Product Description
Jack Kerouac'snovelOn the Roadwas a touchstone for a generation and the centrepiece of the Beat movement in literature and art. This new book examines Kerouac's life and career, and accompanies a major exhibition at The New York Public Library to celebrate the 50th anniversary ofOn the Road'spublication in 1957. Kerouac's achievement as both a literary and cultural figure is traced, including his innovations in narrative techniques and in character development. His counterculture vision is explored, showing his image as a seer and sage who wanted to save America from its obsession with consumerism, the inhibition of sexuality and other conventional bourgeois pieties. The author also explores Kerouac's relationships with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and other Beats, as well as the Beat movement in general. The book is heavily illustrated, with material from the extensive Kerouac literary archive owned by The New York Public Library, including typescript drafts ofOn the Road,as ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fascinating study of the development of Kerouac's classic
At last a detailed study of the development of Kerouac's classic novel "On the Road", which examines all extant material, pre- and post- the version that was typed out on a 120-foot scroll of paper in a period of three weeks in early 1951. Dr. Gewirtz is ideally placed for this task, being curator of the New York Public Library, where the Kerouac archive is now stored, and so having access to items not previously available to other researchers.

Coverage of Kerouac's early work on his "Road" book begins in 1947, and includes an exhaustive look at the various drafts, fragments, and journals in which the initial attempts were recorded, with photographic images of many of the actual pages. Of particular interest is the development of the published version of "On the Road" from the 1951 scroll version. According to Gewirtz, Kerouac made three different conventional typescripts of the book between 1951 and about 1956, each with somewhat differing content, the final one being used as the basis for the book as eventually published in 1957.

Gerwitz claims that the first of these typescripts is now "lost" but the other two, currently stored at the NYPL, are well-illustrated in the book, which contains eight full-page images from the second, and seven from the third. Five sections from the scroll are also presented -- the first part, and four other full-page images previously unpublished. These illustrations are clearly readable and demonstrate how a facsimile edition could be produced, either in book form or on CD, of the scroll and the other typescripts, drafts, and fragments. Such a product is apparently being discussed in various circles, but until it finally appears this book provides a valuable interim measure, and is recommended to all Kerouac enthusiasts.

Essential for Kerouac Fans
If you have an interest in Kerouac, you should buy this book.It's one of the few books that is actually worth its cover price.

The reproductions of materials from the Kerouac archive are beautiful, and Gewirtz's text is just what you want to read.This is a perfect companion to the published version of _On the Road_, the original scroll version of _Road_, and the journal entries published in _Windblown World_.Taken together, these books affirm that Kerouac was a brilliant and dedicated writer and reader.The documents in _Beatific Soul_, especially, allow the reader to see Kerouac's beautiful mind at work. ... Read more

Product Description
Essays by Kerouac scholar Jim Jones on a host of different issues about Kerouac, as well as critical works on his own writing. The title, drawn from the largest essay, delves into the numerous biographies on Kerouac, dispelling many of the myths and pseudo-legends about Kerouac's life. Spectral in its ability to reach in many different directions, Nine Lives produces a fresh and enlightening approach to the Kerouac story. ... Read more

Product Description
An illustrated biography draws on interviews with Kerouac's friends, conversations with Allen Ginsburg and William S. Burroughs, and the body of Kerouac scholarship to provide a definitive portrait of of the iconoclastic rebel. 30,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

You will be very surprised
This little book may seem like just a pictorial bio kinda thing but I was so surprised to find that it is much more than that. This book is cute and fun to look thru and it is filled with great old photos and the art and lay out is great but bio wise,,,its somethin else! Youll find here that there was more to Jack Kerouac than we knew. Things weve all heard about but some of these things are clarified and taken from a spiritual aspect which is what the author wanted to do. It is a deep little book indeed. Its a trip for sure. I wont spoil it. Just order it if your gut instinct tells ya to. And even if you order a used copy- its worth it. Great savings and you will lie around amazed and in a daze with this one for a while .

Beat-ifully done
As a passionate lover of Kerouac and the Beats I highly recommend this book. It is compiled in an artistic manner with a text style that is supposed to be reminiscent of Kerouac's Underwood typewriter where he banged out his infamous tales. The pictures and news clippings that correlate with the text are excellent and are rarely seen elsewhere. The text itself is easily readable and detailed enough to where you get a good feel for the `characters' without being overly bogged down with excruciating detail. By the end of the book you will feel as though you are familiar with the sequence of his life, his works, inspirational sources, and the people who played crucial roles in the shaping of his life.

I happened to dust this book off last night from my bookshelf after rereading Vanity of Dulouz for the first time in about 7 years. It was surprising to find out how much Kerouac bends the events of his life in his novels to make himself come out just a little bit sweeter. They are not as autobiographical as we all like to think. For example, Kerouac mentions in his book that his wife Johnnie (real name Frankie Edith or Edie) was unable to get pregnant due to fertility issues, and that was the reason they never had children. Turner, however, claims in A.H.H. that Edie got an abortion while Kerouac was shipped off to sea. There are a lot of other inconsistencies I found between this biography and the works of Kerouac but I am not going to bore the reader with them in this review and stick to the subject at hand. I highly recommend this book for both a Beat afficinado and a Beat beginner.

A quick, poignant introduction to Kerouac
Great photos, nice text.This isn't the book for the hardcore fan of Kerouac or the Beats, but for someone like me, who really enjoys spending a few hours with those boys now and then.You can whiff the Beat cigarettes, sexism, and excitment in these pages.But you also learn about the depressive, conservative, and finally alcoholic side of Kerouac.I'm glad I bought this book, and I would recommend it to most.

all right overview
If you are new to the Beats, this is a pretty good overview of them.Things that make this book stand out are the pictures, which are not all the usual ones, and the "where are they now" section in the backof the book.But really, could it hurt to do a bit more editing?I mean,I found several typos, and, according to this book, Jan Kerouac died in1966, three years before her father....

A Visual Delight
I have to admit, I'm a beat-freak.And I suppose when we think of Beats, we automatically think of Jack Kerouac (or Ginsberg or Borroughs)--I know I think of Jack.JACK KEROUAC: ANGELHEADED HIPSTER was a great find on mypart.It's a rich visual biography of Kerouac.The book houses a montageof beautiful pictures of Jack, et. al, and is designed in a very aestheticway--the typeface is supposed to remind us that typewriters did exist backthen (I guess they still do, but their not as popular).I liked the bookbest for it's the photographs Kerouac. The text is not that hard to read,but if you're looking for more substance about Jack, I recommend you buyanother Kerouac biography.The book does give you a sense, nonetheless, ofwho this legendary man was. For folks that want to see the man the bookcalls "The James Dean of the Typewriter," this book is the onefor you.I found myself flipping through the book day-dreaming about beingwith him during such a revolutionary, exciting, and historic period. (Isuppose it was just my luck that I was born two decades too late.)Thiswould be a great addition to anyone's collection. ... Read more

Product Description
This study of the cult literary figure, Jack Kerouac gives an insight into the writer's frustrations and the critical hostility his work received.;"On the Road" epitomized the freewheeling, rebellious nature of the Woodstock generation andKerouac was heralded as the daddy of the "Beats". Yet, at the time of his death he was drunk, broke and living with hismother.;Despite the novel's cult status, Kerouac suffered from a growing weariness with the publishers' rejections, andfelt frustrated by the critical hostility which greeted itseventual publication. His optimism for the freedom of a bohemian lifestyle was gradually displaced. Finally it evaporated in the realization of the Buddhist truth that all life issuffering.;Interest in his work and life continues. The USD91dollars he left to his mother at his death has metamorphised into an estate worth USD10 million which has provoked a fierce custody debate. The fight, between his only daughter and his wife's relatives, includes the rights to some unpublished material, which Kerouac scholars have deemed priceless.;This biography offers an account of a man whose iconic status remains undiminished.The author has also written "Van Morris ... Read more

Product Description
Through careful analysis of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Omar Swartz argues that Kerouac's influence on American society is largely rhetorical. Kerouac's significance as a cultural icon can be best understood, Swartz asserts, in terms of traditional rhetorical practices and principles.

To Swartz, Kerouac is a rhetor who symbolically reconstructs his world and offers arguments and encouragements for others to follow.Swartz proposes that On the Road constitutes a "rhetorical vision," a reality-defining discourse suggesting alternative possibilities for growth and change. Swartz asserts that the reader of Kerouac's On the Road becomes capable of responding to the larger, confusing culture in a strategic manner. Kerouac's rhetorical vision of an alternative social and cultural reality contributes to the identity of localized cultures within the United States. ... Read more

Product Description
No Pie In The Sky examines the treatment of the hobo in the works of Jack London, John Dos Passos and Jack Kerouac. London saw the hobo as a dispossessed worker, an inevitable by-product of capitalism, but his tone is buoyant and hopeful. He believes that Socialism's triumph will bring an end to the injustice of the capitalist system.Dos Passos' tone is pessimistic and elegiac as he chronicles the defeat of the hoboes; union; the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the triumph of the money machine.Flight is the dominant motif in Kerouac, as big government, big business and big unions impose a stultifying conformity. Faced with atomic annihilation, his hoboes turn inward, seeking refuge in Zen Buddhism and the built-in bomb shelter of the human psyche.

Product Description
While a legend has developed about the man Jack Kerouac, there has not been a thorough study of what he wrote. This is the first book to explore his place in American literature by establishing the total design of his work. Regina Weinreich contends that Kerouac wrote with this “grand design” in mind: that he thought of his works as “one vast book” a “Divine Comedy of Buddha” that he called The Legend of Duluoz. The nature of Kerouac’s “spontaneous bop prosody” is discussed in relation to the work of Thomas Wolfe and Henry Miller. Kerouac compared his “loose style” to that of a jazz horn-player sounding one long note. While this explains Kerouac’s method, Weinreich seeks further to define the unity of his works, from The Town and the City, On the Road, and Visions of Cody to Desolation Angels and Vanity of Duluoz, which she argues brings the legend full circle. “Regina Weinreich draws together the threads of artistic influences that ultimately define Jack’s writing....”—William Burroughs “Regina Weinreich has done Kerouac’s work the long overdue favor of the attention of a first rate mind....”—John Clellon Holmes ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best book Kerouac related book I've ever read.
For what it's worth, I've read all of Kerouac's books. And I've read at least a dozen books ABOUT Kerouac. "Kerouac's Spontaneous Poetics" by R. Weinreich is by far the best. Reading it was the turning point for me because it opened my eyes to what's most essential about Kerouac, his writing.Now hardly a month goes by that I don't reread parts of this book. I've enjoyed and learned from every single page.What makes it better than the rest is that it's about Kerouac's WRITING more than his life. And that has made all the difference.
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Product Description
This anthology of twenty-four short stories by 15 American writers is the first of its kind; never before has a collection been devoted entirely to Mexico as it appears in American short fiction.

Includes stories by William Cullen Briant * Stephen Crane * John Reed * Jack London * Charles Flandrau * Katherine Anne Porter * William Spratling * Edna Ferber * John Graves * Jan Gabrial * Jack Kerouac * Margaret Shedd * Edmund J. Robins * Eugene K. Garber * Dorothy Teft and Carolyn Osborne ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fabulous cross cultural reading experience
Edward Simmen, an English professor at the Universidad de las Americas-Puebla (in Mexico), edited this fantastic collection of short stories whose common thread is that of American authors writing aboutMexican settings.The period covered by the stories ranges from 1850 to1960 Mexico.If you are a Mexican or Latino reader trying to grasp howAmerican writers have depicted Mexico through the years, or you are anAmerican trying to figure out what to expect south of the border, this bookis a must read.I had it at a seminar with Prof. Simmen himself, and I canhardly forget a more joyful and illuminating cross cultural readingexperience...You will enjoy the trip, one way or the other. ... Read more

Product Description
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of On the Road, the defining book of the Beat Generation. Jack Kerouac wrote his masterpiece in one frenzied three-week period in 1951 on the infamous 119-foot scroll, which has been "on the road" touring the nation since 2004, slated to continue on through spring 2008. The scroll will also be published in its original, unedited version in book form for the very first time in 2007.

Tying into the anniversary and the resurgence of the Beat movement in our collective cultural consciousness is our lavishly illustrated book The Beats, a spectacular record of that most explosive period, when the conservative blandness of '50s America gave way to the artistic, social, and sexual liberation of the '60s. With over 200 illustrations, many rarely seen before, the book tells the story of the Beat Generation from its subterranean beginnings in New York and San Francisco to world-wide acclaim. Set against the backdrop of seedy student pads, smoky jazz cellars, and--most crucially--the open road, it's a story of a rebellion that challenged society's attitudes towards sex, drugs, and freedom of speech.

Following the turbulent saga of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and the other Beats via reckless love affairs, obscenity trials, murder cases, and press vilification, to media celebrity and the "Beatnik" craze that followed, their story represents the evolution of the counterculture from hipsters to hippies. Featuring a wealth of first-hand quotes, archive documentation, and exclusive interview material with Beat wife, muse, and chronicler Carolyn Cassady, The Beats is a timely celebration of a seminal--and often neglected--era in modern popular culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Conversation Piece
A fine introduction/overview of The Beats and their influence on the literary and cultural landscape of America (and beyond). Great pictures. Belongs on the coffee table. A conversation piece. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

For Academia
That Michael Hrebeniak knows his material is undeniable.That he is also part of the forces of academia and publicity that he explains plagued Jack Kerouac is also undeniable.That he is unaware of this irony is likely also undeniable, given that he never mentions it.This irony runs through Action Writing: Jack Kerouac's Wild Form, as Hrebeniak talks about how beats, like Kerouac, disliked the way academia and popular culture seized their works, and those of their predecessors.Works that once fought against society become common topics in the dominant culture, and the subject of academic works like this book.

In a way, Action Writing: Jack Kerouac's Wild Form is not original as a book, being like any academic paper, made of a whole string of closely packed quotes from previous efforts of others and the novels it discusses.That it reveals the interrelated nature of those works, as influences of Kerouac's style is Hrebeniak's true purpose.However, he spends little time explaining these references, meaning that readers will need background in various areas, such as the books and philosophers mentioned within.I will personally point out that the fellaheen mentioned frequently are simply the Egyptian peasant class.What exactly the beats also meant in mentioning them is not directly stated, any more than the word origin I mentioned.

This book would be best used in a classroom setting, where the general subject area can be covered, in terms of beat writings and American history.It is not meant to teach the reader how to emulate Kerouac's style of action writing, meaning only to contextualize it, and compare it to its times and peers.What Hrebeniak does is find Kerouac's place in the long line of literature and philosophical tradition, as well as history, with references to his ideological borrowing from such diverse sources as the obvious jazz and Buddhism, but also Wolfe, James Joyce, Rousseau, Nietze, as well as Aristotle and many others.So many come up, that the book almost becomes a word salad, jumbled with names, theories, styles, Freud, space-time, cinematography, elegant overarching themes, masculinity, all percolated, Hrebeniak claims, through the mind of Kerouac, as he contemplated Neal Cassidy while on marijuana.

Generally, the main problem I would cite with this book is that it is rather a bit too dense for casual reading.It is very much an academic book, both in terms of literary criticism, and a historical account of Kerouac and his writing environment.This is problematic, of course, in that the author who is the topic, Kerouac, found this kind of analysis dreary, according to Hrebeniak, even.On the plus side, Hrebeniak does well in not completely shying away from problematic features of Kerouac's works, spending some time on the implications of his opinions and depictions of women and various sexual topics and actions.I recommend it, again, for classes on modern American literature, beats, hippies, postwar American suburbia or the cold war.
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Product Description
With this fascinating new book, Jim Jones debunks many of the myths surrounding the life and times of Jack Kerouac. Jones concentrates on those whose lives were most affected by Kerouac: daughter Jan Kerouac, wives Edie Parker, Joan Haverty, and Stella Sampac, as well as nephew Paul Blake Jr. Use My Name: Jack Kerouac's Forgotten Families takes its title from advice given to Jan during her second and final meeting with Jack, who encouraged her to profit from the surname she shared with the famous author of On the Road. Sadly, not one of these individuals so closely tied to Kerouac seems to have benefited from the connection, as Jones discovers in his in-depth interview with Jan. She discusses at length her 15 months as a prostitute, her own divorces, her hospitalization, and her life as an author, including a wild European book tour for Baby Driver. Although Kerouac is one of the most "biographied" American writers of our time, Jones offers a new perspective on the King of the Beats and his generation, one in which formerly marginalized figures in the Kerouac story-particularly women-become strong, central characters. He also exposes the cut-throat wheeling and dealing that has plagued the Kerouac estate and that continues today as the various players do battle over the legacy of one of the counterculture's biggest idols. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not worth paper printed on
This is perhaps the worst book I ever was forced to read. Luckily, I didn't pay full price. This is a highly problematic book, ethically, structurally, and intellectually.

First, it is absolutely not scholarly, despite its self-promotion. There are no footnotes or bibliography and very little original research except some interviews with Jan Kerouac which she apparently asked him not to use. He mostly just summarizes other biographies without referencing them. It would be considered plagiarism in most college classrooms. Any serious student or researcher can feel free to ignore this book.

Second, it is extremely poorly written.Jones tries to milk about twenty pages of material into a whole book.He frequently re-tells the same story or one liner over and over again.He even plagiarizes himself.In the last paragraph of the second-to-last chapter, he admits to "repeating the description of some events as many as five times."One example is that Chapter 8 is a re-wording of Chapter 7, nothing new.Apparently, proofreading and editing were not among his talents and no editor wanted to touch it. The worst part of the repetition is that he tells you the best parts in the first chapter, making the rest of the book boring.

Third, while the author occasionally pretends to be weighing "evidence," his bias, especially against Jan Kerouac (and in favor of the Sampas family who he takes pains not to offend), is blatant and even creepy. Since the Sampas family had not yet released Kerouac's archive when the author wrote the book, it is easy to surmise he dared not offend this family less his access be denied for any future project. He trashes Gerald Nicosia (the mortal enemy of the Sampas family) each chance he gets, despite the fact that Nicosia is considered a reputable scholar. Too much personal stuff creeps into this book and the unsuspecting reader comes out with a biased, tabloid-like picture.

Fourth, there is another serious ethical issue here that Jones pretends to show some awareness of when he calls himself a "parasite." That is, after Jan Kerouac decides that she doesn't want material used from an interview the night before (during which he coaxed her to discuss a brief period of prostitution in her life) he leaves with the tapes anyway and bases most of the book on them.Since she never signed releases (required by universities when doing oral history and considered the only ethical procedure), it is highly problematic.Of course, he waits until she dies to use this material. But the ethical dilemma does not die with Jan Kerouac. Jones bases so much of the book on 7 hours of interviews that he seems like a vulture picking at her body and memory.I felt so uncomfortable reading this over and over and over.

To the Kerouac fans, there isn't really anything new here. I only recommend this book if you have read absolutely everything else and need another Kerouac-related fix.But warn that you might feel dirty after reading this one.

Good, but perhaps a bit too opinionated....
Basic overview of the author's relationship to Jan Kerouac - he interviewed her to do her biography, this went all right for a while and she decided she did not like him anymore.Seems to be no real reason for this but it happened anyway.Jones does not seem hurt by this and still sees Kerouac as an interesting and worthy subject.

I think this is an interesting area not tapped into very much, since Jan and Jack had no relationship whatsoever, though anyone who has read her books can tell that he had a major impact on her life.It is hard enough to have an absent father.Make that father Jack Kerouac and it gets even more difficult.What I found even more interesting is the interviews with Jack's nephew, who I have never seen anything written up on before this book, which is probably because he seems to be a pleasant and well adjusted fellow who had a good and healthy relationship with his uncle, but still interesting to read about here nonetheless. As for Jan, it is hard to take what she says at face value, since she seems to have forgotten a lot of what she says has happened to her or changes it from time to time.But I don't know how much of that might be because it didn't happen quite as she either remembered it at the time of interviewing or writing her books or whether it was just the effects of all she had done in her life.But overall that didn't really matter, the reader really gets the essence of who Jan Kerouac was in this book. She was far more rebellious than her father ever was and far more wild.Her mother couldn't control her and it doesn't sound as if she really tried. So whether small details are true or not seems unimportant when looking at her overall life.She was a tough lady who, sadly, had a lot of problems with drugs, alcohol, and men.

I had some issues with the author using this book as a way to make a case for the Sampas family.While I do agree that they take some unnecessary flack from people in general, the author uses having a book published on Jan Kerouac to go on and on about the politics surrounding Jan and the Sampas family. While I think this info. is definitely helpful, there really are two sides to every story and Jones goes on and on ad naseum about how wonderful and benevolent the Sampas family are and how they are really the victims while Gerald Nicosia is a big bad evil person exploiting Jan and her famous father. I am not saying he couldn't be right, only that, despite what the author suggests, both sides probably have good points. And I must admit that it bothers me that, in writing a book about how strong Jan Kerouac was in spite of those pesky human vulnerabilities, he makes her out to be a victim in the end.His book discusses how she would not allow men to take advantage of her and how she was overall a strong sort of person, and then, in taking up his crusade against Gerald Nicosia, he completely turns around and discusses how Nicosia manipulated her and turned her into a total victim.Hmmm.Mostly it just left me wondering at Jones's point - did he write the book to give insight into Jan's life, or to take sides in a legal battle?

Kerouac's forgotten families
well it certainly was an eye opener to greed and what a messed up family they were........ to bad to bad about alot of things huh ... but still a good book for any kerouac fanatic ... a good thing to have in yourcollection on kerouac

a necessary probe of relationships,& dependencies
I hope to meet author at 12th annual Lowell Celebrates Jack Kerouac Days in Lowell---early October...discuss his forthcoming related title- ... Read more