This is one of only two authors whose autograph I have without having met them in person. (The other is Arthur C. Clarke.) I was a devoted customer of the wonderful LGBT bookstore A Different Light in Silverlake (long gone, sigh). But I had to be out of town on the date that Allen Ginsberg was going to visit and sign books. Bookstore manager Richard LaBonte readily agreed to ask Ginsberg to autograph these three books I bought ahead of time.
Even if I had met him, I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to ask him to kiss me, so I could enjoy the vicarious thrill of indirectly kissing so many other famous folks. As the story goes,
If you can get a staff member of the store [Philadelphia's Giovanni's Room] to kiss you, then you will be in the direct succession of Walt Whitman's kiss, which flows from Walt to Edward Carpenter to E.M. Forster to Allen Ginsberg to Bern Boyle, one of the founders of Giovanni's Room.(Index of autographs)
Ginsberg's "Howl" was a huge influence on me in high school and college, so I'm pleased to see his autograph here.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that you knew Richard Labonte. He reviewed some of my more recent books!