Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 1: 1940-1956It was in his letters that Jack Kerouac set down the raw material that he transmuted into his novels, exploring and refining the spontaneous prose style that became his trademark. The letters in this volume, written between 1940, when Kerouac was a freshman at college, and 1956, immediately before his breathless leap into celebrity with the publication of On the Road, offer invaluable insights into Kerouac's family life, his friendships with Neal and Carolyn Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and William S. Burroughs, his travels, love affairs, and literary apprenticeship. At once fascinating reading and a major addition to Kerouac scholarship, here is a rare portrait of the writer as a young adventurer of immense talent, energy, and ambition in the midst of writing and living an American legend. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
afternoon Allen Ginsberg American anyway beat beautiful Bill brother Buddha Buddhist Burroughs California called Carl Solomon Carolyn Cassady CASSADY Dear Columbia University crazy Dear Allen Dear Neal Denver Dharma Doctor Sax dream everything feel Frisco Gabrielle Kerouac Gerard girl Giroux Hal Chase Huncke Jack Kerouac jazz Joan John Clellon Holmes Kerouac estate Kerouac wrote later live look Lowell Lucien Malcolm Cowley manuscript Mexico City mind month mother Neal Cassady Neal's never night novel Ozone Park Philip Whalen poems poet prose published railroad remember Richmond Hill Road Rocky Mount San Francisco Sebastian Sampas shit soul Sterling Lord story Street talk tell Texas there's thing thought told Town trip Vanity of Duluoz vision week wild words write