Jack 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.
Providernga
Depiction ID9a2df75a-b779-4552-94ae-baf445d9aaa7
Subject ID143965
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Providernga
Depiction ID9a2df75a-b779-4552-94ae-baf445d9aaa7
Subject ID143965
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_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
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction IDce085221-33f4-433f-911f-404a1e76c85d
Subject ID143968
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleJack Kerouac at Staten Island Ferry Wharf, we used to wander docksides under Manhattan’s bridges & thru truck parking lots along East River singing rawbone Blues, Leadbelly’s “Black Girl” or “Eli Eli,” chanting Poe’s “Annabelle Lee” & shouting Hart Crane’s “O Harp & Altar of the Fury fused!” or “Atlantis” to Brooklyn Bridge’s traffic spanned above. Time of his _Doctor Sax_ & _The Subterraneans_, Burroughs was in town, up from Mexico, New York, Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/143968
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Depiction ID20ae3348-3985-40f3-b0f3-a88ab8b944ca
Subject ID83258
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineRobert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
subject_titleMan in front of Antoine's--New Orleans
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/83258
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID064f9b12-dbd8-4152-92f2-2d7287dc4a36
Subject ID205227
Attributes
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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
Distance0.17034489
Providernga
Depiction ID7723469e-0cc1-4c04-944e-a9c043428842
Subject ID205242
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleAll dressed up with tie & tweed jacket, recently matriculated for M.A. at U.C. Berkeley, I'd just written Part II _Howl_, _Supermarket in California_, & _Sunflower Sutra_, clean-shaven poet, on Berkeley Street lighting a coffin-nail, camera in Peter Orlovsky's hands, 1956.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/205242
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Providernga
Depiction ID70131f53-d9e4-4a94-add5-aff448914108
Subject ID84385
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineRobert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
subject_titleMen crossing street--Los Angeles
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/84385
typeimage
Distance0.17410177
Providernga
Depiction ID86287df1-61eb-4596-97cf-0f4aff491928
Subject ID157047
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleJack Kerouac passing corner bar Avenue B & East 7th N.Y., we went out for a walk along Tompkins Park, September 1953
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/157047
typeimage
Distance0.17615199
Providernga
Depiction ID2cffa183-0f7a-42a5-8032-36678958f0f4
Subject ID144263
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleI’d asked Robert Frank to take portrait for Selected Poems dust jacket, he showed up late Sunday afternoon, truck parked across from my apartment, yelled up, he had no camera. I came down with Leica & Fuji 6×9, he took some photos midstreet by his car, I snapped him thus, then with my Fuji he said, “This’ll be it,” as long lambent orange sunlight rayed down East 12th Street from Hudson River horizon, it worked fine for book, he was relaxed, accidentally unerring. N.Y. June 9, 1996.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/144263
typeimage
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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
typeimage
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Depiction ID1f3806fc-00fd-4b2e-994e-4827775d4a72
Subject ID217728
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleUntitled
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/217728
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID6d9d56fd-7e1a-4757-a5e6-98e33b19bc14
Subject ID170952
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineCorcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection)
subject_titleTrapped in abandoned building by a rival gang on street, Red Jackson ponders his next move
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/170952
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID5af947d1-37c1-49f3-9262-cf0b779fd3d9
Subject ID83372
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineRobert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
subject_titleStreet corner near Elmar Hotel--Los Angeles
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/83372
typeimage
Distance0.18241948
Providernga
Depiction ID51677d9d-6339-477d-95f1-1553b3aa5b6d
Subject ID144242
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleJack Kerouac the last time he visited my apartment 704 East 5th Street, N.Y.C., he looked by then like his late father, red-faced corpulent W. C. Fields shuddering with mortal horror, grimacing on D.M.T. I’d brought back from visiting Timothy Leary at Millbrook Psychedelic Community, Fall 1964.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/144242
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID6a4a1c8e-719a-4b02-82ee-8db99cc3ac34
Subject ID143962
Attributes
previewhttps://api.nga.gov/iiif/6a4a1c8e-719a-4b02-82ee-8db99cc3ac34/full/!200,200/0/default.jpg
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
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID2d5c2917-5b32-460c-8667-72117950fc16
Subject ID92927
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Ann Solomon
subject_titleEleanor, New York
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/92927
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID15868274-1a5a-41e8-b1bb-a2a641cb4d38
Subject ID191402
Attributes
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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_titleWelsh Miner
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/191402
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID234e25c1-d11d-4413-8049-2982e63919ad
Subject ID163966
Attributes
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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 ID123c1036-66f6-4958-a61b-3b53931d81cf
Subject ID225349
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Nancy Andrews and Annie O'Neill
subject_titleRay Hagen
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/225349
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction ID38f63b6c-08e6-4f51-b37c-3fa1fead28cd
Subject ID154195
Attributes
previewhttps://api.nga.gov/iiif/38f63b6c-08e6-4f51-b37c-3fa1fead28cd/full/!200,200/0/default.jpg
provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleJack Kerouac looking out window Apartment 16, 206 East 7th Street Lower East Side Manhattan, view from fire-escape, books on the sill, broom handle and old tenement wallpaper in afternoon sun, WM. Burroughs was staying at my place then, Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/154195
typeimage
Distance0.18854767
Providernga
Depiction ID4e7272ee-791d-47b9-af99-c19fa8e328c5
Subject ID143966
Attributes
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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
Distance0.18912387
Providernga
Depiction IDa0ff445b-47c6-476c-8257-06d8a59efd86
Subject ID154182
Attributes
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleLafcadio, 17, and Peter Orlovsky, 22, at door their apartment 5 Turner Terrace, S.F. 1956, Lafcadio looking for a job was cutting school, Peter was worried. These were new-built cheap rent veteran's apartments on Potrero Hill dominated by a giant gas tank.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/154182
typeimage