Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jack Kerouac(1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.
Ann Charters is the editor of The Portable Sixties Reader, The Portable Jack Kerouac, two volumes of Jack Kerouac's Selected Letters, and Beat Down to Your Soul. She teaches at the University of Connecticut.

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Kerouac

Penguin Books

Chapter One

1957

By the first week of January 1957, while living at his sister Caroline's new housein Orlando, Florida, Kerouac had put what he considered the finishing touches onOn the Road for his editors Malcolm Cowley and Keith Jennison at the VikingPress. Concerned about the possibiliy of obscenity and libel suits, theft had insistedthat Kerouac revise the book before theft signed a contract, Working on the porchwhere his sister had set up his typewriter on his old rolltop desk, Jack also retypedpages of The Subterraneans and completed the typescript of a new novel, Deso-lation Angels.

    In a creative fever Kerouac had completed eleven books of prose and poetry in thelast six years, chapters of what he called "the endless Duluoz Legend," the writtenrecord of his life. When Howl and Other Poems was published in May 1956, AllenGinsberg listed the titles in his dedication of the book to Neal Cassady, William S.Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac, "new Buddha of American prose, who spit forthintelligence into eleven books written in half the number of years (1951-1956)-0n theRoad, Visions of Neal, Dr Sax, Springtime Mary, The Subterraneans, San FranciscoBlues, Some of the Dharma, Book of Dreams, Wake Up, Mexico City Blues, and Visions ofGerard-creating a spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature.... Allthese books are published in Heaven." Now it was time for Kerouac's manuscripts,written "in desolation & solitude," as he told his friend Helen Weaver, to bepublished on earth.

     During the early days of 1957, Jack wrote two anxious letters to his agent,Sterling Lord, with detailed instructions about handling his manuscripts. Lordhad loaned Kewouac forty dollars against his Viking advance to buff Christmaspresents for his family. When Jack couldn't get another loan fom his agent to payfor a bus ticket to New York City so that he could deliver On the Road to his editorsat Viking and sign a contract for the book, his mother, Gabrielle, gave himthe fare.

TO STERLING LORD

[Card postmarked January 1, 1957
Orlando, Florida]

    I understand how you're low-fortunately I'll get fare from G.-the ms.of ROAD is all ready for the printer, please tell Keith and Malcolm to havecomplete confidence in the libel-clearing thorough job I did on it ... theywill be pleased ... I imagine they'll want to see it first, I'll show it them onJan. 8 ... I am typing up the new novel DESOLATION ANGELS1 (rich,good) ... Have you located "cityCityCITY" and TRISTESSA mss.? I haveto add to them .... Till I see you, as ever,

Jack

TO STERLING LORD

Sat Jan. 5, 1957
[Orlando, Florida]

     Would you please take my 7000-word piece JOAN RAWSHANKS INTHE FOG3 out of the file and mail it to Michael Grieg, PAPERBACK EDITIONS LIMITED,1133 De Haro Street, San Francisco 10, Calif.

    Enclosed are the stamps he sent me.

    And make it clear to him that when he's finished with the typescriptcopy to mail it pronto back to you (altho I have the original in the mainMS of VISIONS OF NEAL novel).

    Although he doesnt pay anything, it will be good to get a piece of V OFNEAL published and start it a-rolling.

    And as I understand it, we can always sell JOAN RAWSHANKS afterwards anyway.Tell him not to copyright it under anything but my name, ofcourse.

    I will be in to see you Tuesday [January] 8th, late afternoon, to join newaddition to TRISTESSA and discuss Viking contract with you, and I'll haveprepared MS of ROAD with me in a suitcase, along with other new MSS.SUBTERRANEANS is all ready for Don Allen ... it is 173 pages long, at300 words per page, therefore it is no less than 50,000 words long and soworth $500 at lca word, tell Barney Rosset.

Till I see you,
As ever,
Jack

While in Florida, Kerouac dropped postcards to his girlfriend Helen Weaver andthe editor Donald Allen at Grove Press. Jack had moved into Helen's apartmentin Greenwich Fillage after Thanksgiving 1956, and stayed with her until returningto his family in Orlando on December 20. In the last days of 1956 he ex-changed several cards and letters with Helen, describing his Christmas, when hehad '?aced on bicycles with young nephew to go buy his present, which was ElvisPresley album, and he takes his banjo and closes his eyes and imitates Elvis to aT... all the little boys love him.... so I was right about his singing like littleboys."

TO HELEN WEAVER

[Card postmarked January 5, 1957
Orlando, Florida]

    Dear Helen .... Will be home, call you, probably Wednesday .... Re-ceived your gone letter and Greg's [Corso's] note .... Glad to hear of vari-ous good times you had Xrnas and NY's eve .... Funny about yr. daddigging Screamin Jay [Hawkins].5... Tho I'm sposed to be a lazy bum Ihavent done anything for the last 12 days hut rattle this typewriter day andnight tryna catch up with my wild handscripts writ in desolation & solitude ....money in the future bank for logs on the fire and scotch & sodaand the late show and you in my fleecy arms .... Incidentally we are invitedto a weekend in Old Saybrook, Conn. dont forget in a big victorian houseoer topped by great old trees and with fireplace and jazz and toddies andwonderful couple Johnny & Shirley Holmes so save a January weekend forthat, you and me and Pete [Orlovsky] and Allen [Ginsberg] .... I got niceletter from Don Allen, he is swell .... also a pretty Xmas card from Englishpublishers, apparently Bob Giroux wrote them I was back .... (Eyre [&]Spottiswoode).... I hope yr. 33 speed [phonograph] is fixt, I'm bringingback Chet Baker.7 LOVE N'craint pas ... Je t'aime.... Oui ... X X X Jean.

TO DONALD ALLEN

[Postmarked January 5, 1957
Orlando, Florida]

    Your letter most charming, unexpected, & welcome.8 Working like a dogdown here trying to get those 2 new mss. typed up and ready. I'll be overto your place (call first) I believe Tuesday Jan. 8 in the afternoon and withme I'll have a suitcase containing six manuscripts some of them huge ...VISIONS OF NEAL (novel), DESOLATION ANGELS (novel), BOOK OFBLUES (poems long and short), BOOK OF DREAMS (long dream diarywritten in my "spontaneous prose" & quite rich), SOME OF THEDHARMA (a Pascal-Pensees of Buddhism probably more important thanPascal's and almost as well written), and TRISTESSA (novel, fairlyshort) .... You can peruse them at yr. leisure while I'm in NY and after I'mgone, it'll just be a question of...