An evocative postcard from Ginsberg to his life-partner, Peter Orlovsky, sent during his pilgrimage to the birthplace of their shared obsession, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Ginsberg's writing, including his greatest work, Howl (1957), was heavily influenced by Rimbaud. The postcard, dated 21 December, reads, "Dear Petey - Finally found Rimbaud's bed-room, slept there last night. Wandering grey streets in rain where Jean Arthur walked. Big wet ghosts in the clouds over the river. Rimbaud born a few blocks from here. Love Allen." Rimbaud's hometown of Charleville was Ginsberg's first stop on the European tour he took from December 1982 to February 1983. He wandered Charleville with the Dutch poet Simon Vinkenoog and recorded his impressions across six pages in his notebooks. "I was in love with Rimbaud", Ginsberg remarked in a lecture in 1975. "I was, in fact, physically, erotically, in love with Rimbaud when I was 18. It was my first". Ginsberg was not the only writer to fall for Rimbaud; he was the great love affair of the Beat Generation and of central importance to both Ginsberg and Orlovsky. In the late 1950s, following the success of Howl, the couple "reinvented themselves as a modern-day Rimbaud and Verlaine (Ginsberg even had his lover pose for a photograph savage-poet like, and titled it 'Rimbaud Portrait'). Together they soared through Paris pissing in sinks, making out with famous surrealist artists at parties, asking for blessings, stealing books, taking heroin or peyote or Opium and camping out in monasteries for adventure" (Ayachi). Janette Ayachi, "Rebellious Love: Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky", Poetry School; Allen Ginsberg, "Allen's 1975 Naropa Class - 2", The Allen Ginsberg Project, 8 December 2011, available online. Photographic postcard (103 x 148 mm) of the Ducal Square in Charleville-Mézières, France, verso printed in grey ink and handwritten by Ginsberg in pink ink, stamped and franked. Lower corners slightly creased, fresh and very well preserved.
