I have come very late to Jack Kerouac, but I’m getting there.
On the Road lies buried beneath piles of unfinished books, to be exhumed eventually.
And that exhumation will happen much sooner thanks to the publication of Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954, now out in paperback.
We witness Kerouac in his early to mid twenties, working (on and off) on Town & the City, the immediate predecessor of On the Road. And later, we’ll see him working on that masterpiece itself. (I put that in future tense because I’m about 25% finished.)
Along the way are doubts, assurance, drop-ins from a crazed Allen Ginsberg, careful note of how many thousand words of new prose each day brought.
It’s refreshing to see that every writer has his or her own heavens and hells to negotiate.
Bob — your website is wonderful. I was happy to see a bundle of your books up for sale at fictionwise.com and now to find your new site courtesy of hellnotes.com.
This is a great entry; clearly you’ve got a musical spirit, judging from your prose style alone. And I hope your reading of the Beats is renewing. Once you’ve had your fill, you might try out Nick Mamatas’ Move Under Ground — it’s Cthulhu meets Kerouac and a pretty great read.
Cheers,
Mike Arnzen
Hey, Mike. Pleased to see you at fictionwise.com too, and quite a presence you have there!
Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll check it out.