Original Dedication to Howl And Other Poems:
To—
Jack Kerouac, new Buddha of American prose, who spit forth intelligence into eleven books written in half the number of years (1951–1956) – On the Road, Visions of Neal, Dr Sax, Springtime Mary, The Subterraneans, San Francisco Blues, Some of the Dharma, Book of Dreams, Wake Up, Mexico City Blues, and Visions of Gerard – creating a spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature. Several phrases and the title of Howl are taken from him.
William Seward Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, an endless novel which will drive everybody mad.
Neal Cassady, author of The First Third, an autobiography (1949) which enlightened Buddha.
All these books are published in Heaven.
Original Dedication to Kaddish and Other Poems:
Dedicated
to Peter Orlovsky
in
Paradise‘Taste my mouth in your ear’
Original epigraph from Howl And Other Poems:
‘Unscrew the locks from the doors!
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!’
Original epigraph from Kaddish and Other Poems:
‘– Die,
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek!’
Original author notes from Kaddish and Other Poems:
‘Magic Psalm’, ‘The Reply’ and ‘The End’ record visions experienced after drinking Ayahuasca, an Amazon spiritual potion. The message is: Widen the area of consciousness. – A. G.
Acknowledged, the established literary quarterlies of my day are bankrupt poetically thru their own hatred, dull ambition or loud-mouthed obtuseness. These poems were printed in Yugen, Combustion, Liberation, Beatitude, Playboy, Big Table, Evergreen Review, Jargon 31, New Directions 17, The Outsider, New Departures, Jabberwock (Sidewalk), Poetry London-NY and strangely the London Times Literary Supplement. Most of these publications started in the last half-decade, two were begun by youths who quit editing university magazines to avoid academic censorship.
– A. G. (Dated 1961)