William S. Burroughs fixing typescript of _Yage Letters_ at kitchen table 206 East 7th Street New York Fall 1953.
1953, printed later
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 27.4 × 41.9 cm (10 13/16 × 16 1/2 in.) sheet: 40.6 × 50.8 cm (16 × 20 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Gary Davis
Accession Number
2013.145.45
Art Historical Context
In this intimate gelatin silver print, Allen Ginsberg captures his close friend and fellow Beat writer William S. Burroughs hunched over a typewriter at a modest kitchen table in a New York City apartment on East 7th Street, fall 1953. The image freezes a moment of focused creativity: Burroughs meticulously editing the typescript of *Yage Letters a seminal correspondence detailing his hallucinogenic experiences with yagé (ayahuasca) in South America. Gins candid snapshot reveals the raw, everyday environment of literary innovation amid the gritty backdrop of the East Village. As a cornerstone...
About the Artist
Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), born in Newark, New Jersey, emerged as a multifaceted figure in American culture, best known as a Beat Generation poet but also a prolific visual artist whose photographs, drawings, and prints captured the raw energy of his era. His early life offers little documentation on artistic training, though he attended Columbia University in the 1940s, where he formed connectio...