40

Fred McDarrah

1926-2007

Allen Ginsberg at Judson Memorial Church. Circa 1950; printed 1970s.

Silver print
With McDarrah's printed credit and title on recto.
The image 3 1/2 x 4 1/8 in. (8.9 x 10.5 cm.), the sheet 4 x 5 in. (10.2 x 12.7 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    A Country Called California: The Collection of Stephen White
  • Literature:
    Stephen White, foreword by Lynell George, A Country Called California, Photographs 1850s to 1960s (Angel City Press, 2022), p. 115
  • Notes:
    Beat poet Allen Ginsberg lived in the Bay Area during the 1950s and is best known for his poem "Howl." He began working on the poem in 1954 and performed it at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco in October 1955. Fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books, who attended the performance, published the work in 1956. Upon the book's release, Ferlinghetti and the City Lights Bookstore manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were charged with disseminating obscene literature. On October 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene.

    Fred McDarrah was a photographer for The Village Voice in New York.
  • Condition: For condition reports, email Deborah Rogal at [email protected]

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February 12, 2026 12:00 PM EST
New York, NY, US

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