Jack Kerouac Books

From the Publisher: In 1958, the first edition of Robert Frank's The Americans was published in Paris. Les Americains contained Frank's 83 photographs in the same sequence as all subsequent editions, with the image on the right hand page, but juxtaposed with historical texts about American society and politics, gathered by Alain Bosquet. The following year, in the first American edition, the French texts were removed and an introduction by Jack Kerouac was added. Over the subsequent 50 years, The Americans has been republished in many editions, in numerous languages, with a variety of cover designs and even in a range of sizes. It is the most famous photography book ever published, and it changed the face of the medium forever. Robert Frank discussed with his publisher, Gerhard Steidl, the idea of producing a new edition using modern scanning and the finest tritone printing. The starting point was to bring original prints from New York to Gottingen, Germany, where Steidl is based. In July 2007, Frank visited Gottingen. A new format for the book was worked out and new typography selected. A new cover was designed and Frank chose the book cloth, foil for embossing and the endpaper. Most significantly, as he has done for every edition of The Americans, Frank changed the cropping of many of the photographs, usually including more information. Two images were changed completely from the original 1958 and 1959 editions

Truth and Beautiful Meaningful Lies is a collection of memorable quotes from one of the most quoted writers in American literature. This book covers different topics and themes woven throughout Jack Kerouac's writing. It's the perfect way to re-discover the works of this iconic author.

Compiled for collectors, book dealers and all who love books, this indispensable volume provides a guide to the value of over 33,000 sought-after books. It includes classic authors from Jane Austen to Oscar Wilde, detective writers from Eric Ambler to Minette Walters, illustrators from Aubrey Beardsley to Florence Upton, and poets from Richard Aldington to Walt Whitman. More than 600 authors and artists are represented, in British and American first editions, limited editions, and important, collectable reprints. As featured on Front Row, Radio 4, and recommended by BBC Homes and Antiques magazine. The tantalizing game of wondering how much your first editions are worth may be continued, with the publication of the Guide to First Edition Prices - Times Literary Supplement.

"[An] essential Beat masterpiece." --The Village Voice. Perhaps one of the last great dual correspondences of the twentieth century, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters reveals not only the process of creation of the two most celebrated members of the Beat Generation, but also the unfolding of a remarkable friendship of immense pathos and spiritual depth. Through this exhilarating exchange of letters, two-thirds of which have never been published before, Kerouac and Ginsberg emerge first and foremost as writers of artistic passion, innovation, and genius. Vivid and enthralling, the letters, which date from their first meeting in 1944 to Kerouac's untimely death in 1969, chronicle the endless struggle, anguish, and sacrifice involved in giving form to their literary visions.

Through candid correspondence with notable figures like Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, this collection of letters chronicles Jack Kerouac's life from 1957 until his death in 1969. The letters illuminate his evolution as a writer, capturing his travels, love affairs, and complex family dynamics. They also reflect his resilience against criticism and his relentless pursuit of literary excellence. This volume provides a profound glimpse into the thoughts and experiences of a pivotal figure in American literature.

Set in 1950s Lowell, Massachusetts, this novel offers a poignant reflection on Jack Kerouac's high school years. It initially faced controversy due to its candid language, leading to its censorship and subsequent revisions. The original manuscript, containing Kerouac’s unfiltered expressions, was long suppressed until Devault-Graves uncovered it. This edition restores the text to its complete, uncensored form, allowing readers to experience the authentic voice Kerouac intended, capturing the essence of youth and rebellion in a changing literary landscape.

Exploring the depths of Jack Kerouac's psyche, this collection features previously unpublished writings from his extensive archive, showcasing a more introspective side of the author beyond his iconic persona. Spanning his adult life, the pieces include journal entries from his youth and reflective writings from later years, revealing his spiritual struggles and complex relationships with family, fame, and addiction. This compilation offers a unique glimpse into Kerouac's creative process and personal evolution, making it a significant addition to his literary legacy.

The life and craft of Jack Kerouac are traced through some of his most personal and mesmerizing letters. Written between 1940, when he was a freshman in college, and 1956, immediately before his leap into celebrity with the publication of On the Road, these letters offer valuable insights into Kerouac's family life, friendships with Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, and others.

"All three [novels] were seen by Kerouac as forming part of The Duluoz Legend, a multivolume autobiographical saga recording the major events of the author's life"--Page 761.

"In his portrayal of the fervent relationship between the writer Sal Paradise and his outrageous, exasperating, and inimitable friend Dean Moriarty, Kerouac created one of the great friendships in American literature; and his rendering of the cities and highways and wildernesses that his characters restlessly explore are a hallucinatory travelogue of a nation he both mourns and celebrates. Now, The Library of America collects On the Road together with four other autobiographical Toad books" published during a remarkable tour-year period." "The Dharma Bums (1958), at once an exploration of Buddhist spirituality and an account of the Bay Area poetry scene, is notable for its thinly veiled portraits of Kerouac's acquaintances, including Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Kenneth Rexroth. The Subterraneans (1958) recounts a love affair set amid the bars and bohemian haunts of San Francisco. Tristessa (1960) is a melancholy novella describing a relationship with a prostitute in Mexico City. Lonesome Traveler (1960) collects travel essays that evoke journeys in Mexico and Europe, and concludes with an elegiac lament for the lost world of the American hobo. Also included in Road Novels are selections from Kerouac's journal, which provide a fascinating perspective on his early impressions of material eventually incorporated into On the Road."--BOOK JACKET

Exploring Jack Kerouac's lesser-known fascination with haiku, this collection showcases his experimentation with the form throughout his career. Including an incomplete draft from his archives, it features over 500 poems drawn from various sources, such as novels, correspondence, and journals. Curated by scholar Regina Weinreich, this volume offers a comprehensive look at Kerouac's poetic mastery, making it an essential addition for fans and scholars alike.

Written during a critical period of his life, Some of the Dharma is a key volume for understanding Kerouac and the spiritual underpinnings of his workWhile his future masterpiece, On the Road , languished on the desks of unresponsive editors, Kerouac turned to Buddhist practice, and in 1953 began compiling reading notes on the subject intended for his friend Allen Ginsberg. As Kerouac's Buddhist meditation practice intensified, what had begun as notes evolved into a vast and all-encompassing work of nonfiction into which he poured his life, incorporating poems, haiku, prayers, journal entries, meditations, fragments of letters, ideas about writing, overheard conversations, sketches, blues, and more.The final manuscript, completed in 1956, was as visually complex as the writing: each page was unique, typed in patterns and interlocking shapes. The elaborate form that Kerouac so painstakingly gave the book on his manual typewriter is re-created in this typeset facsimile. Passionate and playful, filled with humor, insight, sorrow, and struggle, Some of the Dharma is one of Kerouac's most profound and original works.

These classic Kerouac meditations, zen koans, and prose poems express the poet's beatific quest for peace and joy through oneness with the...

Roman om beat-generationens førende personligheder.

Vanity of Duluoz is a key volume in Jack Kerouac's lifework, the series of autobiographical novels he referred to as The Legend of Duluoz. With the same tender humor and intoxicating wordplay he brought to his masterpieces On the Road and The Dharma Bums, Kerouac takes his alter ego from the football fields of small-town New England to the playing fields and classrooms of Horace Mann and Columbia, out to sea on a merchant freighter plying the sub-infested waters of the North Atlantic during World War II, and back to New York, where his friends are the writers who would one day become known as the Beat generation and where he publishes his first novel.

The only book I've ever written in which I've allowed myself to say absolutely anything I want... Jack Kerouac

The town in this tale is Galloway, Masachusetts, birthplace of the five sons and three daughters of the Martin family in the early 1900s. The city is New York, the heaving melting pot which lures them all in search of futures and identity.

Written over the course of three days and three nights, The Subterraneans was generated out of the same ecstatic flash of inspiration that produced another one of Kerouac's early classic, On The Road. Centering on the tempestous breakup of Leo Percepied and Mardou Fox--two denizens of the 1950s San Francsico underground--The Subterraneans is a tale of dark alleys and dark rooms, of artists, of visionaries,

In the summer of 1956, Jack Kerouac hitchhiked from Mill Valley, CA, to the North Cascades to serve as a fire lookout for the US Forest Service. Armed only with the Diamond Sutra, he sought deep contemplation and enlightenment, focusing on the "emptiness of self" and universal self. He anticipated a transformative experience on Desolation Peak, which is central to his novel The Dharma Bums and appears in parts of Desolation Angels and Lonesome Traveler. However, none of these accounts fully capture his experience, making this work essential. Kerouac's unique exploration of consciousness sets him apart from other writers, and his legacy lies in the record of his internal struggles as a sensitive artist in the mid-20th Century. The highlight is his journal, which starkly reveals his poverty, mood swings, and internal conflicts regarding his life, writing, and faith. Alongside the journal, he worked on projects like "Ozone Park," "The Martin Family," and "Desolation Adventure," reaffirming his commitment to an experimental style, declaring that "the form of the future is no-form." Also included are his transliteration of the Diamond Sutra, "Desolation Blues," "Desolation Pops," and various prose sketches and dreams.

Donald Allen, the late great editor of the Evergreen Review at Grove Press and editor of the seminal anthology The New American Poetry , first met Jack Kerouac in 1956 when he and Allen Ginsberg came to visit at his West Village apartment. At the time, Allen was working on the "San Francisco Scene" issue of the Evergreen Review , and Ginsberg and Kerouac brought him manuscripts and news of developments on the West Coast. Over the next three years, Kerouac would send Allen poems for various projects, along with letters in which he discussed his poetry, his life, and the work of his young contemporaries. The unpublished poems are collected here, as are the letters, a comic strip drawn for the Cassady children, and Kerouac's self-penned poetic biography. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was a principal actor in the Beat Generation, a companion of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady in that great adventure. His books include On the Road , The Dharma Bums , Mexico City Blues , Lonesome Traveler , Visions of Cody , Pomes All Sizes (City Lights), Scattered Poems (City Lights), and Scripture of the Golden Eternity (City Lights).

On a blind date in Greenwich Village set up by Allen Ginsberg, Joyce Johnson (then Joyce Glassman) met Jack Kerouac in January 1957, nine months before he became famous overnight with the publication of On the Road. She was an adventurous, independent-minded twenty-one-year-old; Kerouac was already running on empty at thirty-five. This unique book, containing the many letters the two of them wrote to each other, reveals a surprisingly tender side of Kerouac. It also shares the vivid and unusual perspective of what it meant to be young, Beat, and a woman in the Cold War fifties. Reflecting on those tumultuous years, Johnson seamlessly interweaves letters and commentary, bringing to life her love affair with one of American letters' most fascinating and enigmatic figures.

A deluxe edition of Kerouac's 1958 classic Published just one year after On The Road, this is the story of two men enganged in a passionate search for Dharma or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen Way, which takes them climbing into the High Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

'Kerouac's grittiest novel ... sensual and uninhibited' The New York Times Driven mad by three years of endless telegrams, phonecalls, mail, reporters and snoopers in the wake of his hugely successful novel On the Road, Jack Kerouac, 'King of the Beats', needs peace, quiet and sobriety: surrounded and outnumbered he has to 'get away to solitude again or die'. Amidst the wild beauty of the Californian landscape, Kerouac struggles to come to terms with his own myth and its malign impact upon his life. The result is a moving account of a man struggling with inner demons: blessed by great talent and cursed with an urge towards self-destruction - a path lined with double bourbons, Manhattans and scotch ...

Fictionalized narrative of travels by Kerouac and his friend Neal Cassady under pseudonyms of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.

In alternating chapters that reveal a nascent period in their development as two of the twentieth century's most influential writers, Beat Generation icons William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac's And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanksis an electrifying true-life mystery, including afterword by James Grauerholtz in Penguin Modern Classics.This is a hardboiled crime novel, and a true story. In 1944, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, then still unknown writers, were both arrested following a murder- one of their friends had stabbed another and then come to them for advice - neither had told the police. Later they wrote this fictionalised account of that summer - of a group of friends in wartime New York, moving through each other's apartments, drinking, necking, talking and taking drugs and haphazardly drifting towards a bloody crime. Unpublished for years, And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanksis a remarkable insight into the lives and literary development of two great writers. If you enjoyed And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks, you might like Kerouac's On the Road, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'The novel that kicked it all off'Independent'An insight into Kerouac before he went on the road and Burroughs before his drug use spiralled out of control, this is a major literary event'GQ

In his first frankly autobiographical work, Jack Kerouac tells the exhilarating story of the years when he was writing the books that captivated and infuriated the public, restless years of wandering during which he worked as a railway brakeman in California, a steward on a tramp steamer, and a fire lookout on the crest of Desolation Peak in the Cascde Mountains

"His life...ended when he was nine and the nuns of St. Louis de France Parochial School were at his bedside to take down his dying words because they'd heard his astonishing revelations of heaven delivered in catechism on no more encouragement than it was his turn to speak...."Unique among Jack Kerouac's novels, Visions of Gerard focuses on the scenes and sensations of childhood—the wisdom, anguish, intensity, innocence, evil, insight, suffering, delight, and shock—as they were revealed in the short tragic-happy life of his saintly brother, Gerard. Set in Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, it is an unsettling, beautiful, and sad exploration of the meaning and precariousness of existence.

In these uncollected writings Jack Kerouac portrays himself in his life. He hitches a ride to San Francisco with a blonde, goes on the road with photographer Robert Frank, rides bus through the Northwest and Montana, records the blues of an old Negro hobo, talks about the Beats and how it all began, gives his "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose" and defends his novel The Subterraneans, compares Shakespeare and James Joyce, describes the cafeterias and subways of Manhattan, goes to a ballgame and a prize fight, and reflects on Céline, on Christmas in New England, on Murnau's Nosferatu, on jazz & bop, and tells us what he's thinking about. And in the closing piece "cityCityCITY," we're treated to Jack's science fiction vision of the future."Table of Contents Robert Creeley: Thinking of Jack: A Preface On the Road On the Beats On Writing Observations On Sports Last Words cityCityCITY Editor's Note

Written in late 1942, the novel was inspired by Jack Kerouac's experiences of life at sea on board the S.S. Dorchester, after working the summer as a Merchant Marine.

In spontaneous, direct, and concrete verses, the author confesses his joy in poetry and life.

'De là je suis allé à Paris, où il ne se passait rien si ce n’est que la plus belle fille du monde n’aimait pas mon sac à dos et avait rendez-vous avec un type à petite moustache debout une main dans la poche et un sourire méprisant aux lèvres devant les cinémas de nuit de Paris.'Qu’est-ce qu’être 'Beat'? À travers ses thèmes de prédilection – la littérature, le jazz, le voyage, la route, le bouddhisme, le zen… – l’auteur de Sur la route nous entraîne vers la réponse à un rythme hypnotique.

Her name means sadness, yet Tristessa, a prostitute and morphine addict, lives without cares in her shabby room with a menagerie of pets and an altar to the Virgin Mary. Based on Jack Kerouac's own real-life love affair in Mexico city, this is the story of a man's ill-fated relationship with a woman he portrays with tenderness and dignity, even as her life spirals out of control.

Leo Percepied, aspiring writer and self-styled free-wheeling bum, gravitates to the Subterraneans, impoverished intellectuals who haunt the bars and clubs of San Francisco, surviving on a diet of booze and benzedrine, Proust and Verlaine. Living among them is Mardou Fox, beautiful and a little crazy, whose dark eyes, full of suffering and sweetness, find recognition in Leo. But, afraid of his growing involvement, Leo sets out to destroy their love. Exuberant and melancholy, Kerouac's spontaneous prose flows across the pages. Written in three days, The Subterraneans is, like all Kerouac's work, closely related to his own life while encapsulating his great vision of America.

This revised edition features haikus by Jack Kerouac, Albert Saijo, and Lew Welch from their 1959 road trip from San Francisco to New York. The poems capture the essence of life on the road, alongside Albert's recollections of their journey and letters to Kerouac from Lew Welch.

"On the Road" chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make "On the Road" an inspirational work of lasting importance. Kerouac s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be Beat and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than fifty years ago."

Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his 1957 classic, On the Road, he spent years figuring out how he wanted to live and, above all, learning how to write. Atop an Underwood brings together more than sixty previously unpublished works that Kerouac wrote before he was twenty-two, ranging from stories and poems to plays and parts of novels, including an excerpt from his 1943 merchant marine novel, The Sea Is My Brother. These writings reveal what Kerouac was thinking, doing, and dreaming during his formative years, and reflect his primary literary influences. Readers will also find in these works the source of Kerouac's spontaneous prose style. Uncovering a fascinating missing link in Kerouac's development as a writer, Atop an Underwood is essential reading for Kerouac fans, scholars, and critics.

Kerouac's most important poem, Mexico City Blues, incorporates all the elements of his theory of spontaneous composition. Memories, fantasies, dreams, and surrealistic free association are all lyrically combined in the loose format of the blues to create an original and moving epic. "I want to be considered a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jam session on Sunday. I take 242 choruses; my ideas vary and sometimes roll from chorus to chorus or from halfway through a chorus to halfway into the next." "A spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature." - Allen Ginsberg; "Kerouac calls himself a jazz poet. There is no doubt about his great sensitivity to language. His sentences frequently move into tempestuous sweeps and whorls and sometimes they have something of the rich music of Gerard Manley Hopkins of Dylan Thomas" - The New York Herald Tribune

'His first novel is a revelation ... the writing is vivid, serious and extraordinary ... wonderful' The Times The Sea is My Brother is Jack Kerouac's very first novel, begun shortly after his tour as a merchant sailor in 1942. Lost during his lifetime, it is an intense portrait of friendship and brotherhood and a meditation on the desire to escape society, following the fortunes of two men as they impulsively decide to work their passage on the S.S. Westminster: drinking, arguing, playing cards, dodging torpedoes and contemplating the vast, terrible beauty of the sea. Published with fragments of early stories and letters, this visceral work gives a unique insight into the young Kerouac and the formation of his genius. 'What's clear from this newly published first novel is that Kerouac was positively fizzing with talent at an early age' Sunday Times

'A very unique cat-a French-Canadian Hinayana Buddhist Beat Catholic savant'Allen Ginsberg Through publishers stopped Maggie Cassidy'sJack Dulouz and On the Road'sSal Paradise form sharing the same name, Kerouac meant the books to be two parts of the same life. While On the Roadmade Paradise (and Kerouac) a hero of the disaffected and restless for generations to come, Maggie Cassidyis an affectionate portrait of the teenager that made the man - of friendship and first love - growing up in a New England mill town. Dulouz is a high school athletics and football star who meet Maggie Cassidy and begins a devoted, inconstant, tender adolescent love affair. It is one of the most sustained, poetic pieces of Kerouac's 'spontaneous prose'.

Kerouac's classic fictional tribute to Neal Cassady. Many years before its first unabridged publication, 'Visions of Cody' became an underground classic. Written by Kerouac at his creative zenith, the book is a celebration of the life of Neal Cassady, his great friend and inspiration. Appearing here as Cody Pomeray, Cassady was also immortalised as Dean Moriarty in 'On the Road'. The son of a drunken Denver drop-out, brought up homeless and motherless during the Depression, Cassady lived his life raw -- hustling in pool halls, stealing cars for marathon joy rides across the States, living wild and penniless amongst society's misfits and outcasts. He left a sizzling reputation in his wake, becoming the insane Beat Demon of San Francisco. Through him Kerouac created one of the few lasting heroes of 20th-century literature and established himself in the great tradition of American letters.

The Haunted Life is the coming-of-age story of Peter Martin, a college track star determined to idle away what he knows will be one of his last innocent summers in his tranquil New England home town. But with the war escalating in Europe and his two closest friends both plotting their escapes, he realizes how sheltered his upbringing has been. As he surveys the competing influences of his youth, he struggles to determine what might lead to an intellectually authentic life. The Haunted Life is ultimately a meditation on intellectual truth, male friendship and the desire for movement - all themes that would dominate Kerouac's later work.

Born in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, Jack Kerouac emerged as a pivotal figure in American literature, defining the Beat Generation through his innovative 'spontaneous prose' style. He captured the essence of the American traveler and the spirit of his era in seminal works like On the Road, The Subterraneans, and The Dharma Bums. His literary legacy also includes notable titles such as Big Sur and Mexico City Blues, showcasing his diverse talents in both prose and poetry. Kerouac's influence endures long after his passing in 1969.

Satori is the Japanese word for sudden awakening or illumination. This autobiographical novel is an odyssey of discovery. It is also an insight into Kerouac's introduction to the eastern mysticism that was to become a lifelong passion.

'There will never be a moment like this one, ' says poet and fellow beatnik Robert Creeley in his introduction to this literary event: the first full-length work to be published since Kerouac's death in 1969. Recently discovered by his estate, ORPHEUS EMERGED chronicles the passions, conflicts and dreams of a group of bohemians searching for truth while studying at a university. Kerouac wrote the story shortly after meeting Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Lucien Carr and others in and around Columbia University who would form the core of the Beats. ORPHEUS EMERGED is a unique portrait of an artist as a young man and shows a writer in the process of finding the voice that would eventually express the spirit of a generation

Beautifully rejacketed, Doctor Sax is one of Kerouac’s best books – a vivid, nostalgic tale of one boy’s extraordinary childhood. Of all his books, Doctor Sax was the one Jack Kerouac loved the most. He began writing it in 1948, but wrote the greater part of it in 1952, when he was staying in Mexico with William Burroughs. Told through the character of Kerouac’s fictional alter ego, Jack Duluoz, the novel tells the story of his extraordinary childhood in Massachusetts. A clever and rebellious boy, playing among the river weeds and railroad tracks, going to the movies, reading pulp comics and watching cartoons, Jack creates an imaginary world of strange, new possibilities. Within this world lies the weird and wonderful Doctor Sax…

See my hand up-tipped, learn the secret of my human heart . . . ' Soaring, freewheeling snapshots of life on the road across America, from the Beat writer who inspired a generation.

Never published in Kerouac's lifetime, this 1955 biography of the founder of Buddhism recounts the story of Prince Siddhartha's journey from the privilege of court life to his adoption of a homeless lifestyle, his struggles with meditations and eventual enlightenment.

This comprehensive study guide provides an in-depth literary analysis of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, making it an essential resource for students preparing for their 2024 exams. Endorsed by professors, it covers the author's biography, a detailed summary of the novel, and an exploration of key themes. Additionally, it examines the literary movement associated with Kerouac, ensuring that all critical aspects of the work are thoroughly understood.

Bilingvní vydání tří povídek, které ukazují tři různé polohy autorova psaní a tři životní situace. Železniční země je jedním z prvních Kerouacových textů, které byly vůbec do češtin převedeny, autor v nich líčí, jak prožíval své zaměstnání brzdaře; ve Scénách z New Yorku zaznamenává radost z přátelského putování odvázaným velkoměstem; naproti tomu povídka Sám na vrcholu hory načrtává téma, které rozvinul v románu Andělé zoufalství - osamělý pobyt a usebrání na postu požární hlídky v divokých horách na hranicích USA a Kanady.

En 1955, Robert Frank parcourt les États-Unis, appareil photo en main, capturant des moments de vie des Américains rencontrés sur son chemin : serveuses, ouvriers, fêtards, amoureux, et motards. Ce n'est pas un reportage, mais une série de notes visuelles où des visages anonymes se mêlent à des paysages tristes et des zones urbaines. Les images, souvent floues et avec une composition décentrée, utilisent des noirs profonds qui ajoutent une dimension d'abstraction. En 1958, 84 photographies en noir et blanc sont publiées par Robert Delpire, mais reçoivent un accueil indifférent, jugées tristes et subversives. Avec le temps, elles deviennent un classique de la photographie. Soixante ans après sa première publication, l'ouvrage revient dans une édition revue et corrigée par Frank lui-même, avec des modifications au niveau de la couverture, du format, du papier et du traitement des images, se rapprochant de l'édition américaine. La préface de Jack Kerouac est également proposée dans une nouvelle traduction par Brice Matthieussent.

Jacka Kerouaca i Allena Ginsberga — pisarzy, ikony kultury, najbardziej znanych przedstawicieli „beat generation” — łączyła nie tylko wrażliwość artystyczna, ale także głęboka, wieloletnia przyjaźń. Dzięki ogromnemu zbiorowi korespondencji przyjaźń ta ukazuje się w swej fascynującej pełni. To barwna, intrygująca, żywa, zaskakująca niezwykłą spostrzegawczością i intensywnością przeżycia rozmowa dwóch indywidualności. Ponad dwieście opublikowanych listów, chociaż są tylko częścią wielkiego zbioru, który powstawał od 1944 roku, pozwala prześledzić kształtowanie się w ciągu prawie dwudziestu lat poglądów estetycznych, filozoficznych i politycznych dwóch niezwykłych postaci — twórców, którzy wyznaczyli kierunek artystyczny całemu pokoleniu.

Die Geschichte von Kerouacs Alter Ego Jack Duluoz erzählt von dessen High-School-Erlebnissen in Massachusetts und seiner Zeit als Football-Stipendiat an der Columbia Universität. Gerade als Jack in sein glamouröses Erwachsenenleben ausbrechen will, bricht auch der Zweite Weltkrieg aus, Jack tritt der US Navy bei und bereist die Welt. Während er Erfahrungen sammelt, erkennt er die Grenzen seiner ursprünglichen Pläne und kehrt zurück nach New York, wo die Beat-Bewegung gerade ihren Anfang nimmt, zurück in einen Tumult aus Drogen, Sex und wahnhaftem Schreiben.

«Sono andato veloce perché la strada è veloce.» Tra il 2 e il 22 aprile 1951 – scrive Kerouac a Neal Cassady – «ho scritto un romanzo su una striscia di carta lunga 120 piedi infilata nella macchina da scrivere e senza paragrafi, fatta srotolare sul pavimento e sembra proprio una strada». Con questo “rotolo” ha inizio la vicenda del mitico romanzo che narra i viaggi di Kerouac tra Stati Uniti e Messico negli anni 1947-50 e che vedrà la luce, in una versione ampiamente rimaneggiata, solo nel 1957. Più lungo di quello definitivo, il testo originario di On the road contiene numerose scene poi tagliate e risulta più cupo, spigoloso e disinibito. Intima, sfrenata e “vera”, la scrittura di Kerouac trascina il lettore alla bruciante scoperta di una strada che è la vita stessa.

Una raccolta che comprende oltre sessanta testi giovanili inediti, tra cui poesie, saggi, bozzetti, racconti e pezzi teatrali, che documentano il percorso seguito da Kerouac per diventare uno scrittore e un artista. Una infaticabile ricerca di se stesso e della propria vocazione nel milieu multietnico e industriale nell'America degli anni Trenta e Quaranta.

El Sal Paradise de todas las ediciones conocidas de esta novela mítica es aquí, al fin, Kerouac. Y también Cassady, Ginsberg y Burroughs aparecen con sus verdaderos nombres. Con la publicación del rollo original, la gesta viajera y existencial de En la carretera se vuelve autobiográfica de pleno derecho y a plena luz del día, sin censura alguna. Y el relato adquiere toda su potencia narrativa. El lector tiene en sus manos una suerte de manifiesto de la beat generation. Seguimos a Kerouac y a toda la cáfila que desfila por estas páginas en toda su desnudez y penuria. Precursores del movimiento hippy y la contracultura de finales de los años sesenta, los personajes de esta novela pululan sin rumbo por Norteamérica. La sed vital insatisfecha, la búsqueda de horizontes de sentido, de dicha y de conocimiento y los atisbos místicos se estrellan contra una realidad inhóspita y desesperanzada. Un vívido compendio de los grandes temas, y al tiempo una apasionante aventura humana y una metáfora de la existencia. «El rollo original de On the Road es una de las más veneradas y enigmáticas reliquias de la literatura moderna... Un texto fascinante» (James Campbell, The Times Literary Supplement).

Jack Kerouac proveniva da una famiglia cattolica osservante che gli diede un'educazione profondamente religiosa nel senso tradizionale. Ciò non impedì allo scrittore, a partire dalla metà circa degli anni Cinquanta, di avvicinarsi con crescente interesse ed entusiasmo al buddhismo, in particolare a quello della tradizione Mahayana. Nacque da questa disposizione spirituale e da questa curiosità intellettuale Il libro del risveglio , scritto nel 1955. Si tratta di una biografia letteraria di Siddharta Gautama, il Buddha (ovvero "il risvegliato"), ricavata da diverse fonti antiche e narrata con lo stile unico, fluido di Kerouac che ne fa un libro maestoso, quasi una sinfonia. Una lettura importante sia per chi desideri avvicinarsi al buddhismo e al suo fondatore, sia per chi voglia comprendere la genesi e il significato di libri come I vagabondi del Dharma . Ma soprattutto uno dei testi più originali, riusciti e multiformi del profeta del Beat, in cui si fondono spiritualità e doti narrative, interesse culturale e amore per la parola.

Queste Poesie beat coprono oltre vent'anni di esercizi poetici e rappresentano dunque una chiave di lettura preziosissima della parabola del Kerouac poeta. Le prime, le più antiche, quelle scritte insieme a Ginsberg e a Neal Cassidy, segnano un momento di grande entusiasmo: la speranza di rompere la solitudine canonica dell'artista di fronte all'opera d'arte, avvalendosi del contributo degli amici. A poco a poco, invece, Kerouac tende a ripiegarsi su se stesso, a rifugiarsi nell'ineffabile, avvicinandosi a religioni e culture che sembrano dare una risposta al suo desiderio di libertà e di autonomia. Ma non si può non riconoscere che anche nei versi più oscuri, più indecifrabili, vibra un'eco della sua straordinaria energia. Testo inglese a fronte.

Two ebullient young men search for Truth the Zen way: from marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, and "yabyum" in San Francisco's Bohemia to solitude in the high Sierras and a vigil atop Desolation Peak in Washington State. Published just a year after On the Road put the Beat Generation on the map, The Dharma Bums is sparked by Kerouac's expansiveness, humor, and a contagious zest for life. One of the best and most popular of Kerouac's autobiographical novels, The Dharma Bums is based on experiences the writer had during the mid-1950s while living in California, after he'd become interested in Buddhism's spiritual mode of understanding. One of the book's main characters, Japhy Ryder, is based on the real poet Gary Snyder, who was a close friend and whose interest in Buddhism influenced Kerouac

Scritto quasi interamente nel 1948 ma completato solo vent'anni più tardi, Pic fu pubblicato postumo, nel 1971. È la storia tenera e piena di un dolce humour di Pictorial Review Jackson, detto Pic, un bimbo nero che vive col nonno in North Carolina. Rimasto solo, il ragazzino viene dapprima affidato a una zia, poi se ne fa carico Slim, il fratello maggiore. Il piccolo Pic, una sorta di Huckleberry Finn del Novecento, intraprende insieme a Slim un viaggio attraverso gli Stati Uniti rocambolesco e ricco di incontri e di avventure: i due arriveranno fino a New York per poi dirigersi verso la California. Il viaggio, tema per eccellenza del romanzo americano, della Beat Generation e di Kerouac in particolare, è declinato qui in tono picaresco, attraverso lo sguardo innocente e sincero del giovane Pic e il suo caratteristico linguaggio, pieno di freschezza ed entusiasmo, così come di vivaci invenzioni. Sullo sfondo, l'irresistibile colonna sonora della musica jazz.

Ray Smith i Japhy Ryder, zapaleni buddyści, uczestniczą w życiu bohemy artystycznej San Francisco. Jednak maratony pijaństwa, poetyckie jam sessions, tworzenie haiku, narkotyczne i seksualne ekscesy nie prowadzą ich ku Dharmie, czyli Prawdzie. Oczyszczeniem dla obu staje się wędrówka wzorem mnichów zen przez wysokie góry Sierra Nevada. Dopiero tam odnajdują głęboki sens swych egzystencjalnych poszukiwań. Zmuszeni mierzyć się siłą natury i osamotnieniem, uczą sie, jak przetrwać, licząc tylko na siebie. Fantastyczne opisy przyrody i kolejne etapy wspinaczki pozwalają w pełni odczuć atmosferę tej szczególnej wędrówki. Książka jest zapisem doświadczenia charakterystycznego dla pokolenia bitników, którzy w narkotycznym odurzeniu, przypadkowym seksie i melanżu przekonań religijnych poszukiwali oświecenia.

Sous prétexte d'aller chercher ses droits d'auteur à Londres, Kerouac flâne à travers l'Europe. Il découvre les charmes troubles de Tanger, les paysages de Cézanne, les promenades émerveillées dans Paris, la pluie normande et les brumes de Londres...Dans un brillant plaidoyer en faveur des vagabonds, il se place sous l'égide de Virgile, de Benjamin Franklin ou de Walt Whitman, pour revendiquer le droit à l'errance, aux nuits à la belle étoile, aux rencontres et à l'imprévu.

Per anni Jack Kerouac ebbe l'abitudine di tenere accanto al letto, sul comodino, un taccuino e una matita. E ogni mattina, appena sveglio, registrava tutto quanto poteva ricordare dei sogni fatti durante la notte. Da quegli appunti trasse poi questa sorta di "autobiografia parallela" filtrata attraverso l'attività onirica, pubblicata da Lawrence Ferlinghetti nel 1961 in un'edizione ridotta e qui proposta per la prima volta nella versione integrale. Nei sogni qui narrati compaiono molti dei personaggi dei racconti dell'autore di On the Road, riconoscibili grazie alla tabella delle corrispondenze suggerita dallo stesso Kerouac. Insolito e originale, Il libro dei sogni è un'opera illuminata da una scrittura spontanea e affascinante, una finestra aperta sul mondo interiore di un grande scrittore.

Jack Kerouac, 1922 geboren, gründete Ende der 30er-Jahre die literarische Gruppe „The Young Prometheans“, in der er u. a. mit seinem Freund Sebastian Sampas unterschiedliche Themen aus Literatur und Kunst diskutierte. 1942 trat Kerouac in die U. S. Navy ein, und bis zu Sampas Tod 1944 unterhielten die beiden einen regen Briefwechsel, in dem Kerouac Auskunft über sein Arbeit gab, vor allem über The Sea is my Brother, sein erstes größeres literarisches Werk. Bisher noch unveröffentlicht, ist diese Erzählung ein zu entdeckendes Juwel. Inspiriert von den Erlebnissen bei der Marine, enthält sie viele Elemente, die dann Kerouacs späteres Werk unverwechselbar machen. Der Autor findet hier zu seinem eigenen, individuellen Stil. Über 50 zeitgenössische Meister-Fotografien (Margaret Bourke-White, Cornell Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Elliot Erwitt, Andreas Feininger, Dorothea Lange, Carl Maydans, Weegee) machen diesen Band zu einem außergewöhnlichen Leseerlebnis.