Avant garde poetry from the library of Peter Orlovsky and Allen Ginsberg

Fagin, Larry, ed. Adventures in Poetry, No. 9. New York: The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, Spring 1972.

4to.; side-stapled mimeograph with taped binding; edgewear; rubbed. 

First edition [of 300–350 copies], the full edition. Inscribed by Peter Orlovsky: “Peter Orlovsky / NYC / May 26, 1972.” Cover by John Giorno. 

Published between 1968 and 1975, Adventures in Poetry was edited by poet Larry Fagin and printed and assembled at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. Featured in its pages is writing by many poets associated with the first and second generation of the Beats, the New York School, and the Black Mountain School. Surreal and often playful, the work provides a valuable access point into a vibrant and social community of writers who overlapped both in life and on the page. Alongside poetry and art, Adventures in Poetry also included a number of journal, diary, and travelogue entries. This contributor’s copy belonged to Peter Orlovsky, the long-time muse and partner of Allen Ginsberg.

Contributors to this number include: Jennifer Bartlett, Glen Baxter, Joe Brainard, Rebecca Brown, Michael Brownstein, William S. Burroughs, Clark Coolidge, Edwin Denby, Jim Dine, Louis Eilshemius, Kenward Elmslie, Mary Ferrari, Gilbert and George, Allen Ginsberg, John Godfrey, Ted Greenwald, Alice Hedges, John Koethe, Valery Larbaud, Steve Malmude, Harry Mathews, Bernadette Mayer, Pat Nolan, Charles North, Hilton Obenzinger, Peter Orlovsky, Maureen Owen, Ron Padgett, Jonathan Rosenstein, Harris Schiff, Peter Schjeldahl, James Schuyler, Richard Snow, George Stanley, Tony Towle, Anne Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Joseph White, and B. [Britton] Wilkie.