GINSBERG, Allen Reality Sandwiches San Fransisco, City Lights, 1963
Small 4vo. Original black and white wrappers; pp.[4] 7-98 [2]; Wrappers slightly rubbed and toned with evidence of minor foxing; spine toned and rubbed; otherwise a very good copy.
First edition
"Wake-up nightmares in Lower East Side, musing sin public library, across the U.S in dream auto, drunk in old Havana, brooding in Mayan ruins, sex daydreams on the West Coast"...
Reality Sandwiches takes its title from the poem, 'On Burrough's Work', in which Ginsberg writes; "We eat Reality Sandwiches. /But alleogries are so much lettuce./ Don't hide the madness". Unusual for Ginsberg's work, the collection includes many emblems of formal poetry, even reminsicnet of the form used by William Wordsworth. The disruption of this conventional meter is likely an acknowledgement of the influence of Ginsberg's mentor, Willaim Carlos Williams, who inspired Ginsberg to abandon flamboyant "dressing" in preference of a focus on powerful, bare simplicity.
Number Eighteen in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's famous Pocket Poets Series, Reality Sandwiches was written following the scandalous Howl (1956) and the iconic Kaddish (1961), all published by this City Lights series.
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