Myself seen by William Burroughs, Kodak Retina new-bought 2’d hand from Bowery hock-shop, our apartment roof Lower East Side between Avenues B & C, Tompkins Park trees under new antennae. Alan Ansen, Gregory Corso & Jack Kerouac visited, Jack’s _The Subterraneans_ records much of the scene, Burroughs & I edited letter-manuscripts he’d sent from Mexico & South America, Alene Lee (“Mardou Fox” of _The Subterraneans_) typed final drafts. Neighborhood was heavily Polish & Ukranian, some artists, junkies, medical students, cheap restaurants like “Leshkos” corner 7th & A, rent was only ¼ of my monthly $120 wage as newspaper copyboy. Time of “The Green Automobile” poem to Cassady, Fall 1953.
Providernga
Depiction ID4e7272ee-791d-47b9-af99-c19fa8e328c5
Subject ID143966
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Providernga
Depiction ID4e7272ee-791d-47b9-af99-c19fa8e328c5
Subject ID143966
Modelgoogle/siglip2-so400m-patch14-384
Created2026-05-22
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleMyself seen by William Burroughs, Kodak Retina new-bought 2’d hand from Bowery hock-shop, our apartment roof Lower East Side between Avenues B & C, Tompkins Park trees under new antennae. Alan Ansen, Gregory Corso & Jack Kerouac visited, Jack’s _The Subterraneans_ records much of the scene, Burroughs & I edited letter-manuscripts he’d sent from Mexico & South America, Alene Lee (“Mardou Fox” of _The Subterraneans_) typed final drafts. Neighborhood was heavily Polish & Ukranian, some artists, junkies, medical students, cheap restaurants like “Leshkos” corner 7th & A, rent was only ¼ of my monthly $120 wage as newspaper copyboy. Time of “The Green Automobile” poem to Cassady, Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143966
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID81ee3784-41b7-436c-9de6-96ae959ebd1e
Subject ID205222
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleWilliam Burroughs on roof 206 E. 7 Street N.Y. 1953, with view of Tompkins Park
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/205222
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID9a2df75a-b779-4552-94ae-baf445d9aaa7
Subject ID143965
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleJack Kerouac, railroad brakeman’s rule-book in pocket, couch-pillows airing on fire-escape three flights up overlooking backyard clotheslines south. He’d already published _The Town & the City_ and completed a treasury of half-dozen unprinted classic volumes including _On the Road_, _Visions of Cody_,_ Doctor Sax_, early books of Blues and Dreams, & had begun _The Subterraneans’_ adventurous love affair with Alene Lee, “Mardou Fox.” Alene typed for W. S. Burroughs then in residence editing Yage Letters and Queer mss., unpublishable that decade, censorship ruled. I scribed “The Green Automobile,” Gregory Corso visited that season, 206 East 7th Street near Tompkins Park, Manhattan, probably September 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143965
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Providernga
Depiction ID6a4a1c8e-719a-4b02-82ee-8db99cc3ac34
Subject ID143962
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleWilliam Burroughs on roof of apartment house East Seventh Street where I had a flat, we were lovers those months, editing his letters into books not published till decades later (as _Queer_, 1985) Lower East Side Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143962
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Providernga
Depiction IDec05375d-18d0-4a36-bec7-8de2445a12e7
Subject ID157036
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleKodak-Retina snapshot by William Burroughs, living room 1953 Lower East Side, Jackson Mac Low portrait with recorder by Iris Brodey on wall. We were working on Bills S.A. letters. I had job on N.Y. World Telegram.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/157036
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Providernga
Depiction ID484ac316-2043-4c04-8d64-318b0bde5af0
Subject ID205238
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleWilliam S. Burroughs & Alene Lee -- _Queer_ & _Yage_ letters in progress or mss. finished by Fall 1953 -- here photo'd with Kodak Retina tiny camera on rooftop 206 East 7th St. my apartment.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/205238
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction IDcde5c9f8-6dc1-4094-8d79-14c31d3bb535
Subject ID157025
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleBill Reck in his coldwater flat Lower East Side circa 1953, one of eminent Subterraneans (Vide Frity Nichols); he entered J.K.'s Book of Dreams as Dick Beck. outside his window off Bowery and East 2'd Street, a cemetery, he wrote "Love is a lime green tree," last line of poem looking out
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/157025
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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
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Depiction IDc2163774-8b3c-4466-96ab-cfd5bebfbd7f
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditline
subject_title
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/232787
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Depiction IDdbcf4cdd-14da-420e-8e58-9d1ced5dacbd
Subject ID163954
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleCzeslaw Milosz in Philadelphia sunlight after poetry reading, April 28, 1984.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/163954
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Providernga
Depiction ID234e25c1-d11d-4413-8049-2982e63919ad
Subject ID163966
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleJello Biafra (nee Eric Boucher) head of _Dead Kennedys_ rock band, visiting New York after obscenity trial (won by hung jury) over art illustrations to his "Frankenchrist" album. "Nazi Punks Fuck Off," "Too Drunk to Fuck," and "White Punks on Dope" were early underground hits late 1970's. He was on tour, lecturing on Reagan-era censorship moves, here "rebounding from the want-ads, surprised scrutinized by Candid surveillance camera," his briefcase open in small bedroom, pens clipped to strap, old backstage tour passes posted inside. Recovering from flu, late night tea, October 6, 1987.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/163966
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID6b57b3db-cd09-472c-a06c-58c4a35bf65a
Subject ID107419
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation
subject_titleSelf-Portrait in the Hotel Beaux-Arts
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/107419
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Depiction ID118da3cb-4d8a-431c-a934-b4ee8658865b
Subject ID223941
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Annie and Paul Mahon
subject_titleNew York
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/223941
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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
typeimage
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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 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
typeimage
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Depiction ID9b099c0b-6e82-4dc7-9f09-0c057cec08ce
Subject ID118338
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineTrellis Fund
subject_titleNew City, New York
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/118338
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction IDb4f9dc97-2e98-4e5c-b234-8599d32f4faf
Subject ID118267
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlinePatrons' Permanent Fund
subject_titleSelf-Portrait
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/118267
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID3510a8b3-d2a8-4e14-8c72-9644f23c0e05
Subject ID217746
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleHugh MacDiarmid on his 81’st Birthday at home. Scotland 1973.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/217746
typeimage
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Depiction IDb383eeb8-456b-4d3d-96f0-9005f1c3d4cd
Subject ID163963
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleBill Burroughs, more friendly + open than I realized at the time - 1953 - really pleased!
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/163963
typeimage
Distance0.23143655
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Depiction ID3b042c82-f8d8-4c4f-8c0f-a9de5a8cd9a0
Subject ID205246
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleWise-eyed Alan Ansen, Polymath expatriate & eccentric, at San Sammuelle motorscaffe station, half-street from his apartment 3219 della Carrozza where Peter Orlovsky & I spent happy summer 1957- Ansen also hosted Wm. Burroughs & Gregory Corso. Harvard Classics summa cum laude 1942, Poet, critic, he was secretary & Prosodic Conscience to W.H. Auden during early 40’s _Age of Anxiety_, thereafter lifelong intimate of Auden & companion Chester Kallman-- as with William Burroughs whose _Naked Lunch_ & later ravings he helped type & edit in Tangier 1957 & 1961. A familiar at San Remo village bar & Kerouac's companions' revels in late 1940's, he's sketched as "Rollo Grab" in _On the Road_, "Ronald Swenson" in _Visons of Cody_ and _Book of Dreams_, "Austin Bromberg" in _The Subterraneans_ & Amadeus Baroque, _Doctor Sex_....
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/205246
typeimage