Carl 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.
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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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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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Depiction ID064f9b12-dbd8-4152-92f2-2d7287dc4a36
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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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Subject ID143969
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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 IDd451ba87-66fc-4a6e-9b23-210289560285
Subject ID142147
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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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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleMy uncle Abe Ginsberg, Daughters of Israel Geriatric Facility, West Orange, New Jersey, April 13, 1986. He was too weak to sip from a straw. He lifted his hand as I stood at the foot of the bed with camera. He died a week and half later. He had whispered, “I love you” when I first came in his room.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/144252
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Subject ID157025
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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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Depiction ID7317450c-6f3e-4c8d-8c71-8137180ca5dd
Subject ID160728
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleRobert LaVigne, Painter friend of Poets, visiting 1010 Montgomery Street – see Kerouac's portrait of LaVigne as “Levesque” in _Desolation Angels_, “Robert Browning” in Big Sur. We’d all lived together on Gough Street & later Hotel Weatley thou Peter & I moved to Montgomery Street North Beach, where I wrote _Howl_ in this room, S.F. 1955
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/160728
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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 IDb383eeb8-456b-4d3d-96f0-9005f1c3d4cd
Subject ID163963
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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
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Providernga
Depiction IDd078962f-0898-44c2-ba80-f350de6d3216
Subject ID163981
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary Davis
subject_titleWilliam S. Burroughs fixing typescript of _Yage Letters_ at kitchen table 206 East 7th Street New York Fall 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/163981
typeimage
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Providernga
Depiction IDeb9c79bf-860b-4bb2-9f54-063d71f4fab3
Subject ID142148
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleBill Burroughs in back bedroom waiting for company, he’d arrived from South America in August & we stayed together in my apartment till December working on _Yage Letters_ and _Queer_ manuscripts – Ace Books’d printed first paperback _Junky_ edition that Spring. “I come home from work [at N.Y. World- Telegram, newspaper copyboy] 4:45 and we talk till one A.M. or later . . . am all hung up in a great psychic marriage with him for the month —,” so I wrote to Neal Cassady, September 4, 1953.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/142148
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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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Providernga
Depiction ID60ed5822-0136-4ba7-8836-38a07057552b
Subject ID144250
Attributes
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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 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
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Providernga
Depiction IDb9f60e8d-2863-4f76-aece-c71e32892b29
Subject ID154174
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleW.S. Burroughs in his room Villa Mouneria Tangier
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/154174
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Depiction IDb180d5a5-1010-419b-8351-826002af4f86
Subject ID143977
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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 ID9a2df75a-b779-4552-94ae-baf445d9aaa7
Subject ID143965
Attributes
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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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Subject ID157036
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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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Depiction ID68963832-1b00-4e38-a3d4-2e59bc01677c
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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 ID9a464758-6214-4fd1-8232-18588999441d
Subject ID144261
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provider_nameNational Gallery of Art
provider_urlhttps://www.nga.gov/
subject_creditlineGift of Gary S. Davis
subject_titleOld-timer & survivor Herbert E. Huncke, Beat literary pioneer who introduced Burroughs, Kerouac & myself to floating population hustling & drug scene Times Square 1945. From ’48 on he penned several remarkable volumes especially the classic _The Evening Sun Turned Crimson_, autobiographic anecdotal tales (Cherry Valley, 1970). Here age 78 in basement apartment backyard East 7th Street near Avenue C, Lower East Side New York. — May 18, 1993.
subject_urlhttps://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/144261
typeimage