Description:

Allen Ginsberg
Chicago, IL, ca. 1970
Rare Ginsberg Play Regarding Conspiracy Trial of the Chicago Seven
Pamphlet/Booklet
[ALLEN GINSBERG.] No Chanting in the Court!: Allen Ginsberg at the conspiracy trial. Chicago: the conspiracy, ca. 1970. Title page carries the subtitle, "A PLAY from the official court transcript United States District Court / Northern District of Chicago" and "edited by judy gumbo / layout by dick o'brien." Signed on title page, "Allen Ginsberg / 1981." 56 pp., 8.5" x 11". Stapled at upper left; light toning. Rare; institutional copies at the New York Public Library and the Chicago Public Library.

This typescript play regarding poet Allen Ginsberg's testimony in the Trial of the Chicago Seven was drawn directly from the transcript of the trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Ginsberg testified in the trial on December 11 and 12, 1969.

Excerpt
"MR. WEINGLASS: What did you do when you saw the policemen in the center of the crowd?
"A. Adrenalin ran through my body. I sat down on a green hillside with a group of younger people that were walking with me at about 3:30 in the afternoon, 4:00 o'clock, sat, crossed my legs and began chanting O-o-m-m-m-m-m, O-o-m-m-m-m-m, O-o-m-m-m-m…
"MR. FORAN: I gave him four that time.
"THE WITNESS: I continued chanting for seven hours. About six hours I chanted Om and for the seventh hour concluded with the chant Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama." (p23)

Historical Background
In August 1968, a variety of groups convened in Chicago to protest during the Democratic National Convention. Some 2,000 demonstrators set up camp in Lincoln Park, but on Saturday, August 24, Allen Ginsberg led many protestors out of the park before the 11 p.m. curfew established by local authorities. By the time the Convention began, an estimated 10,000 demonstrators were in Chicago.

On Sunday, August 25, police used tear gas and billy clubs to remove protesters from the park. On August 28, protesters confronted police and National Guard soldiers in front of the Conrad Hilton hotel, where a seventeen-minute melee, dubbed "The Battle of Michigan Avenue," took place. Hundreds of protesters were arrested and both protesters and police officers were treated for injuries.

After an investigation, a grand jury in the federal court indicted eight protestors and eight police officers. The protesters were David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale, quickly dubbed the "Chicago Eight," and were charged with crossing state lines to incite a riot. After Bobby Seale's trial was declared a mistrial in November, the Chicago Eight became the "Chicago Seven."

The trial began in late September 1969 and continued into February 1970. During the trial, Judge Julius Hoffman convicted the defendants and their attorneys of a total of 159 counts of criminal contempt. On February 18, 1797, the jury acquitted all seven defendants of conspiracy and two of them on all charges. The jury found Davis, Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin guilty of traveling across state lines with intent to incite a riot.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was born in Newark, New Jersey, and graduated from Columbia University in 1948. He worked a variety of jobs, including spot welder, dishwasher, literary agent, book reviewer, consultant, and instructor. As a poet of the Beat Generation, he was the co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado in 1974 and worked as a teacher there until 1997. He read poems and gave lectures at universities, coffee houses, and art galleries around the world. He was the author of more than two dozen volumes of poetry.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
  • Medium: Pamphlet/Booklet

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