Number eight in the Pocket Poets Series & Gregory Corso's second published book of poems with an introduction by Allen Ginsberg. The book is dedicated to "the angels of Clinton Prison who, in my seventeenth year, handed me, from all the cells surrounding me, books of illumination." On the eve of his 18th birthday, Corso broke into a tailor shop and stole an oversized suit to dress for a date. Police records indicate he was arrested two blocks from the shop. He was sentenced & sent to Clinton State Prison in Dannemora, New York. It was New York's toughest prison, the site of the state's electric chair. Corso fell under the protection of powerful Mafioso inmates, and became something of a mascot because he was the youngest inmate in the prison, and he was entertaining. Corso was encouraged to read and study by his Cosa Nostra mentors, who recognized his genius.