Gary S. Davis
Timeline
1920s
Dorothy Norman (b. 1903-), Philadelphia, libertarian editor, author intimate of Nehru, Indira Gandhi often stayed in her house on East 70th Manhattan, I met Martin Luther King in this same room, Companion of Alfred Stieglitz who photographed her form so many times her hands, her own photographs of him are seen in several books. I used to visit here, eat cookies & drinks tea, several times a year. Still Alive 1995!
Out my New York kitchen window December 3, 1987, bare leaves, year end.
Alfred Stieglitz, Lake George, New York
1940s
Allen Ginsberg, utility man S.S. John Blair first back from Galveston-Dakar Doldrums trip, I handed my camera to the radio-man on the ship's fantail, smoking what? In New York harbor, circa October 30, 1947.
Neal Cassady driving his oldsmobile down Bayshore Highway, San Francisco to Los Gatos, circa 1954, I sat in the backseat, the car rocked with Rhythm & Blues Radio.; Self-Portrait in Darkroom of Associated Press Office, Rockefeller Center Manhattan, I was a copyboy on the night shift, 1948. A.G.; Street cornerman’s tintype, Alameda Park, Mexico City: Jack Kerouac, myself in sombrero, Peter Orlovsky coat over shoulder, Gregory Corso kneeling with Lafcadio Orlovsky age 16, A.D. 1956. See Kerouac’s _Desolation Angels_ for account of this trip.
Dung Collector, Beijing, China
Antiques Dealer, Beijing, China
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1950s
Louis Ginsberg in our house 416 East 34th Street Paterson, late 1950's?
155 East 52nd Street
Fond Kiki William's friend, W.S. Burroughs, Chris Wanklin at another table in T-shirt, Soco Chico Tanger Maroc circa mid-fifties, negative in my archives.
William Seward Burroughs and Alan Ansen, two elegant gentlemen at entrance to defunct San Remo Café , N.W. corner Bleeker looking north up MacDougal Street, then the heart of Greenwich Village. Before vogue of the Cedar Bar, poets painters Kerouac's "subterraneans" Gregory Corso Carl Solomon myself Frank O'Hara Larry Rivers Maxwell Bodenheim drunk even Dylan Thomas ate drank and talked till 3 AM at this central café - superb inexpensive veal parmigiana and spaghetti a la vongole in rear restaurant, wooden tables - At that season W.S.B.'d published _Junkie_ and we were assembling _Yage Letters_ and _Queer_, Burroughs improvising earliest routines for _Naked Lunch_. Alan Ansen had been Polymath secretary to W.H. Auden a decade before, helping type "_Age of Anxiety_." One mid-afternoon, Fall 1953, fixed with trembling hand.
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1960s
Untitled
Peter Orlovsky legs crossed mysterious-haired, W.S. Burroughs with camera & hat shading Mediterranean sun, Myself white pants earnest, Alan Ansen...visiting from Venezia to help type new apocalyptic cut-up overflow material from Naked Lunch, Gregory Corso sunglasses & Minox’d, a gambler at casino, Ian Sommerville assisting sound-collage electronics & stroboscope alpha-rhythm. Dream Machine experiments with Bill B. & Brian Gysen then in town, Paul Bowles squinting in bright / mid-day light seated on ground, all assembled outside Bill’s single room, Villa Muniria Garden, / my camera in Michael Portman’s hands, Tangier March-July 1961.
Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926-) & Gregory Corso (b. 1930-), modest & immodest self-portraits, we weren't lovers but poets & jackanapes smiling and serious in turn, candid facing Kodak-Retina lens delayed-action snap, camera propped on chair other end of small white-washed room top-floor little Hotel Armor a block downhill Calle Cook from 1 Rue Magellan Burroughs' Villa Muneria, Tangier, Morocco August 1961
Peter Orlovsky seated handsome mysterious-haired, William Burroughs thoughtful with hat to shade Mediterranean sun, camera in hand, Alan Ansen relaxed visiting from Venice to help type _The Soft Machine_ cut-up writings, Gregory Corso sunglassed and Minox’d, Paul Bowles with elegant striped tie squinting in bright mid-morning light—all assembled, myself on right with cigarette & white trousers, at garden wall outside Bill’s single room Villa Muniria, my Kodak Retina probably in Michael Portman’s hands July 1961 Tangier Moroc.
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1970s
1980s
1990s
Victor Hernandez Cruz & friends at banquet ceremony for American Book Awards by Before Columbus Foundation at Miami Book Fair International, November 17, 1990.
Bob Dylan, Tompkins Square Park, ten minutes later we were chased out onto Avenue A by homeless men sleeping in the bandshell who threw bottles at us mistakenly thinking we were taking their pictures. May 21, 1990.
Jimmy Osterberg, the musician Iggy Pop, in his new apartment Tompkins Square East-- Don Was, producing his recent album, had rushed me to run over to Pop's house in same neighborhood I lived & try taking photo for cover-- not used, but I liked this clean uplifted finger. Lower East Side Manhattan April 14, 1990.
Wandering Motel rooms San Francisco Portland Seattle & Kenyon College one month, poetry readings, book signings, interviews, I snapped self-portraits in clothes closet & bathroom mirrors midnights before bed whenever I saw full length views & doubled reflections. Sometime September 1991.
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