"TYGER! TYGER! TYGER!": EXTRAORDINARY PRESENTATION-ASSOCIATION COPY OF GINSBERG'S PHOTOGRAPHS, INSCRIBED BY HIM TO HIS LONG-TIME PARTNER PETER ORLOVSKY WITH A LARGE ORIGINAL DRAWING AND INSCRIPTION OVER TWO FOLIO PAGES

GINSBERG, Allen. Photographs. (Altadena, California:) Twelvetrees Press, 1990. Folio, original gray cloth, original dust jacket. $14,000.

First trade edition, boldly inscribed by Ginsberg to his long-time partner Peter Orlovsky with a large, accomplished drawing over two folio pages: "E. 12 St, New York June 30, 1991 / For Beloved Peter Orlovsky, whose form reappears decade after decade on these phantom pages / Tyger! Tyger! Tyger! / 437 E12, Apt 23 / Allen Ginsberg, 4:30 AM."

"In December 1953 Ginsberg left New York City on a trip to Mexico to explore Indian ruins in Yucatan and experiment with various drugs. He settled in San Francisco, where he fell in love with a young artist's model, Peter Orlovsky… During the furor of the trial [over his poem Howl], Ginsberg left California and settled in Paris with Orlovsky, who was to remain his companion for the next 40 years" (ANB). In this flamboyantly inscribed copy Ginsberg depicts a demonic visage, large ears decorated with dangling earrings, and lightning bolts striking above flame-like spiky hair.

Subjects in this collection of 91 large photographs include several of the recipient, Peter Orlovsky, as well as William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Paul Bowles, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lou Reed, Louis Auchincloss, Olga Rudge, and others. With introduction by Gregory Corso, short biographies and hand-lettered captions by Ginsberg. "[Ginsberg's] pictures of himself and his 'angelheaded hipster' companions in their flaming youth are not merely beat generation relics, and their oversize presentation here gives the work exceptional presence. Jack Woody's Twelvetrees Press (now Twin Palms) established itself as a publisher of quality limited-edition photography books in the '80s… all characterized, like Ginsberg's Photographs, by bold graphic design (usually by Woody himself) and a combination of sheet-fed gravure and off-set printing, often in Japan. This luxurious treatment gives Ginsberg's 'snapshots' a richness and warmth the originals aren't likely to possess, and the poet adds his own casually artful touch by supplying each image with a long descriptive caption in his tight, inelegant hand" (Roth, 266). There were 5000 copies of the first trade edition and 100 signed and numbered copies. Roth, Book of 101 Books, 266-67.

An extraordinary presentation-association copy in fine condition.