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Jack Kerouac Dear Carolyn - Letters to Carolyn Cassady
Jack Kerouac Dear Carolyn - Letters to Carolyn Arthur and Kit Jack Kerouac Dear Carolyn - Letters to Carolyn Unspeakable FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Unspeakable Visions, 1983. Octavo. Paperback. Book is very good. Great copy of this biographical title. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 349983 Biography & Letters We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
- GenresPoetry
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
89 people want to read
About the author
Jack Kerouac
377 books11.7k followersJean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian ancestry, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marine; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.
Kerouac is recognized for his style of stream of consciousness spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City, Buddhism, drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. He has a lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jerry Garcia and The Doors.
In 1969, at the age of 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published.
Of French-Canadian ancestry, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marine; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.
Kerouac is recognized for his style of stream of consciousness spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City, Buddhism, drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. He has a lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jerry Garcia and The Doors.
In 1969, at the age of 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 25, 2022
This is a pretty neat chapbook containing some fascinating letters from JK to Neal Cassady's wife, Carolyn Cassady. Kerouac and Carolyn had a romantic relationship in the earlier days (as Neal used to say "my best pal and my best gal") but their relationship becomes slowly and increasingly strained over the years, especially due to Kerouac's paranoiac and drunken behavior, which accelerated into a terrifying rapid decline after his On the Road success, but nevertheless they still kept in touch through letters or later, over the phone.
What is interesting is here you see Kerouac's convictions and faith in Neal's writing abilities, including his assessments of "The Joan Anderson Letter" which was only found about 10 years ago and only published quite recently. Jack says "he [Neal] was better than I ever was" in reference to this letter, but the reason Kerouac is a famous writer, whereas Neal is a famous figure of the Beat Generation, is Kerouac's dedication to his craft as a writer and just good ol' hard work.
Without giving too much away, read this if you are interested in Kerouac or the beats - Ginsberg, Corso, McClure and others are briefly mentioned in some of the letters - so if you are into the beats, you can't go wrong with this small chapbook. The only thing I would have liked to see is Carolyn's reply to some of these letters.
What is interesting is here you see Kerouac's convictions and faith in Neal's writing abilities, including his assessments of "The Joan Anderson Letter" which was only found about 10 years ago and only published quite recently. Jack says "he [Neal] was better than I ever was" in reference to this letter, but the reason Kerouac is a famous writer, whereas Neal is a famous figure of the Beat Generation, is Kerouac's dedication to his craft as a writer and just good ol' hard work.
Without giving too much away, read this if you are interested in Kerouac or the beats - Ginsberg, Corso, McClure and others are briefly mentioned in some of the letters - so if you are into the beats, you can't go wrong with this small chapbook. The only thing I would have liked to see is Carolyn's reply to some of these letters.
Displaying 1 of 1 review