The great Naropa poetry wars: with a copious collection of germane documents assembled by the author

Santa Barbara: Cadmus Editions, 1980. First edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 42) signed by the author; 8vo, pp. 87, [9]; original quarter brown cloth over printed paper-covered boards, acetate dust jacket; fine. An exposé and renunciation of Chogyam Trungpa, spiritual head of the Naropa Institute. The “Great Naropa Poetry Wars” erupted at the seminary that was held in fall, 1975, in Snowmass, Colorado ... Trungpa presided, but neither Ginsberg nor Waldman was present. The poet W.S. Merwin, interested in expanding his Buddhist training, and his then-partner the poet Dana Naone attended the seminary ... On Halloween, a party was given to celebrate (truncated) the end of the second and the beginning of the intense third and final stage of the seminary. Merwin and Naone attended but did not stay. Summoned by Trungpa, they refused to return, and were confronted in their apartment by other seminary students who, acting for Trungpa, met their resistance by assaulting them and abducting them to the party, where, against their wills, they were stripped naked at Trungpa’s order, and humiliated ... This shocking event circulated through published writings in the aftermath and in Buddhist communities, and has reverberated in the record of Beat poetry and poetics" (Editors at Journal of Beat Studies). Original broadside apology by Kenneth Rexroth laid in, as issued. (Inventory #: 50462)