
by JackKerouac (Author), Ann Charters (Editor)
The first volume of Jack Kerouac's selected letters, published in 1995, was hailed as an important and revealing addition to Kerouac scholarship. This second and final volume, comprising letters written between 1957, the year On the Road was published, and the day before his death in 1969 at age forty-seven, tells Kerouac's life story through his candid correspondence with friends, confidants, and editorsamong them Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Johnson, and Malcolm Cowley. Documenting his continuing development as a writer and his travels, love affairs, and complicated family life, the letters also reveal Kerouac's amazing courage in the force of criticism and his never-ending quest to be the best writer possible.Jack Kerouac Selected Letters 1957-1969 offers unparalleled insight into the life and mind of this giant of the American landscape."
Format: Paperback
Pages: 656
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 30 Nov 2000
ISBN 10: 0140296158
ISBN 13: 9780140296150
It remains clear from his later letters that Kerouac understood what he was doing as a writer. He consistently explains his aesthetic, his plan to create the Duluoz Legend of books, and the essentially benign charity of his vision.
--San Francisco Chronicle
Rambunctious and energetic . . . the letters convey the genius of that special American type--the perpetual motion man.
--The Washington Post
Kerouac's letters and early stories supplement his legend, providing a fuller portrait of a true American original.
--The Boston Globe