[San Francisco], 1955. Very good overall.. Previously unknown original carbon typescript of the most important postwar American poem: Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." Almost certainly the only surviving draft version of this iconic poem remaining in private hands, and the only one to ever be separately offered for sale. This copy was struck from what has become known as the fifth draft (so identified in HOWL: Original Draft Facsimiles and Variant Versions [etc.]. Barry Miles, Editor. New York: Harper & Row, 1986) and most likely dates from early 1956. It is this draft that Ginsberg read in what is the earliest known recording of the poem at Oregon's Reed College from February 1956 (indeed you can hear him turning the pages at precisely the right time on the recording), performed just three months after the legendary Six Gallery reading where the poem debuted. This copy of "Howl" was discovered among the papers of bohemian and arts benefactor Annie Ruff, and is the exact carbon struck…