Gasoline

San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1958. First Edition, First Printing.
A scarce and attractive first printing of Gregory Corso's "Gasoline," his second collection of poetry.

Priced at 95 cents on the back cover, this collection was Number Eight in City Lights' Pocket Poet Series. According to the standard bibliography on City Lights, 1,500 copies were printed (Ralph T. Cook, City Lights Books: A Descriptive Bibliography).

Corso's good friend Allen Ginsberg has written an introduction in his usual theatrical way: "But what is he saying? Who cares?! It's said!"

By the late 1950s, Corso's renown as a Beat writer "was second only to Kerouac's and Ginsberg's." (Steven Belletto, The Beats: A Literary History, 2020, page 193). The poems range over a wide area geographically, reflecting Corso's frequent travels: Greenwich Village, San Francisco, Paris, Memphis, Rotterdam, Mexico, Italy.

PHYSICAL DETAILS: 16mo (6 1/8 x 4 7/8 inches; 158 x 125 mm), 48 pages, in perfect-bound red and white wrappers (soft cover).

CONDITION: Some sunning and soiling to wrappers but internally clean, bright, and unmarked. Easily Very Good or better. An attractive, collectible copy that's nicer than often encountered in the market.