Product Description
A beautifully illustrated portrait of Beat icons Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen and the years in the Cascades high country that shaped their lives and work.

This is John Suiter's first book, and it evolved from a magazine assignment that took him to Jack Kerouac's remote fire lookout on Desolation Peak on the fortieth anniversary of the publication of The Dharma Bums. For two weeks in the summer of 1995, Suiter-an East Coast city-dweller all his life-lived in Kerouac's still-standing fire lookout, making photographs for his magazine project. Meanwhile, the awesome beauty and profound solitude of the surrounding North Cascades worked their magic-as it had for Kerouac and countless others since.

In 1996, Suiter met the poets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen, who had also worked as fire lookouts on peaks in the North Cascades in the 1950s. It had been Snyder-the real-life model for Kerouac's fictive "Japhy Ryder"-who had first come into the Upper Skagit country as a fire lookout in 1952 and blazed the way for Whalen and Kerouac to follow. Suiter returned to the North Cascades during the next few summers for further shooting-hikes on Crater, Sourdough, and Sauk mountains. Illustrated with thirty-five beautiful photographs, Poets on the Peaks tells how the solitary mountain adventures of three young men helped to form the literary, spiritual, and environmental values of a generation.

Based on scores of previously unpublished letters and journals, plus recent interviews with Snyder and Whalen and several others, Poets on the Peaks creates a group portrait of Kerouac, Snyder, and Whalen that transcends the tired urban clichés of the "Beat" life. Poets on the Peaks is about the development of a community of poets, including the famous Six Gallery reading of October 1955, and contains unexpected cameos by fellow poets and mountain-climbers Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth, Philip Lamantia, and Michael McClure. Poets on the Peaks is also a book about Dharma and the years of Dharma Bums--from the 1951 roadside revelation in the Nevada desert that led Gary Snyder to drop out of academia and head for Japan, to Kerouac's lonely vigil with The Diamond Sutra on Desolation Peak, to Philip Whalen's ordination as a Zen priest. Finally, Poets on the Peaks is the story of the birth of a wilderness ethic, as well as a photographic homage to the Cascades landscape, a landscape virtually unchanged since these men journeyed there thanks to the environmental protections they helped inspire. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Calling all Beats!

John Suiter's "Poets on the Peaks" is a must have.
Thank you.

The sources of "The Dharma Bums" & more
This is the perfect companion to Jack Kerouac's classic novel, offering a wealth of information, fascinating stories, and gorgeous photographs about the world chronicled in that novel's pages. But it offers so much more -- a richer understanding of Gary Snyder & Philip Whalen, as well as their poetic work, and an in-depth look at the times & experiences that shaped all three writers. There are countless books about the Beats, many of them quite good indeed ... but this is surely one of the best. The author truly knows & loves his subjects, without being blinded by any need for glossy hagiography. It's as honest a book as you'll find about these three remarkable men & their times. A very enthusiastic recommendation!

Beat Beginnings:The right place at the right time...
John Suiter's work on the founding fathers of Beat poetry and prose is a marvelous read. Suiter takes us along the trail through post war America and ties together the Beat poets, Jack Kerouac, McCarthyism, San Francisco and the North Cascades Forest Service Fire Lookout system of the 1950's. Imagine the poet/Zen Buddhist Gary Snyder being blacklisted from working for the Forest Service! Do you want to know how Jack Kerouac got the idea for his Dharma Bums work? What was it like spending a month and a half completely alone on top of a mountain in the Pacific Northwest, looking for the telltale smoke of a developing forest fire? Do you know what a "lightning stool" is, what you do with it and would you like to see a photograph of one? What was it like being at the famous Six Gallery poetry reading in 1955 when Allen Ginsberg first read "Howl"? If these questions interest you, or if you want to know about the origins of Beat writings-this is the book to get. Author Suiter launches the reader awaythrough Old Mexico to visit with young Robert Mitchum as Christ in a glass coffin and William "Junky" Burroughs, up through Yosemite to camp with Kerouac and Snyder, a stop in San Francisco at City Lights Bookstore and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and finally Japan and Hozomeen, and the Void from Desolation. A delightful Masterpiece of fact and photographs!

Covers beautiful Cascade Mountain scenes and peaks
Writer-photographer Suiter provides a literary portrait of Beat era poets Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac in Poets On The Peaks, which centers around their early experiences as fire lookouts in the 1950s. As such, Poets On The Peaks provides a hard book to easily categorize: it covers beautiful Cascade Mountain scenes and peaks, fire lookouts, and literature and biography alike. The writings of these three juxtapose nicely with the photos and images, making this a recommended gift choice for the holiday season.

Significant contribution to literature on early Beats
In his first book, John Suiter has produced a work that contributes significantly to the literature on early development of the Beat literary movement and to understanding the disparate characters of Snyder, Whalen, and Kerouac.Using the common experience of all three men serving as fire lookouts in the Northern Cascades in the early to mid 1950's, the author evokes portraits of how each writer was influenced by wilderness and the isolation of a fire lookout, and how each used the experience in his work.Drawing from recent interviews with Snyder and Whalen and others who knew them during the early 1950's, from previously unpublished letters and journals, and from extensive close readings of all three writers, the author crafts a portrait of the evolution of a literary movement, of a wilderness ethic, and perhaps unintentionally, the devolution of Kerouac contrasted against the focus and dedication of Snyder and Whalen.The book is illustrated with photographs of the fire lookouts and their locales. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Since 1836, children have been delighted by these volumes filled with exotic adventures, exciting stories, beautiful poems, and funny fables. The Fifth Eclectic Reader includes selections from Washington Irving, Daniel Webster, Charles Dickens, Samuel Johnson, and Bret Harte. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful reading program
I purchased the first two readers and after reading through them decided to buy the rest of the series. This is a wonderful reading program and my two children, ages 6 & 8, love reading these short little stories. Both of my children are good readers so we use the readers to increase their fluency and for me to "test" them by having them read out loud to me. They enjoy reading to Mamma and I enjoy hearing them progress in their reading ability. I also love the life lessons that the children are reading about and appreciate the fact that they are reading some profitable, substantial material instead of much of the "fluff" reading that is available at the library. ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 3155. ... Read more

Product Description
Poetry. Written in 1961, Whalen said of GOOFBOOK: "A book for Jack, saying whatever I want to say, whatever I feel like saying". A lost masterpiece--letter, poem, book--by the great beat Zen poet Philip Whalen documenting the intimate friendship between Whalen and Jack Kerouac. From the Editor's Note: "Michael: I am getting ready to publish GOOFBOOK. Is there anything you want me to add or say?" "Philip: This is a private letter that fell into the wrong hands. It should never be published. But if you have to do it then that's that." "Michael: I hate to think of myself as the wrong hands." "Philip: I was speaking metaphysically." Cover photo: Philip Whalen and Jack Kerouac (back cover) by Walter Lehrman. Edited by Michael Rothenberg. ... Read more