Beat Movement Lives On At PBA Galleries' Auction

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

:Rescued from the floodwaters of New Orleans, rare relics of the Beat Movement that arose following World War II sparked the interest of collectors, dealers and grizzled veterans of the Beat generation at PBA Galleries' auction of The Edwin Blair Collection of Beat Literature, held on February 9.

The collection was formed over some 40 years by Ed Blair of New Orleans, and included rare first editions, ephemeral pieces, manuscripts and letters from such Beat giants as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Charles Bukowski. Blair had been stimulated in his collecting by meeting printers Jon and Lou Webb, proprietors of the Loujon Press, early publishers of Bukowski and other off-beat poets, in 1963. It was largely to assist the widowed "Gypsy" Lou Webb, left homeless by Katrina, that he was selling the collection. The sale total of the 437-lot auction, which included material from other consignors as well, was some $225,000, bringing badly needed relief.

The keystone of the collection was a tiny snapshot photograph taken in 1945 of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs, along with their friend Hal Chase, at Columbia University. An iconic image, often reproduced as the "genesis of the Beat Generation Movement," the photograph records the early days of the association of the "crazed young nonconformists." Estimated at $1,5/2,500, the photograph received numerous presale absentee bids, driving the opening price to $7,475, where it sold, to the stunned silence of the 30 or so auction attendees, many of whom had been hoping to purchase it for somewhat less.

Of the Big Three Beats, it was the selection of rare manuscripts, first editions and other works by Ginsberg that garnered the most interest. Ginsberg's most famous work, Howl and Other Poems, published by City Lights Bookshop in 1956, was perhaps the most notable of these. A rare first edition of the work that set off one of the most important episodes in the battle against censorship, inscribed by Ginsberg to editor William Targ, soared to sell for $7,475. The remainder of the more than 80 lots of Ginsberg material also brought strong prices, with manuscript items in particular demand.

A letter written by Ginsberg to Lizzie Williams in 1955, just after he met Peter Orlovsky and had moved in with him, went for $3,737. The holograph manuscript for Ginsberg's poem "Iron Horse," along with related material, sold for $4,600. And the long galley proofs of Planet News, 1968, with numerous holograph corrections by Ginsberg along with notations by the publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, tripled estimates to sell for $2,300.

Ginsberg's fellow student at Columbia, Kerouac, the acknowledged father of the Beat generation, was represented by a number of first editions of his works, including his masterpiece, On the Road, published in 1957. Though exhibiting a bit more wear than many collectors would like, the first edition in jacket fell within the $3/5,000 estimate range to sell for $3,162. The signed/limited edition of Excerpts from Visions of Cody, one of 750 copies, printed in 1962, brought $1,380. The posthumous edition of the complete book, Visions of Cody, written by Kerouac in 1951 and 1952, inspired by his close friend Neal Cassidy, with an introduction by Ginsberg, inscribed and signed by Ginsberg to Orlovsky, sold for $1,035.

The third figure in the famous photograph, Burroughs, a bit older, perhaps wiser, certainly more cynical than his companions, also inspired collectors. The premier item among the 41 Burroughs lots was the first edition, first issue of The Naked Lunch, signed by Burroughs, in the original wrappers with the original laminated color pictorial dust jacket. The book was published in France by the Olympia Press, and is a notable rarity among collectors of Beat literature. The copy in the auction was in exceptional condition, but still brought amazement when it sold for $4,025.

Perhaps the greatest interest, however, was not in the three Beat masters in the Columbia photograph, but in the iconoclastic Bukowski, bar-crawling ex-postal worker whose fate was intertwined with that of Jon and Lou Webb. Included in the collection were their beautifully and ingeniously printed creations, many of them with lengthy inscriptions to the Webbs as well as to Ed Blair and others. And there were letters, the first of which was to John William Carrington, four typed pages, including a 22-line spontaneous prose poem, written in January of 1963. Containing many personal insights into the life and tribulations of the 43-year-old Bukowski, the letter split the $3/5,000 estimate at $4,025. The same price was realized for the next lot, two letters to Carrington, with original sketches by Bukowski, selling, as did nearly all of the manuscript and inscribed Bukowski items, to an anonymous phone bidder, causing consternation and frustration among the auction attendees.

The several Loujon Press publications of Bukowski also received strong interest, chief among these a copy of Crucifix in a Deathhand, with a full page inscription in silver ink from Bukowski to Jon and Louise [Webb], selling for $4,313. But it was Bukowski's first book, published not by the Loujon Press but by E.V. Griffith's obscure Hearse Press in 1960, that brought the highest price of the day. Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail, a small chapbook limited to 200 copies, bound in wrappers, was inscribed by Bukowski with a drawing of flowers. The $2,5/3,500 estimate was ignored by bidders on the floor, internet and telephone, with the lot finally settling in at $9,775, selling to the aforementioned phone bidder. All prices given include the 15 percent buyer's premium.

PBA Galleries is at 133 Kearny Street. For information, to see the full catalog and results of each lot, www.pbagalleries.com.