9
1984 February 23 Bill Morgan, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, reminds him about the upcoming festschrift and its deadline of June 1, 1984. He also mentions they have heard from more than seventy-five people already.

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:9
1984 July 28 Bill Morgan, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, again urging him to send in his piece about Ginsberg or at least to let him know if he was going to contribute so he can reserve space for him and go ahead with the book's layout and design.

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:9
1984 August 6 Bill Morgan, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, thanks him for his piece to be published in the tribute anthology honoring Ginsberg, saying that it fits in well with what they have received so far. He also typed in up and mailed a copy back to him for any corrections or changes.

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:9
1986 May 20 Bill Morgan, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, informs him that the tribute is near completion and asks if he has the most current address to mail his copy of the book, published as Best Minds: Festschrift for Allen Ginsberg (anthology ed. Bill Morgan and Bob Rosenthal. New York: Lospecchio, 1986).

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:9
1991 May 17 Bill Morgan, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, lets him know how much he enjoyed meeting him finally at Allen's photograph exhibit; has been working with Allen on a detailed bibliography for the past eleven years and would like to talk to him about the Totem/Corinth publication of Empty Mirror in 1961. Morgan wants to be able to establish the order of printings and asks if he saved one of the original press runs. If so, does the ad on the last page, page 48, include a short description of each book or a mere list of each book? He also has questions about the publication date and number of copies printed.

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:10
n.d. Charles Plymell and Ann, to Allen Ginsberg, brief penciled note asking him to call him, ANS,

1 page
Box-folder 1:11
1984 January 31 Bob Rosenthal, Secretary to Allen Ginsberg, New York City, to Ted Wilentz, New York City, asks if he can send a copy of the contract for Empty Mirror , because Harper & Row will be bringing out Allen's collected poems in the Fall of 1984,

TLS, 1 page with envelope
Box-folder 1:12
1968 July 3 Theodore Wilentz to Allen Ginsberg, New York City, asks about the farm and Peter Orlovsky and tells him to stop by the Sierra Club office if he is ever in the neighborhood,

TLS, 1 page, carbon copy

Photographs and Printed

Box-folder 1:13
1977, n.d. Photographs and Sketches, chiefly of Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and a Vietnam War protest in [New York City?],

18 items
Box-folder 1:14
1961 Autumn Printed Review of Ginsberg's Kaddish and Other Poems, 1958–1960 by Harvey Shapiro, in Midstream
Box-folder 1:14
1965 May 24 "Currents" in Publisher's Weekly about Allen Ginsberg in Prague during the May Day Festival
Box-folder 1:14
[1981 December 31] Newsletter concerning the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and The Jack Kerouac Poetics School, co-directed by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, sent to Ted and Joan Wilentz, with an advertisement about "25 Years on the Road: A Celebration of the Life and Times of Jack Kerouac" coming up the next summer, July 24-August 1, 1982
Box-folder 1:14
[1985 February 15] Printed invitation to Ted and Joan Wilentz from Harper & Row and the Poetry Project to an evening honoring Allen Ginsberg and the publication of Collected Poems, 1947–1980
Box-folder 1:14
n.y. April 19 Broadside of Neptune Theatre Liverpool advertising "An Evening of Poetry with Allen Ginsberg plus John Cooper-Clarke plus Jimmy Kelly