“Now Jack as I warned you far back as 1945, if you keep going home to live with your ‘Memère’ you’ll find yourself wound tighter and tighter in her apron strings till you’re an old man and can’t escape…” William Seward Burroughs camping as an André Gideian sophisticate lecturing the earnest Thomas Wolfean All-American youth Jack Kerouac who listens soberly dead-pan to “the most intelligent man in America” for a funny second’s charade in my living room 206 East 7th Street Apt 16, Manhattan, one evening Fall 1953.
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Subject ID143969
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Depiction ID39b62d10-7f3a-4e1c-8946-5dd94a3b610d
Subject ID143969
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Created2026-05-22
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_title“Now Jack as I warned you far back as 1945, if you keep going home to live with your ‘Memère’ you’ll find yourself wound tighter and tighter in her apron strings till you’re an old man and can’t escape…” William Seward Burroughs camping as an André Gideian sophisticate lecturing the earnest Thomas Wolfean All-American youth Jack Kerouac who listens soberly dead-pan to “the most intelligent man in America” for a funny second’s charade in my living room 206 East 7th Street Apt 16, Manhattan, one evening Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143969
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Depiction ID68963832-1b00-4e38-a3d4-2e59bc01677c
Subject ID213308
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleLou Reed, poet-musician (hero to avant-guard Czechoslovak intellectual rock-band dissident "Plastic People of the Universe" defended from government persecution by playwright Vaclav Havel and his Charter 77 friends) at make-up table in green room, public Theater Lafayette Street New York, invited by impresario Rose Lesniak (above) to Master Ceremonies, Premiere of Poetry- Music Video Clips by Anne Waldman ("uh! oh! plutonium") and myself ("Father Death Blues"), September 1984.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/213308
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Depiction ID2d265e47-bd46-4699-a965-01ab278000b1
Subject ID143978
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleNeal Cassady & I went upstairs to attic at Millbrook estate near Poughkeepsie, big house where Tim Leary’s Castalia Foundation was then experimenting with psychedelic DMT, a half hour trip. Here Neal rests with eyes closed watched over by Susan Metzner in charge of holding the vial of clear liquid, just injected. I’d driven up from N.Y. with Kesey’s Merry Pranksters in their bus, Fall 1964.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143978
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Depiction IDcaf37b80-69e8-49ad-9157-9ca35a230688
Subject ID143973
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleHenry Schlactner, Kerouac’s friend Al Sublette by Peter Orlovsky. Foster’s Cafeteria S.F. 1955. Me on right.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143973
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Providernga
Depiction ID83cf7cbc-037d-4c13-a4a9-609d0ecb1564
Subject ID150441
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titlePeter Orlovsky (b. 1933 –) visiting his family — Lafcadio then age 47 had lived with us S.F – N.Y. 1955 – ’61 & intermittent years later on; Mother Katherine aged 78 totally deaf lip-reading some after botched mastoid operation N.Y. Eye & Ear Hospital 1933, drunken surgeon; Laff’s twin sister Maril who’d roomed with Peter & me East 2’nd Street Lower East Side 1959 while attending baby-nurse school in Jersey, later a half-dozen years she quit hospital job angry hearing other nurse voices’ “filthy gossip” she said about Me and My Brother, Robert Frank’s film on Orlovskys— all this two decades before this moment. From second floor flat on lonely Cottontail Road they needed taxi for any heavy shopping with monthly Social Service Indemnity checks at Supermarket a mile away in Center Moriches, Long Island. July 26, 1987.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/150441
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Providernga
Depiction IDcaefe1c9-bd31-4d35-9d9c-ef793cbec415
Subject ID225433
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineRobert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund
subject_titleEllis Reed, Sr., East Orange, New Jersey
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/225433
typeimage
Distance0.17003024
Providernga
Depiction IDaefd4e84-8a34-481a-ab00-197692d08e2b
Subject ID142208
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleBill must've said something funny from the floor, we were taking snapshots of each other on same couch, my $13.00 Kodak Retina pawn-shop camera in Burroughs' hands. He stayed in the apartment East 7th Street between Avenues B & C most of that Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/142208
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Providernga
Depiction ID064f9b12-dbd8-4152-92f2-2d7287dc4a36
Subject ID205227
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleLouis Marker, Jacksonville Florida. Bill Burroughs friend from Mexico City. I visited December 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/205227
typeimage
Distance0.17676103
Providernga
Depiction ID1229fb5c-bf34-4c19-b591-0d2a1bf55892
Subject ID142168
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleWilliam S. Burroughs interviewed for _Heavy Petting_ film memoir of youthful erotic initiations, his secretary James Grauerholz leaning forward observing discussion of sex world 1930 – 40s, final movie version cut out Bill’s queer loves. Obie Benz’s Soho loft, New York, December 21, 1986.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/142168
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Depiction ID9e5caaa6-7123-4d20-b276-8be68166f16a
Subject ID222361
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of the Artist in honor of her daughter, Julia Marjorie Leonard
subject_titleBarb and Leo on Couch
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/222361
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Depiction ID8316695c-eb0c-494a-9ddc-e2aeb475e8ac
Subject ID191413
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Betsy Karel, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art
subject_titleWales
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/191413
typeimage
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Depiction IDf9be8a9f-2ea5-4db8-97a6-c3cac7e86d21
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlinePatrons' Permanent Fund
subject_titleSelf-Portrait with Jim Dine
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/118509
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Depiction ID60ed5822-0136-4ba7-8836-38a07057552b
Subject ID144250
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleLucien Carr, my oldest friend from college days, had introduced me to Jack Kerouac after they’d met at the West End bar on 113th St. & Broadway, and connected Jack + me to his fellow St. Louis uppermiddle-class (aristocrat we thought) confrère William S. Burroughs, late winter 1944. We lived down the hall from each other on 7th floor Union Theological Seminary, Columbia freshman dorm during W.W.II, I heard haunting Brahms sextet music through his door, knocked, we met. Kerouac heard _Old Angel Midnight_ eloquence in Lucien’s laconic “Celtic” intonations. Here four decades later, wise Old Dog Bureau Manager United Press International he was visiting former house-mate Alene Lee’s Soho loft. More eyes perused his wire-service prose than all Jack’s & my texts, I’ll bet. December 2, 1986.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/144250
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Depiction IDd412b8e6-b8e2-4f9a-80eb-34c9d9c75b6b
Subject ID142169
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleCarl Solomon in his Prince Street apartment several years after we were locked up together in residence on Sixth Floor ward, New York State Psychiatric Institute. He got shock treatments, introduced me to Jean Genet’s _Miracle of the Rose_ and Antonin Artaud’s _Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society_ translations, I stayed eight months, weekends off. Afterwards, working mid-town at his uncle’s Ace Books publications, he gave Kerouac small advance on first _On the Road_ sketches (scroll later rejected), saw Jaime DeAngulo’s classic _Indian Tales_ first hard-back through press, & edited William Burroughs’ _Junkie_ paperback first edition. New York, 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/142169
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Depiction IDb180d5a5-1010-419b-8351-826002af4f86
Subject ID143977
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_title“Peter lying dressed up in pants on mattress picking his red moustache, with long hollywood Christlike hair & Christ’s small beard stubble — ” (_Indian Journals_, p. 132) Orlovsky & I spent half year in this room overlooking Dasasumedh Ghat’s bathers pilgrims & beggars a few steps from the Ganges, french window slats overlooking food market one side, pilgrim alley the other. We cooked on small gas camper stove, kept records, wrote letters, visited temples, burning ghats, read Ramayana, mixed with poets & sanskrit Achkans in small restaurant chai houses, visited shenai master Bichmulla Khan, Peter took singing lessons from one Rabmdranath Pal, & we sought out swamis & holy men to talk with. Benares, December 19, 1962.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143977
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Depiction ID9c9ddf5a-1783-4beb-8b08-5279525bb9f7
Subject ID217743
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleKay MacDonough, their son Nile, and Gregory Corso at home, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco October 12, 1984… “and she gives birth to a child and I am sleepless, worn, / up for nights, head bowed against a quiet window / the past behind me…” _Marriage_, 1958.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/217743
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Depiction ID34c35089-d31a-4984-a3a1-4e5de13f96f3
Subject ID85409
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineRobert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
subject_titleCircus--New York City V
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/85409
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Depiction IDa794bf37-12e0-456a-ba5a-bd8c02b17332
Subject ID172662
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineCorcoran Collection (Gift of Glenn and Kari Goldberg)
subject_titleSleeping Marcos
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/172662
typeimage
Distance0.18957156
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Depiction ID2065665f-acdd-42c1-a036-92a735e7fb66
Subject ID143963
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleWilliam S. Burroughs looking serious, sad lover’s eyes, afternoon light in window, cover of just-published _Junkie_ propped in shadow above right shoulder, Japanese kite against Lower East Side hot water flat’s old wallpaper. He’d come up from South America & Mexico to stay with me editing Yage Letters and Queer manuscripts. New York Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143963
typeimage
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Depiction IDd451ba87-66fc-4a6e-9b23-210289560285
Subject ID142147
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleHerbert E. Huncke, author _The Evening Sun Turned Crimson_, who introduced "hip" vocabulary & attitudes to writers later labeled "Beat", his room Hotel Elite, N.E. corner 8th Avenue and 51'st street diagonally opposite Madison Square Garden. Rare glimpse of Huncke, then hustling bread on Times Square, strung-out - he fixed at the sink. Saw him infrequently that season, though we'd known each other well since 1945, found his room to say good bye, leaving New York to hitch south, Mexico and Bay area, here just before Christmas, Manhattan 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/142147
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Depiction IDcea05a03-0748-4b6f-ae37-5e2abb090e37
Subject ID154442
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Pierre Cremieux and Denise Jarvinen
subject_titleAtlas Steel Casting
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/154442
typeimage