Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg: An Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Pat Thomas (who wrote for Beatdom back in 2014).

The book is Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg, an annotated guide to some of the more interesting parts of Ginsberg’s substantial archives. As can be seen from the above pages, it is colourful and detailed, providing valuable insight into fascinating corners of the poet’s life. There are photos and drawings, letters and notes, a résumé, fliers, invoices, and much more. In other words, it is an absolute must-have for Beat fans and collectors. (A full review will be published in Beatdom #24.)

Here’s what the publisher says:

There are hundreds of thousands of items carefully stored and archived at Stanford University’s Allen Ginsberg collection. Counterculture historian Pat Thomas, with the full cooperation of the Allen Ginsberg Estate’s Peter Hale, has compiled and annotated a remarkable volume of material, unearthing in the process one astounding find after another. The result is a tome of previously unpublished historical paperwork and vintage graphics and photographs and ephemera that promises an unprecedented look inside one of the most prolific poets and agitators of cultural mores of the 20th century.

Material Wealth can be pre-ordered from Simon & Schuster, here. It is also available on Amazon and Bookshop. It goes on sale 21 November, 2023.