"Kvílení": Czech samizdat edition of "Howl," "Kaddish," "Over Kansas," "The Green Automobile," "King Majales," "Magic Psalm," "The Change: Kyoto-Tokio Express," and other shorter poems. Also included are Ferlinghetti's "Starting from San Francisco" and other poems, and seven short poems by Gregory Corso by Ginsberg, Allen; Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Gregory Corso; and Jan Zábrana - 1980

[Czechoslovakia]: self-published, 1980. Original gray cloth with red stamped title to spine, top edge yellow; [3], 121 leaves of carbon copy typescript to rectos, on thin onion paper measuring 29.2 x 20.3 cm. Wrappers soiled; boards lightly distended; internally fine. Czech samizdat edition of three American poets of the Beat Generation: Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gregory Corso, published during the height of Czechoslovak "normalization" period, when the production and circulation of such texts was illegal. Jan Zábrana (1934-1984), the translator, was close to Ginsberg; he translated and published his poetry and other Beat writers already in the early 1960s. Interest in the Beat Generation preceded Ginsberg's first trip to Prague in February of 1965 (a second trip followed in late April of 1965). A 1959 essay ("Americká bohéma") by Igor Hájek in the journal Svetová literatura introduced Beat writers to the broader Czech public and included translations of some of their poems, including excerpts from Howl. The poetry of the American Beat writers was in energetic contrast to official Czech poetry of the late 50s and early 60s, which "comprised either panegyrics to the communist state, or innocuous, sentimental musings" (Kopecký 2010, 98). At that time, counter-culture Czech poets were in virtual obscurity. The director Pavel Jurácek wrote of Ginsberg's visit, that the Czech beatniks were "ready to serve and worship him" (Blažek 36). His poems as well as Ferlinghetti's appeared in Svetová literatura with translations by Zábrana and articles about the Beat Generation were published in Kulturní tvorba. During Ginsberg's stay in Prague, he and Zábrana appeared together at public readings, with Zábrana providing Czech translations to Ginsberg's poems. Both Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti achieved poetic celebrity status in Czechoslovakia, with their poems heard on radio and television, as well as at small theaters and poetry readings, particularly at the Viola cafe in Prague. The Viola cafe functioned as the "hang-out" for young poets and artists in Prague and their weekly poetry readings featured work by Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and Corso, whose poetry also appears in this samizdat collection. According to Zábrana, the Beats' were attractive to a Czech audience due to their "thematic urgency," which was connected to their dissident, non-conformist, and yet socially engaged worldview. Initially Ginsberg received positive attention from the Czech press, but within a few weeks censorship restricted the publication of his work and he was followed more closely by the secret police. He became a persona non grata to the regime following his crowning as "The King of May" at the rowdy May 1st, 1965 celebration-a student-organized street festival that had been allowed to take place after prior years of clashes, unrest, and repressive action at the event. Ginsberg was denounced by Czech authorities and the state-controlled press; he was deported on May 7th, having been labelled a "moral and political danger" due to his his sexual promiscuity, his antagonistic views of the domestic regime, and for supposedly inciting the Czech youth. His poem "The King of May", which he wrote on the plane from Prague, appears in this anthology. It has been argued that Ginsberg unwittingly gave the Czech authorities an argument to crackdown on native intellectuals and writers, who had enjoyed relative freedom following the relaxation of restrictions in the early 1960s. Consequently, two significant magazines, Tvár and Knižní kultura, were shuttered. Publication of translations of Ginsberg's poetry was prohibited, and production was halted on several already prepared selections of his and other Beat writers' work. Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti were nonetheless included in a significant anthology of new American Poetry, Obeznámení s noci, which appeared in 1967, and the poetry and prose of Beat writers continued to circulate unofficially. Ginsberg's denunciation only raised his status in the minds of many Czech readers, even while the regime strengthened its totalitarian grip in the years after Ginsberg's deportation. As Václav Havel put it, "Beat poetry and prose have most likely been perceived in our unfree conditions as even more rebellious than in the land of their origin" (Kopecký 100). While it was no longer permitted to publish works by Beat poets, they continued to influence the Czech underground (both literary and musical) through the circulation of samizdat. Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti publicly condemned the persecution and imprisonment of Czech underground artists in the 1970s and 1980s. Both writers visited Prague following the fall of the Communist regime.