Jack Kerouac Books

Finally, a scholar has dug through the pop culture mud of the Beats to bedrock below: They weren't just citified tea-heads as Life magazine in the Fifties (and too many academics since) would have us believe. These writers were deeply tuned into the natural world and drew upon it for inspiration and some of their best writing--even the seemingly most urban of the lot--Kerouac. Case and point: Kerouac's "greening" in "Dharma Bums." Phillips' discussion of this novel is especially astute; and it sent me digging for my old copy. Similarly, Phillips' treatment of the Beats and Buddhism (Snyder in particular) is also refreshingly clear and original--not an easy thing to do. Phillips' research, including interviews with McClure, Welch and Snyder, is thorough and convincing. Moreover, his prose is sharp and unencumbered with trendy jargon. I predict Beat scholars will reconsider certain assumptions upon reading this book--and Beat fans will find this to be a unique and excellent addition to the ever-growing Beat canon.

Wow- what a book. This book sheds new light on a topic I feel has already been covered. Phillips' personal interviews are fantastic. I would love to have Phillips for a professor, wait- I do. Phillips is the man, and so is his book. If you are reading this Dr. Phillips can I have a 4.0? You know who I am!

The author sheds light on a side of the beat culture
which has been ignored by the mass media for far too
long. Many a word has been written about the Beat's
frontal attack upon the sleepy surburban world of
America circa late 1950s, but few have bottered to
examine their spiritual awareness as related to Mother
Earth. They were fresh voices who found spiritual
rebirth through nature and were in the forefront of
those questioning the prevalent doctrine of consummerism.
I would heartily recommend this well written book.

I always find it interesting to study the life of someone before they were famous. Whether it is a writer, artist, singer, or serial killer. Later, you can see how fame changed their life. I found it fascinating to learn of Burroughs living in South Texas, in many ways the most "un-beat" area of the country, a place that to paraphrase Burroughs, people come to die. However, even without a connection to South Texas, the book is an excellent read. I missed an appointment, sleep, and my favorite tv show to finish the book.

Great book. Very interesting read on a part of South Texas History.

i found it an interesting aspect of burroughs life. a cotten farmer in south texas is 180 degrees out from new york city or london or paris. i have read burroughs extensively. this a lost chapter in his life. kudos to the writer for doing the research.

i loved this book i grew up there but later on i think that my mother is the helen in the book she remembers all these guys at salisbury rewnting a house when here nad her girlfriends rented a house and one had leukiamia she loved it also

Spouse and I both left a stack of bestsellers to gather dust while we devoured "A Summer with Charlie." We laughed. We cried. We were deeply moved. We recommended it to all our reader friends. You can't ask for better from a book than that.

I enjoyed the book very much because it brought back memories of my own younger years. It was written with sensitivity and wit, and showed the effect Charlie had on friends and family in a life cut too short. A very entertaining read.

This is a great overview of Beat Poetics. Check out Ted Joans, who remains the most lucid of the Beat poets and who still writing and reading strong. He has just published a new collection of poetry called Our Thang, also available on Amazon. He and Bob Kaufmann are possible the two most extraordinary writers of this extraordinary generation.

after reading this selection many times, i have become enthraled the lives of kerouac, cassady, and ginsburg. for a new fan of these great poets, this book is a must. it will give you a great work of information that can allow you to discover the works of many innovative poets

Siempre recomendaré este libro. Yo que ando viajando por todo el mundo. Es un clásico infaltable.

Yo tomé este libro para un viaje por Escandinavia yendo solo con mi mochila, y lo hice siguiendo la recomendación de un amigo que ya lo llevó para un Interrail por Europa. Definitivamente, te engancha, y mucho. Cada vez que tienes un rato esperando en una estación, no puedes evitar seguir leyéndolo. Es un claro ejemplo de la "generación bit", y como es de esperar los protagonistas están todos muy locos; pero precisamente por eso te metes más en tu propio viaje, porque ellos siempre están buscando "fondos" de donde pueden para seguir moviéndose de un lugar a otro. Tus 12 horas de tren son nada en comparación con sus miles de millas y sigues pensando que todavía te queda mucho carrete para seguir viajando a donde haga falta.

Evidentemente, puedes leerlo igualmente por las tardes en el salón de tu casa, o en la cama antes de acostarte, y seguirá siendo un libro magnífico. Pero merece ser leído "en situación".
Mi comentario es algo parcial, pues yo lo veo como compañero de viaje, básicamente. Pero es una gran obra, icono de una época y de una generación que acabó muy mal: aunque los nombres sean ficticios, se trata de Jack Keoruak y de sus experiencias, hechos reales.

Mi consejo: léelo, en casa, o de viaje. Un gran libro.

Mr. Dorfner is truly a dharma bum in today's society if there ever is one !! Between this novel that deeply researches Jack's life in his hometown of Lowell to his other piece "visions of Rocky Mount", Mr.Dorfner has really done his homework on Jack. I highly recommend this book (and "visions of Rocky Mount") to ANY fan of Kerouac or the beat generation. Thank you, Mr.Dorfner for writing such an informative book !!

Dorfner...born in Catskills,NY--rode bike, packed his Rucksak, & went-On The Road*...a truly Beatified...hip beat. Make annual Lowell,(MA) Celebrates J Kerouac, 3 days in early Oct....

Stunning photography, intriguing stories, no-nonsense understanding.

The history of Kerouac's 'rucksack mode' culminating with his summer-camp stay atop Desolation Peak in the North Cascades, co-starring Gary Snyder & Philip Whalen.

Not to mention some nice details regarding the famous '55 Six Gallery poetry fete held in The City.

First, and foremost, John Suiter's exceptional photos and detailed biographical text in Poets on the Peaks are NOT, as the previous reviewer wrote, merely "The history of Kerouac's 'rucksack mode'...co-starring Gary Snyder & Philip Whalen." On the contrary, it is so much more than this; it is the story of the 50's Zeitigeist, when much of American cultural discourse expanded to include the more rugged, natural venacular of the West Coast. In this sense, Snyder (born and raised on the West Coast) and Whalen play the leading roles, in my opinion, while Kerouac plays a lesser role (though not slighted in the least by Suiter).

Don't get me wrong - I dig Kerouac. But this fecund book is more about the a cultural movement, say, the interaction between the old, established East Coast literary tradition (from which Kerouac was fleeing but could never quite break away) and the new, wildy independent West Coast tradition, headed up by the likes of Rexroth and Jeffers, than it is about any single poet.

Logistically, the photos are superb. Also, readers already familiar with Snyder, Whalen, and Kerouac will find new tidbits of information here, I think. Suiter simply KNOWS his subject, inside and out, from the mountains to the poets to the sacred Buddhist texts that so inspired them. For example, Suiter's description of Snyder's epiphany on reading the Diamond Sutra while hitch hiking was, for me, simply sublime; but to Suiter's credit, he presents such moments in an understated, matter of fact way.

Finally, I would like to offer a personal insight from the book. It seems to me that an individual can - and usually does, at some point in their life - come face to face with the universe, or in this case the Void so represented by the mountains, and go radically in one of two directions: flip out, like Kerouac, seeing the world as infinitely meaningless, and therefore sad (read: Desolation Angels); or imbue the emptiness, like Snyder (and the Buddhist tradition), with one's own meaning, seeing the world as infinitely playful and beautiful. Artistically speaking, neither response is inherently more correct, I would argue, but the latter is certainly healthier, I should think, judging by how long Snyder has been around (vs. Kerouac's alcoholic demise).

I cannot recommed this text enough.

A little in here for everyone- read it if only to read Ginsberg's famous "Howl".

This is a collection of essays about the Beat writers which could serve as excellent material for a college seminar. It is of great interest to the general reader, also. Kerouac consciously sought an outsider existence. At one point he concluded that the very definition of writer equals outsiderness. He used the Shadow, a comic hero, and the Faust legend in his book of childhood, DR. SAX.

William Burroughs's aesthetic is the image in flux. His prose aligns with moviemaking qualities. Film plays both stylistic and thematic roles in his work. Contextualization is usefull to instructors and students in the study of Burroughs. NAKED LUNCH may be approached as a do it yourself tapestry.

Allen Ginsberg told an interviewer that he wanted to do nothing but write poetry. He makes reference to his Blakean visions throughout his career. Ginsberg pastoralized certain aspects of the city and industrialism.

Many of the Beats embraced a romantic idealism, a tendency not possible of being infused into the mainstream of Dutch literature. The reception of Beat literature in France met a similar fate. The failure of influence occurred notwithstanding the friendships of poets and writers from America, the Netherlands, and France, and the stays of Corso and Ginsberg and others in both France and the the Netherlands.

Kerouac's fictionalized memoir, DHARMA BUMS, portrays Gary Snyder and other West Coast poets. A key element of Snyder's gestalt is Zen Buddhism. As a student Snyder was led to the works of Ezra Pound and to Ernest Feollosa's EPOCHS OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE ART. Kerouac's description of Snyder's process of poetry-making likens artistic composition to natural process. In an essay Snyder cites the Buddhist sense of homelessness. It is possible for such homelessness to undergo an expansion to the point of being at home in the whole universe.

Allen Ginsberg and others have noted the Beat affinities with the other arts, the visual arts. The Beats have had their own identifying geographies-- Lowell, Massachusetts, Columbia University and the Village, the West Coast, Colorado, Mexico City, Kyoto.

If you have an interest in Kerouac, you should buy this book. It's one of the few books that is actually worth its cover price.

The reproductions of materials from the Kerouac archive are beautiful, and Gewirtz's text is just what you want to read. This is a perfect companion to the published version of _On the Road_, the original scroll version of _Road_, and the journal entries published in _Windblown World_. Taken together, these books affirm that Kerouac was a brilliant and dedicated writer and reader. The documents in _Beatific Soul_, especially, allow the reader to see Kerouac's beautiful mind at work.