Howl and Other Poems was published by City Lights Books (Pocket Poets Series No. 4), San Francisco, in November 1956, in a first printing of approximately 1,000 copies priced at 75 cents. The poem had been first performed on 7 October 1955 at the Six Gallery in San Francisco — the reading that launched the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who attended the reading, immediately offered to publish it (sending Ginsberg a telegram echoing Emerson’s letter to Whitman: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career”). The book was seized by U.S. Customs in March 1957; the subsequent obscenity trial (October 1957) ended in acquittal and made “Howl” the most famous American poem since “The Waste Land.”
The Poem
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, / dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix…”
“Howl” is a three-part poem with a footnote. Part I is a catalogue of visionary experiences — each line beginning “who” — describing the lives of Ginsberg’s friends (Kerouac, Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Carl Solomon, Herbert Huncke) and of the Beat underworld generally: drug use, homosexuality, madness, poverty, creativity, and spiritual hunger. Part II identifies the enemy: “Moloch” — industrial capitalism, the military-industrial complex, conformity, materialism — “whose mind is pure machinery! whose blood is running money!” Part III is addressed to Carl Solomon (in Rockland State Mental Hospital): “I’m with you in Rockland.”
The poem’s formal innovation is its “long line” — derived from Whitman, Blake, and Hebrew prophetic poetry — which builds through accumulation and parallelism toward states of ecstatic intensity. Each line is a breath unit; the poem is designed for performance.
The Obscenity Trial
Customs seized 520 copies of the second printing in March 1957. The ACLU defended; Judge Clayton Horn ruled that the poem had “redeeming social importance” and was therefore not obscene. The trial established an important First Amendment precedent and — paradoxically — made “Howl” far more famous than it would otherwise have been.
Collecting Howl and Other Poems
First edition (1956, City Lights Books, San Francisco): Approximately 1,000 copies, priced at 75 cents.
Identification points:
- City Lights Pocket Poets Series No. 4
- Black and white wrappers
- Introduction by William Carlos Williams
- “First printing” — no printing number stated (first printing has no number; second printing states “2nd printing”)
First edition, first printing:
- Fine copy in wrappers: $15,000–$40,000
- Very Good: $5,000–$15,000
- Reading copy: $2,000–$5,000
The wrappers are fragile — the book was designed as an inexpensive pocket paperback and was not meant for preservation. Fine copies with uncracked spines and clean covers are genuinely scarce.
Signed copies: Ginsberg signed extensively throughout his long public career. Signed first printings: $20,000–$50,000. Signed later printings: $500–$2,000.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2× for the first printing. The poem’s cultural icon status and the extreme fragility of surviving copies ensure continued appreciation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Carl Solomon? Ginsberg met Solomon in a psychiatric hospital in 1949. Solomon introduced him to the work of Artaud and became the poem’s dedicatee and addressee (“I’m with you in Rockland”). Solomon later worked at his uncle’s publishing company (Ace Books) and published Burroughs’s Junkie.
Is this a poem or a rant? Both — and that is its genius. The poem operates through prophetic intensity, accumulating detail until the reader is overwhelmed. Its formal structure (parallelism, anaphora, breath-length lines) is rigorous beneath its apparent wildness.
Why is the first printing so expensive? One thousand copies printed on cheap paper, designed to be read and discarded. Most were. The combination of extreme cultural significance and extreme physical fragility creates the conditions for high valuation.