Revolutionary Poet Ginsberg to Make Ventura Appearance : The award-winning man of letters still questions governments in his new collection of poems, ‘Cosmopolitan Greetings.’

Allen Ginsberg. Even if you’ve never read his poems, you think, “Isn’t he that beat generation guy, the one who with fellow writers Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso and Peter Orlovsky began kicking dirt in Establishment faces almost 50 years ago?” If you do know his work--the photography books, the music, the poems--among them “Howl,” initially banned in America as obscene, and “Kaddish,” inspired by his tragic, psychotic mother--you acknowledge him as a revolutionary presence, a disconcerting basher of the status quo, and also a deservedly honored, award-winning, revered man of letters. A man, who, incidentally, was cited in the 1960s as a “dangerous radical” by both the Czech Communist government and the FBI.

The 67-year-old Ginsberg, is still celebrating life (particularly as he experiences it on New York’s Lower East Side) and challenging governments in his new collection of poems, “Cosmopolitan Greetings,” written between 1986 and 1992, and just published by Harper / Collins.

He will be appearing locally at one place, and one place only--at the Ventura Bookstore, 522 E. Main St., 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

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A phenomena in the publishing world is the escalating value of first editions written by a number of new novelists. For example, according to Audrey Moore of Mysteries to Die For, Sandra Prowell’s first book, “By Evil Means,” which introduced the character Phoebe Siegel, a half-Jewish / half-Catholic private investigator, is now worth more than $50. Prowell will sign a sequel, “The Killing of Monday Brown,” at 1 p.m. today at the bookstore, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. So check your bookshelves. If you own a first edition of Sue Grafton’s “A Is for Alibi” or Robert James Waller’s “The Bridges of Madison County,” you already own a valuable collector’s item.

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Robert Gleason, editor-in-chief of Tor Books, distributed by St. Martin’s Press, is visiting from New York to speak to Mystery Writers’ Southern California chapter at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, 12833 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. Tor’s 250 titles a year include science fiction, fantasy, horror, techno-thrillers, women’s suspense and American historicals. The festivities begin at 6 tonight. Dinner is at 7 p.m., followed by Gleason’s talk at 8 p.m. Non-member cost is $25. The evening may be sold out. Check with Diane Bouchard at (818) 346-2248.

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Local poets Elizabeth Cain and John Hart will read their work at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura. The bookstore features a monthly poetry night. Call 339-9170 for details.

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Congratulations to Gary McCarthy of Ojai, whose novel, “The Gila River,” won the prestigious Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award for best paperback of 1993.