Lucidthots

You forgot to mention "carries a purse."



Weiner sent lots of really gay letters to Allen Ginsberg.....they are on file at Stanford University.....

Here is a sample:


AN EXAMINATION OF THE LETTERS OF MICHAEL ALAN WEINER TO ALLEN GINSBERG-CIRCA 1969-73.

The Allen Ginsberg Collection at Stanford Special Collections Library is huge. Comprehensively indexed, it consists of about 12 major catagories; manuscripts, research, photos, correspondence and much more. There must be thousands of letters, judging from the extensive index, divided into 10-year increments.

Letters from Michael A. Weiner to Ginsberg are contained in two storage boxes:
Call Number M0733, Box 65, Folder 41
Call Number M0733, Box 189, Folder 40.

Some are mailed from Hawaii and some from Fiji, and one from Massachusetts. Altogether there are a total of 10 letters, 3 postcards and 5 other related items. Most of the letters and envelopes used University of Hawaii (UH) or Village Film Society (UH) letterheads. These are enumerated as follows:

Date / Envelope return address reference
August 8, 1969 / Village East Film Society of UH, Mariposa Dr.
August 13, 1969 / Village East, etc. Moana Rd.
Undated, (Env Dec 4, 1969) / Village East, etc
March 8, 1970 / University of Hawaii (This is the Fiji "black brother" letter)
Dec 29, 1970 / UH, Moana Rd.
March 29, 1970 / UH, Moana Rd.
Feb 18, 1972 / Village East, etc, Burbank St.
May 14, 1972 / UH, Burbank St.
Aug 4, 1972 / Burbank St.
March 23, 1973 / Marblehead, MA

Undated postcard Moana Rd address
Undated postcard Fiji, reference to putting Weiner camera lens in Ginsberg's rectum

Undated Newspaper article (1/2 page) about Weiner's plant project
Undated sketch Sketch/poem, "Why just yesterday the 2 of us danced around"
May 14, 1972 (est) Book promo brochure, "Earth Medicine-Earth Foods"

Aug 14, 1972 Postcard from Ginsberg to Weiner at Burbank St., Honolulu.
Undated Typed proposal, "Ad Hoc Committee to Bring Allen Ginsberg to Hilo," Michael Reed, Chairman (not Weiner)
Misc envelopes (3)

Analysis

In general, almost all the letters from Weiner are directed at his efforts to convince Ginsberg to travel to the Pacific to lecture. But you can tell that he is, at the same time, sucking up to the celebrity, and working on a closer association.
1. In general, to the inexpert eye, with this number of letters and envelopes, it seems clear that all the letters are genuine and all written by Weiner. The signatures are just too consistent. Altogether, counting letters, envelopes and postcards, the name Michael Weiner or Michael or M. Weiner appears 19 times. The Stanford collection indexing is rigid and formal, so it is highly unlikely that any forged letters could be entered into the system. Further, there would be no motive whatever.

2. The fact that several other items were found in the same Ginsberg collection folder, which specifically tie in to Weiner are also significant. One is a half-page newspaper article in the local Hawaii newspaper, which describes Weiner's botany project in Fiji in detail, and was sent to Ginsberg. Second is a promotional flyer Weiner sent to Ginsberg about his McMillan book, "Earth Medicine-Earth Foods."

3. In the Radar Magazine article revealing these Weiner/Ginsberg letters, the author published scanned copies of two letters from the collection, Dec 29, 1970, and the controversial letter of March 8, 1970. March 8 was the one which contained some inferences, "...little known black brother......some old world lower-east side finger tricks and he peacefully kisses the back of my hand."
Since Radar only displayed two letters, there appeared to be some comparison discrepancy since the Dec 29th letter used the salutation Dear Alan, with Allen incorrectly spelled. Some Weiner supporters have claimed that makes the controversial March 8th letter a fake. However, the envelope used for the Dec 29th letter was correctly addressed to Allen Ginsberg. Further, by looking at EVERY OTHER letter in the collection, Weiner spells Allen correctly in each and every one, and on every envelope (22 occurances).

4. There are several passages in other items that bear more attention, since they have not been mentioned before. Here is text from one of the undated postcards.

"Dear Allen Ginsberg,
Watched a tourist from New Zealand taking pictures of Fijian people in the marketplace " thought of inserting my cameras lens in your A hole to photograph the walls of your rectum.
I really do apologize But the thought did occur.
Michael Weiner


(Indians, originally brought here as sugar slaves-500 in number in 1879 now total over 250,000, more than 50% of total population & outnumber Fijians by 40,000. Thus a rare blend in markets on streets, etc. Very unholy in terms of aggressiveness.
(addressed to) Mr. Allen Ginsberg"

5. In the Aug 4, 1972 letter from Marblehead, MA, Weiner mentions that he will be entering Medical School in September. That is the only reference I have ever seen or heard that he planned to go to medical school. At that time he would have been about 30.

6. There is a puzzling, undated, simple profile sketch of a human head (circa 1969), with two little boxes at the area of the brain. One box contains a little stick figure. This text "poem" is handwritten.

"Dear Allen Ginsberg

Please stop trying
Caring about my soul.
She's free enough
Without your screaming
hats and beards.
and plight
Why just yesterday the 2
of us danced around."

6. There was one postcard, inexplicably, written by Ginsberg to Weiner, August 18, 1972. It is not clear how it ended up in the collection. Presumably Ginsberg wrote but forgot to mail it. There is no postmark showing.
7. Finally, the newspaper article cleared up one point of interest I have had for several years, Weiner's source of funding. "His study trip was made possible by grants from the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens Foundation, the Explorers Club of the Museum of Natural History, New York, and the Natural Products Program of the Pacific Biomedical Research Center at the University of Hawaii."



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