Ferlinghetti's Telegram to Ginsberg Echoes Emerson

On October 13, 1955, Lawrence Ferlinghetti sent a telegram to Allen Ginsberg at his Milvia Street cottage in Berkeley, California, greeting him at the beginning of a great career and requesting the manuscript of "Howl." The message, delivered by Western Union, deliberately echoed Ralph Waldo Emerson's words to Walt Whitman a century earlier. Ginsberg had described the cottage as an economical and perfect retreat for writing. The telegram was typed in block letters on white strips pasted onto Western Union's ochre form.