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VOL. 9 NO. 6
GAL. 32 CITY

2337-CITY-8-1-75-Issue No. 6-jf
10 on 11 gara x 18.6 on 30

galley-B

And then there is Sheila Albany, who lived with Allen Ginsberg in 1951, when he first came out here from Mexico. Byron Hunt, an artist, introduced her in Vesuvio's to this nice young man who had just come to town. Sheila at that time was working in advertising at the Emporium. She asked her boss if they could get a job for Allen, and although there was nothing at the Emporium, they eventually got him a job as a market researcher for Town Oller Associates.

In Allen Ginsberg in America, by Janet Kramer, the only mention of Sheila is "a girl who lived with Ginsberg." Barbara Gravelle of Intersection, a Center for arts and religion in North Beach, is doing a book on North Beach women of that period. She has done lengthy taped interviews with Sheila. When her book is published it will do much to reveal the influence Sheila had upon Howl and Ginsberg.

Artist Robert LaVigne had painted a beautiful nude portrait of Peter Orlovsky. When Allen saw it, he fell in love with Peter on sight, though LaVigne was still involved with Orlovsky. Sheila says Allen went to a panel of psychiatrists at Langley-Porter because he didn't trust the consensus of just one- he wanted to find out if [[strikethrough]] H [[/strikethrough]] he were really homosexual or not. They told him he was, and he should live the way he wanted to be, a homosexual and a poet. 

One day, Sheila came home and found Ginsberg in bed with Orlovsky. She nearly jumped out the window. She was in a rage. Peter and Allen then moved into the Hotel Wentley. That was the end of the relationship.

She typed the first draft of Howl (which she lost) and sometimes when Ginsberg comes to town he offers her more money, unable to believe she really lost it. [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] She was a major influence; certain passages she influenced, other passages were about her, yet Ginsberg remains silent about her influence. [[strikethrough]] in Ginsberg me to town he [[strikethrough]]

Or talk to Dino the bartender at the Washington Square Bar and Grill, who grew up and had been in North Beach all his life, or Shig, who really does know more than anyone else, although he might not appreciate me sending all you people there.

Take along a flashlight, so finally you can look underneath the fire-police call box outside 1398 Grant Avenue where the Bagel Shop was. One time it was painted red, white, and blue with "fuzz is our friend" in it until the unfriendly fuzz removed it, but underneath it in the cement, if you look hard enough, is a fitting eiptaph [[epitaph]] still inscribed: "A square is a square is a square:"

As for me, I am going to try to kick North Beach and, "like Voltaire's Candide, cultivate my garden [[culture my garden]]."

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-08-14 16:05:02 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-08-15 08:15:32 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-08-15 09:18:57