The 30 Minute Rule begins September 24 at 7:00 PM EDT. An Initial Bid Must Be Placed By September 24 at 6:00 PM EDT To Participate After 6:00 PM EDT
Allen Ginsberg's personally-owned circa late 1970s/early 1980s Smith-Corona Electra XT typewriter, serial no. 3LRU110563, featuring an electric-powered typing mechanism with full-size QWERTY keyboard, dual-spool ribbon operation, and a durable housing in aqua-colored plastic. The compact typewriter measures 16˝ x 12.5˝ x 4˝, and includes manual margin setters, variable line spacing options, and a paper release lever. In fine cosmetic condition, with some sunning to the plastic housing.
The typewriter held a near-sacramental place in Ginsberg's creative practice and in Beat mythology more broadly. In his 1955 "Footnote to Howl," Ginsberg extended his incantatory refrain of "Holy!" to the tools and rituals of composition itself: "The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy!" For Ginsberg, the typewriter was not merely a means of transcription but an instrument bound up with the spontaneous, breath-driven composition that defined his poetics—the machine through which the immediacy of thought was rendered permanent on the page.
Accompanied by a photocopy of the original letter of provenance from Baird Jones, a noted New York City nightclub party promoter, photographer, curator, art critic, collector, and gossip reporter. Jones had assembled a collection of six typewriters belonging to American literary luminaries. He writes, in part: "For decades I've promoted New York City nightlife parties, and over a million persons have gone free to parties I've hosted. I have staged public exhibitions in all of the city's premier nightclubs and have (so far) invested more than $1 million in my collection of Celebrity Art.
This collection of typewriters was assembled with the intention of placing them on display at the famed Limelight nightclub, in the area of the club known as The Library. The show was to be titled 'Literary Types.' Unfortunately, the owner of Limelight became embroiled with insurmountable legal battles and was stripped of his operating licenses before I could formally launch the exhibition."
Describing the acquisition of the Ginsberg typewriter, he notes: "Allen was a regular in the party scene, and a wonderful person. He was teaching at a college in Colorado when I asked him if he had a typewriter of his own he could let me display. As it turned out, Allen had loaned a typewriter to an NYU undergraduate who brought it to me in person." Also includes four original passes to parties promoted by Jones.
