Allen Ginsberg [Tangier, Morocco] to Lawrence Ferlinghetti [San Francisco, CA] April 3, 1957
Dear Larry:
Received your letter of March 27 and was surprised by news of Customs seizure. [. . .] Offhand I don’t know what to say about MacPhee.*I don’t know what the laws are and what rights I got. Is it possible to get them in at New York P.O. and have them shipped on to you under other label or address? Transshipped from NY that is? Is it also possible to have any copies sent to me here from England? I suppose the publicity will be good I suppose – I have been here with Jack, Peter and Bill Burroughs all hung-up on private life and Bill’s mad personality and writings and on digging the Arab quarter and taking majoun (hashish candy) and opium and drinking hot sweet delicious mint tea in Rembrandt dark cafes and long walks in lucid Mediterranean coast green grassy brilliant light North Africa that I haven’t written any letters (this is the second in 2 weeks) or thought much about anything. I’ll write to Grove to Don Allen and let him know, and he’ll tell the lady from Time-Life. If you can mimeograph a letter and get some kind of statement from W.C. Williams, [Louise] Bogan, [Richard] Eberhart and send it around to magazines might get some publicity that way. Also let Harvey Breit at NY Times know for sure definitely – he’d probably run a story maybe. My brother is a lawyer and has recently done some research on the subject, I’ll write him to get in touch with you and provide any legal aid – if any is useful from him in New York. I guess this puts you up shits creek financially. I didn’t think it would really happen. I didn’t know it was costing you 200$ for reprint, I thought it was $80.00 each extra thousand. Sorry I am not there, we might talk and figure up some way for a U.S. edition, I guess that would be expensive tho. Be sure let the Life people in SF know about situation, they might include it in story. The woman in NY is Rosalind Constable c/o Time-Life, Rockefeller Center. She is very simpatico and would immediately call it to attention of Peter Bunzell who is (I heard) writing up the story for Life in NY. Send story too to Village Voice, they’ve been digging the scene. By the way I heard there was a lukewarm review in Partisan Review, could you send it to me? Might let them know, too, as they took a poem of mine for later. I guess the best way publicity wise is prepare some sort of outraged and idiotic but dignified statement, quoting the Customs man, and Eberhart’s article and Williams, and Nation review, mimeograph it up and send it out as a sort of manifesto publishable by magazines and/or news release. Send one to Lu Carr at United Press, too. If this is worthwhile. Also write, maybe, [Randall] Jarrell, at Library of Congress and see if you can get his official intercession. I imagine these Customs people have to obey orders of their superiors; and that superiors in Washington, D.C., might be informed and requested to intercede by some official in Library of Congress. Maybe I’ll write my congressmen – is there a friendly congressman in SF? This might be more rapid than a lawsuit. Copyright it under City Lights name – only thing is, if you ever make your money back and make some profit from all your trouble, and we go into a 4th or 17th edition, we divvy the loot. I don’t think Grove book will knock out sales. They’ll probably carry note about the full book. Send me clippings of reviews – I haven’t got anything besides the Nation, if anything comes through; also any further news of the Cellar* etc. sounds charming. Everybody must be having a ball. How’s Duncan. Regards to DuPeru, etc. Ark III out yet? Send one? I must say am more depressed than pleased, disgusted than pleased, about Customs shot, amusing as it is – the world is such a bottomless hole of boredom and poverty and paranoiac politics and diseased rags here Howl seems like a drop in the bucket-void and literary furor illusory – seems like its happening in otherland – outside me, nothing to do with me or anything. Jack has a room I move into next week, full of light on a hill a few blocks above the beach from whence I’m writing now, can look over the veranda redstone tile, huge patio, over the harbor, over the bay, across the very sunlit straights and see the blue coast of Spain and ancient parapets of Europe I haven’t been to yet, Gibraltar small and faraway but there in brilliant blue water, and a huge clear solid cloudless blue sky – I never saw such serene light as this, big classical Mediterranean beauty-light over a small world. I’ll write Senor MacPhee myself, ask him to let my copies go, big serious poignant sad letter.
Write me and I’ll answer, let me know how things go, if there’s anything you want me to do let me know and send along any clippings if you can. These aerogrammes are only 10¢ postage if there are no enclosures.
Thank Kenneth [Rexroth] for efforts and say I hope he enjoys the scene – it is pretty funny, almost a set-up, I imagine they can’t bug us forever, and will have to give in. Let me know what the law is.
Rock and Roll on all the jukeboxes here, just had a rock and roll riot at the moviehouse here a few weeks ago, and in fact before I left NY me and Peter picked up on the historic stageshow at the Paramount. I brought a few Little Richard and Fats Domino records here in fact.
Only interesting person here besides Burroughs is Jane Bowles whom I have only met with once.
As ever,
Allen Grebsnig
Nov. 15: Olympia rejected Bill’s book but will still try change their mind and might. Partisan sent me $12 for a poem and I sent them three Corsos. We could get free ads and advertise to get $ to publish Bill ourselves or by subscription if worst comes.