I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg by Morgan Bill

Author:Morgan, Bill [Morgan, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2007-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Once he located Peter, he hoped they could go south to the Red Sea port of Elat and get seamen’s jobs there to pay for their passage to India. He planned to stay with family friend Ethel Broide in Tel Aviv, and since she worked for Zim ship lines, he assumed she would be able to help them get jobs on a boat. Allen even located a few actual relatives while in Tel Aviv, and that made him feel more at home.

It wasn’t until mid-November, after several weeks of waiting, that Allen and Peter were reunited. In a letter to Jane Bowles, Allen wrote that he was surprised that Peter and he had gotten back together at all, but he candidly confided to her that it was more out of habit than anything else. Even after combining their money they were nearly penniless, and Israel turned out to be the most expensive place they had yet been. Too late they realized that they had made a mistake in coming to a Jewish state. Once inside Israel, they couldn’t leave, as none of the surrounding Arab countries allowed travelers to enter directly from Israel. That meant that they would have to sail or fly somewhere else first. Visas to India were almost impossible to get as well, since India did not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. Everything had to be done through the British consul. And the Indian government did not permit entry to travelers without funds. Allen and Peter had to convince the Indian authorities that they had enough money to support themselves while in India. The government required travelers to have return tickets before it allowed them to enter the country. They stayed longer than they had anticipated in Ethel’s apartment doing the necessary paperwork to get their travel affairs in order. They relaxed and took some of the opium Allen had bought, and from her top-floor balcony watched the orange-purple sunset. Israel had become a friendly prison for them. Allen wondered at Israeli nationalism and found that Israeli Jews spoke only of being Jewish. He found their self-focus maddening, and he compared it to a bunch of Texans constantly talking about Texas.

With little else to do, Allen wrote a number of letters and practically caught up with his giant pile of mail. He wasn’t inspired to write anything more creative, but he had hopes that all that would change in India and he would enter a new fertile period. Peter received word from his sister, Marie, that both Peter’s mother and Lafcadio had been taken to Central Islip State Hospital. Allen wrote to Eugene and asked him to look into it. They had feared that Lafcadio would wind up there sooner or later, but they were shocked to learn about his mother. “She isn’t crazy,” Allen wrote to his brother. She was deaf and very excitable, but they were certain that she shouldn’t be committed to a mental hospital.

After pursuing myriad ideas for their escape from Israel, they decided to go to the port of Elat and catch a boat to West Africa.

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