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Visitor: Jack Kerouac in Old Saybrook
20 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1980
28 people want to read
About the author
John Clellon Holmes
24 books51 followersJohn Clellon Holmes, born in Holyoke Massachusetts, was an author, poet and professor, best known for his 1952 novel Go. Go is considered the first "Beat" novel, and depicted events in his life with friends Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. He was often referred to as the "quiet Beat," and was one of Kerouac's closest friends. He also wrote what is considered the definitive jazz novel of the Beat Generation, The Horn.
Holmes was more an observer and documenter of beat characters like Ginsberg, Cassidy and Kerouac than one of them. He asked Ginsberg for "any and all information on your poetry and your visions" (shortly before Ginsberg's admission into hospital) saying that "I am interested in knowing also anything you may wish to tell... about Neal, Huncke, Lucien in relation to you..." (referring to Herbert Huncke and Lucien Carr), to which Ginsberg replied with an 11-page letter detailing, as completely as he could, the nature of his "divine vision".
The origin of the term beat being applied to a generation was conceived by Jack Kerouac who told Holmes "You know, this is really a Beat Generation." The term later became part of common parlance when Holmes published an article in The New York Times Magazine entitled "This Is the Beat Generation" on November 16, 1952 (pg.10). In the article Holmes attributes the term to Kerouac, who had acquired the idea from Herbert Huncke. Holmes came to the conclusion that the values and ambitions of the Beat Generation were symbolic of something bigger, which was the inspiration for Go.
Later in life, Holmes taught at the University of Arkansas, lectured at Yale and gave workshops at Brown University. He died of cancer in 1988, 18 days after his 62nd birthday.
Holmes was more an observer and documenter of beat characters like Ginsberg, Cassidy and Kerouac than one of them. He asked Ginsberg for "any and all information on your poetry and your visions" (shortly before Ginsberg's admission into hospital) saying that "I am interested in knowing also anything you may wish to tell... about Neal, Huncke, Lucien in relation to you..." (referring to Herbert Huncke and Lucien Carr), to which Ginsberg replied with an 11-page letter detailing, as completely as he could, the nature of his "divine vision".
The origin of the term beat being applied to a generation was conceived by Jack Kerouac who told Holmes "You know, this is really a Beat Generation." The term later became part of common parlance when Holmes published an article in The New York Times Magazine entitled "This Is the Beat Generation" on November 16, 1952 (pg.10). In the article Holmes attributes the term to Kerouac, who had acquired the idea from Herbert Huncke. Holmes came to the conclusion that the values and ambitions of the Beat Generation were symbolic of something bigger, which was the inspiration for Go.
Later in life, Holmes taught at the University of Arkansas, lectured at Yale and gave workshops at Brown University. He died of cancer in 1988, 18 days after his 62nd birthday.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 5, 2019
A very short chapbook, but a great, quick read. It consists of four journal entries written by Holmes, presented (for the most part) entirely unedited, with little contextual paragraph written between each.
The first three entries from 1957, '62, and '65 detail visits Kerouac made to the Holmeses' house in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and the final, written on October 21, 1969, reflects Holmes's immediate thoughts upon hearing about Kerouac's death.
All in all this is an interesting, sensitive take on the brotherly relationship between two very different people who, regardless of their deep differences and frequent clashes, loved and influenced one another very much throughout their adult lives.
This quote, from the final page, sums it up:
"Well, if love is total involvement, deep emotional clairvoyance about the other's soul, fury & hunger all intermixed, he was the only man I've ever loved. He changed my life irrevocably." (p. 20)
The first three entries from 1957, '62, and '65 detail visits Kerouac made to the Holmeses' house in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and the final, written on October 21, 1969, reflects Holmes's immediate thoughts upon hearing about Kerouac's death.
All in all this is an interesting, sensitive take on the brotherly relationship between two very different people who, regardless of their deep differences and frequent clashes, loved and influenced one another very much throughout their adult lives.
This quote, from the final page, sums it up:
"Well, if love is total involvement, deep emotional clairvoyance about the other's soul, fury & hunger all intermixed, he was the only man I've ever loved. He changed my life irrevocably." (p. 20)
Displaying 1 of 1 review