Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters Volume 2

by Kerouac, Jack; Charters, Ann

• ISBN13: 9780670861903
• ISBN10: 0670861901
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Viking Adult

Summary

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 of letters, written between 1957, the year On the Road was published, to one day before his death in 1969 at age forty-seven, tell Kerouac's life story through his candid correspondence with friends, confidants, and editors -- among them Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Johnson, and Malcolm Cowley. Documenting his continuing development as a writer, his travels, love affairs, and complicated family life, the letters also reveal Kerouac's amazing courage in the face 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 literary landscape.

Author Biography

Jack Kerouac(1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.
Ann Charters is the editor of The Portable Sixties Reader, The Portable Jack Kerouac, two volumes of Jack Kerouac's Selected Letters, and Beat Down to Your Soul. She teaches at the University of Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xxv
Chronology	xxix
1957
January 1 To Sterling Lord	2	(1)
January 5 To Sterling Lord	2	(1)
January 5 To Helen Weaver	3	(1)
January 5 To Donald Allen	4	(1)
January 10 To John Clellon Holmes	5	(1)
January 28 To Edith Parker	6	(3)
February 4 To Malcolm Cowley	9	(1)
Undated [1957] To Joyce Glassman	10	(2)
March 4 To Sterling Lord	12	(2)
March 8 To Malcolm Cowley	14	(2)
March 19 To Donald Allen	16	(3)
March 25 To Sterling Lord	19	(3)
March 25 To Neat Cassady	22	(3)
April 3 To Sterling Lord	25	(2)
April 3 To Gary Snyder	27	(2)
April 10 To Philip Whalen	29	(1)
April 20 To Sterling Lord	30	(1)
April 28 To Ed White	31	(3)
Early May To Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs	34	(4)
May 15 To Sterling Lord	38	(1)
May 17 To Allen Ginsberg	39	(1)
May 24 To Gary Snyder	40	(3)
Late May To Sterling Lord	43	(2)
June 7 To Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, William S. Burroughs, & Alan Ansen	45	(4)
June 24 To Gary Snyder	49	(4)
June 26 To Sterling Lord	53	(1)
July 4 To Malcolm Cowley	54	(2)
July 5 To Sterling Lord	56	(1)
July 12 To Philip Whalen	57	(1)
July 19 To Patricia MacManus	58	(2)
July 21 To Malcolm Cowley	60	(1)
July 21 To Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, & Alan Ansen	61	(3)
July 22 To Joyce Glassman	64	(1)
July 29 To Philip Whalen from Gabrielle Kerouac	65	(1)
August 9 To Allen Ginsberg	66	(1)
Mid-August To Philip Whalen	67	(2)
August 18 To Joyce Glassman	69	(1)
Mid-August To Malcolm Cowley	70	(1)
August 23 To Joyce Glassman	71	(3)
September 15 To Jack Kerouac from Stella Sampas	74	(1)
October 1 To Allen Ginsberg	75	(2)
October 12 To Charles Olson	77	(1)
October 15 To Pat MacManus	78	(1)
October 18 To Allen Ginsberg	79	(2)
Late October To Neal Cassady	81	(4)
October 22 To Helen Weaver	85	(1)
October 22 To Lucien and Cessa Carr	86	(1)
October 25 To Stella Sampas	87	(2)
November 8 To John Clellon Holmes	89	(5)
November 11 To Donald Allen	94	(2)
November 11 To Hiram Haydn	96	(1)
November 23 To Sterling Lord	96	(1)
November 30 To Allen Ginsserg	97	(3)
December 10 To Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, & Gregory Corso	100	(3)
December 10 To Sterling Lord	103	(1)
December 12 To Patricia MacManus	104	(1)
December 14 To Lucien Carr	104	(1)
December 28 To Elbert Lenrow	105	(2)
December 28 To Allen Ginsberg	107	(2)
1958
January 7 To Philip Whalen	109	(3)
Before January 8 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	112	(1)
January 8 To Allen Ginsberg	113	(3)
January 13 To Elbert Lenrow	116	(3)
January 13 To Joyce Glassman	119	(2)
January 15 To Gary Snyder	121	(4)
January 16 To Lucien Carr	125	(1)
January 29 To Sterling Lord	125	(2)
February 4 To Joyce Glassman	127	(2)
February 11 To Robert Creeley	129	(1)
February 11 To Donald Allen	130	(3)
February To William S. Burroughs	133	(2)
March 4 To Philip Whalen	135	(1)
Undated [1958] To Keith Jennison	136	(1)
April 13 To John Clellon Holmes	137	(4)
Undated [1958] To Philip Whalen	141	(1)
Undated [1958] To Philip Whalen	142	(2)
Early June To Joyce Glassman	144	(2)
Before June 12 To Philip Whalen	146	(1)
June 12 To Philip Whalen	147	(2)
June 18 To Helen Taylor	149	(2)
June 19 To Gary Snyder	151	(4)
Early July To Philip Whalen	155	(2)
Early July To Tom Guinzburg	157	(1)
July 14 To Gary Snyder	158	(2)
July 21 To John Clellon Holmes	160	(2)
July (24?) To Allen Ginsberg	162	(3)
July 30 To Donald Allen	165	(1)
August 4 To Philip Whalen	166	(2)
August 28 To Allen Ginsberg	168	(3)
September 8 To Allen Ginsberg	171	(3)
September 16 To Donald Allen	174	(2)
September 23 To Patricia MacManus	176	(1)
October 5 To Allen Ginsberg	176	(1)
October 12 To Jack Kerouac from Gary Snyder	177	(1)
October 13 To Gregory Corso	178	(2)
October 15 To Allen Ginsberg	180	(2)
October 28 To Allen Ginsberg	182	(4)
After November 6 To John Montgomery	186	(2)
Early November To Philip Whalen	188	(2)
November 12 To Philip Whalen	190	(1)
November 12 To Stan Isaacs	191	(1)
November 28 To Stan Isaacs	191	(1)
December 1 To Gary Snyder	192	(2)
December 12 To Tom Guinzburg	194	(3)
December 16 To Allen Ginsberg	197	(4)
1959
January 6 To Sterling Lord	201	(1)
January 10 To Philip Whalen	202	(2)
January 29 To Caroline Kerouac Blake	204	(2)
February 3 To Sterling Lord	206	(2)
February 5 To Jeanne Unger	208	(1)
February 13 To Stella Sampas	209	(2)
February 21 To John Clellon Holmes	211	(2)
February 23 To Gary Snyder	213	(2)
Before March To Caroline Kerouac Blake	215	(1)
March 15 To Philip Whalen	216	(3)
Match 24 To Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, & Peter Orlovsky	219	(2)
April 5 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	221	(1)
April 17 To Carolyn Cassady	222	(2)
April 18 To Allen Ginsberg	224	(1)
April 19 To Philip Whalen	225	(1)
April 23 To Allen Ginsberg	226	(2)
April 23 To Philip Whalen	228	(1)
May 8 To Barney Rosset	228	(2)
May 19 To Allen Ginsberg	230	(3)
May 23 To Stella Sampas	233	(1)
Late May To Caroline Kerouac Blake	234	(1)
June 4 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	235	(1)
June 10 To Philip Whalen	236	(2)
June 18 To Allen Ginsberg	238	(3)
June 18 To Caroline Kerouac Blake	241	(2)
June 30 To Donald Allen	243	(1)
June 30 To Donald Allen	243	(1)
July 28 To Dick	244	(1)
August 19 To Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky	245	(1)
September 22 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	245	(1)
September To Stella Sampas	246	(1)
October 1 To Donald Allen	247	(2)
Fall To Donald Allen	249	(1)
October 6 To Allen Ginsberg	249	(3)
October 19 To Allen Ginsberg	252	(2)
November 2 To Allen Ginsberg	254	(1)
November 6 To Allen Ginsberg	255	(1)
Undated [1959] To Gary Snyder	256	(1)
November 8 To John Clellon Holmes	257	(1)
December 6 To Gary Snyder	258	(2)
December 6 To Philip Whalen	260	(1)
December 6 To Barney Rosset	261	(1)
December 6 To Caroline Kerouac Blake	262	(3)
December 7 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	265	(1)
Early December To Gary Snyder	266	(3)
December 21 To Henri Cru	269	(2)
December 24 To Roberto Muggiati	271	(1)
December 24 To Allen Ginsberg	271	(2)
December (30?) To Donald Allen	273	(2)
1960
January 4 To Allen Ginsberg	275	(1)
January 14 To Sterling Lord	276	(1)
January 18 To Philip Whalen	277	(3)
January 19 To Lois Sorrells	280	(2)
February 20 To Allen Ginsberg	282	(1)
ca. February To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	283	(1)
March 12 To Caroline & Paul Blake	284	(1)
April 12 To Philip Whalen	285	(3)
April 2o To Carolyn Cassady	288	(1)
April 28 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	289	(1)
May 4 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	289	(1)
May 20 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	290	(1)
June 3 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	291	(1)
June 20 To Allen Ginsberg	292	(4)
July 8 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	296	(3)
July 21 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	299	(1)
July 21 To Allen Ginsberg	299	(1)
September 14 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	300	(2)
Mid-September To Philip Whalen & Lew Welch	302	(2)
September 22 To Allen Ginsberg	304	(2)
September To Neal Cassady	306	(2)
September To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	308	(2)
September 24 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	310	(1)
Before October 18 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	311	(1)
October 18 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	312	(1)
November 22 To Granville H. Jones	313	(1)
November 26 To Caroline Kerouac Blake	314	(3)
December 16 To Philip Whalen	317	(3)
1961
February 2 To Philip Whalen	320	(2)
February To Jack Kerouac from Philip Whalen	322	(2)
February 15 To Bill Michell	324	(1)
April 14 To Allen Ginsberg	325	(1)
May 5 To Sterling Lord	326	(1)
May 9 To John Montgomery	327	(2)
May 9 To Carroll Brown	329	(2)
May 25 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	331	(3)
May 31 To Lois Sorrells	334	(1)
June 10 To Donald Allen	335	(3)
June 15 To Bernice Lemire	338	(2)
August 11 To Bernice Lemire	340	(3)
October 9 To Sterling Lord	343	(3)
October 17 To Philip Whalen	346	(5)
October 17 To Carolyn Cassady	351	(2)
October 19 To Tom Guinzsurg	353	(1)
October 22 To Jack Kerouac from Carolyn Cassady	354	(4)
October 23 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	358	(2)
November to Lawrence Ferlinghetti	360	(1)
Early December To Gary Snyder	361	(1)
December 28 To Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky	362	(2)
Late December To Jacqueline Stephens	364	(3)
1962
January 7 To Carolyn Cassady	367	(3)
January 15 To Robert Giroux	370
January 17 To Tom Guinzburg	372	(374)
February 9 To Stella Sampas	374	(1)
February 16 To Robert Creeley	375	(2)
March 28 To Sterling Lord	377	(1)
March 31 To Robert Giroux	378	(4)
April 4 To Donald Allen	382	(1)
April 12 To Robert Giroux	383	(1)
April To Hugo Weber	384	(1)
April 17 To John Clellon Holmes	385	(2)
June 2 To Sterling Lord	387	(1)
June 8 To John Clellon Holmes	388	(3)
June 15 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	391	(1)
August 8 To Lois Sorrells	392	(1)
August 17 To Lois Sorrells	393	(1)
September 3 To Robert Giroux	394	(1)
September 15 To Time Magazine from Lawrence Ferlinghetti	395	(1)
October 2 To Tony Sampas & Stella Sampas	396	(1)
October 9 To John Clellon Holmes	397	(3)
November 13 To Robert Giroux	400	(1)
November 17 To Stella Sampas	401	(1)
December 13 To Philip Whalen	402	(2)
Late December To Philip Whalen from Gabrielle Kerouac	404	(1)
1963
January 14 To Philip Whalen	405	(3)
February 19 To Robert Giroux	408	(1)
March 9 To Sterling Lord	409	(1)
March 25 To Caroline Kerouac Blake	410	(1)
April 18 To Robert Giroux	411	(2)
May 7 To Barney Rosset	413	(1)
May 23 To Gary Snyder	413	(3)
June 29 To Allen Ginsberg	416	(5)
July 29 To Robert Giroux	421	(1)
August 16 To Carolyn Cassady	422	(1)
October 5 To John Clellon Holmes	423	(2)
November 18 To Philip Whalen	425	(2)
December 11 To John Clellon Holmes	427	(2)
1964
Early 1964 To Fernanda Pivano	429	(2)
April 22 To Stella Sampas	431	(2)
May 21 To Tony Sampas	433	(2)
September 9 To Sterling Lord	435	(1)
September 19 To Stanley & Anne Twardowicz from Gabrielle Kerouac	436	(1)
October 16 To John Clellon Holmes	436	(2)
November 11 To Sterling Lord	438	(1)
December 8 To John Clellon Holmes	439	(2)
1965
January 9 To Ellis Amburn	441	(2)
January 10 To Philip Whalen	443	(2)
February 11 To Ellis Amburn	445	(1)
March 2 To John Clellon Holmes	446	(1)
March 22 To Stanley A Anne Twardowicz	447	(1)
March 27 To Sterling Lord	448	(1)
April 16 To Sterling Lord	449	(2)
May 8 To Sterling Lord	451	(1)
May 8 To Sterling Lord from Gabrielle Kerouac	452	(1)
May 26 To Sterling Lord	453	(1)
June 2 To Lucien Carr	454	(1)
June 11 To Sterling Lord	455	(2)
June 22 To Arabelle Porter	457	(2)
July 21 To John Clellon Holmes	459	(2)
August 2 To Sterling Lord	461	(1)
August 10 To Sterling Lord	462	(1)
September 18 To John Clellon Holmes	463	(2)
October 12 To Sterling Lord	465	(1)
Undated [1965] To Diana G. List	466	(1)
November 29 To Tony Sampas	467	(1)
December 7 To Stella Sampas	468	(1)
December 23 To Stella Sampas	469	(1)
December 23 To John Clellon Holmes	470	(4)
1966
February 14 To Stella Sampas	474	(1)
February 18 To Shirley & John Clellon Holmes	474	(1)
April 25 To Sterling Lord	475	(1)
May 18 To Albert J. Gelpi	476	(2)
June 18 To Nora Aquilon	478	(1)
July 21 To Gabrielle Kerouac & Jack Kerouac From Stella Sampas	479	(1)
August 5 To Ann Charters	480	(2)
September 22 To John Clellon Holmes	482	(1)
October 8 To Sterling Lord	483	(2)
October 12 To Stella Sampas	485	(2)
November 16 To Sterling Lord	487	(1)
November 28 To Allen Ginsberg	488	(1)
December 18 To Jim & Dorothy Sampas	488	(1)
December 18 To Dorothy, Jim, & George Lawrence Sampas from Stella Kerouac	489	(2)
1967
January 18 To Sterling Lord	491	(1)
January 20 To Sterling Lord	492	(1)
January 30 To Barney Rosset	493	(1)
March 30 To Sterling Lord	494	(1)
March 30 To John Clellon Holmes	495	(1)
May 22 To John Clellon Holmes	496	(2)
June 1 To Ellis Amburn	498	(1)
June 17 To Sterling Lord	499	(1)
July 11 To Calvin Hall	499	(1)
July 21 To Sterling Lord	500	(1)
July To Arabelle Porter	501	(1)
November 11 To Ann Charters	502	(1)
December To Samuel Charters	503	(1)
December 13 To Nick Sampas	503	(1)
December 13 To John Clellon Holmes	504	(1)
December 31 To Sterling Lord	505	(2)
1968
January 6 To Stanley Twardowicz	507	(1)
January 15 To Sterling Lord	507	(1)
February 29 To Sterling Lord	508	(1)
April 11 To Ellis Amburn	509	(1)
April 2o To Sterling Lord	510	(2)
June 4 To Allen Ginsberg	512	(2)
July 14 To Andreas Brown	514	(2)
Late July To David Amram	516	(1)
August 24 To Sterling Lord	517	(1)
August 27 To Sterling Lord from Stella Kerouac	517	(2)
September 27 To Sterling Lord	519	(2)
November 15 To Joe Chaput	521	(2)
December 3 To Keith Jennison	523	(1)
December 5 To Tony Sampas From Stella & Jack Kerouac	524	(1)
December 5 To Tony Sampas	525	(2)
1969
January 16 To Philip Whalen	527	(2)
February 28 To John Clellon Holmes	529	(1)
February 28 To Tony Sampas	530	(2)
March 3 To Sterling Lord	532	(1)
March 18 To Tony Sampas	532	(1)
April 7 To Sterling Lord	533	(1)
May 18 To Nick Sampas	534	(1)
July 7 To Lawrence Ferlinghetti	535	(1)
August 27 To Sterling Lord	535	(2)
September 7 To Andreas Brown	537	(1)
September 8 To Edith Parker Kerouac	538	(1)
September 21 To Edith Parker Kerouac	539	(1)
September 22 To Andreas Brown	540	(1)
September 29 To Dan De Sole	540	(1)
September 30 To Ingrid & Nick Sampas	541	(1)
October 9 To Nick Sampas	541	(1)
October 12 To Sterling Lord	542	(1)
October 14 To Sterling Lord	542	(1)
October 14 To Andreas Brown	543	(1)
October 20 To Paul Blake, Jr.	544	(3)
Notes	547	(13)
Index	560

Excerpts

Chapter One

1957

By the first week of January 1957, while living at his sister Caroline's new house in Orlando, Florida, Kerouac had put what he considered the finishing touches on On the Road for his editors Malcolm Cowley and Keith Jennison at the Viking Press. Concerned about the possibiliy of obscenity and libel suits, theft had insisted that Kerouac revise the book before theft signed a contract, Working on the porch where his sister had set up his typewriter on his old rolltop desk, Jack also retyped pages of The Subterraneans and completed the typescript of a new novel, Deso- lation Angels.

    In a creative fever Kerouac had completed eleven books of prose and poetry in the last six years, chapters of what he called "the endless Duluoz Legend," the written record of his life. When Howl and Other Poems was published in May 1956, Allen Ginsberg listed the titles in his dedication of the book to Neal Cassady, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac, "new Buddha of American prose, who spit forth intelligence into eleven books written in half the number of years (1951-1956)-0n the Road, Visions of Neal, Dr Sax, Springtime Mary, The Subterraneans, San Francisco Blues, Some of the Dharma, Book of Dreams, Wake Up, Mexico City Blues, and Visions of Gerard- creating a spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature.... All these books are published in Heaven." Now it was time for Kerouac's manuscripts, written "in desolation & solitude," as he told his friend Helen Weaver, to be published on earth.

     During the early days of 1957, Jack wrote two anxious letters to his agent, Sterling Lord, with detailed instructions about handling his manuscripts. Lord had loaned Kewouac forty dollars against his Viking advance to buff Christmas presents for his family. When Jack couldn't get another loan fom his agent to pay for a bus ticket to New York City so that he could deliver On the Road to his editors at Viking and sign a contract for the book, his mother, Gabrielle, gave him the fare.

TO STERLING LORD

[Card postmarked January 1, 1957

Orlando, Florida]

Dear Sterling-

    I understand how you're low-fortunately I'll get fare from G.-the ms. of ROAD is all ready for the printer, please tell Keith and Malcolm to have complete confidence in the libel-clearing thorough job I did on it ... they will be pleased ... I imagine they'll want to see it first, I'll show it them on Jan. 8 ... I am typing up the new novel DESOLATION ANGELS1 (rich, good) ... Have you located "cityCityCITY" and TRISTESSA mss.? I have to add to them .... Till I see you, as ever,

Jack

TO STERLING LORD

Sat Jan. 5, 1957

[Orlando, Florida]

Dear Sterling,

     Would you please take my 7000-word piece JOAN RAWSHANKS IN THE FOG3 out of the file and mail it to Michael Grieg, PAPERBACK EDITIONS LIMITED, 1133 De Haro Street, San Francisco 10, Calif.

    Enclosed are the stamps he sent me.

    And make it clear to him that when he's finished with the typescript copy to mail it pronto back to you (altho I have the original in the main MS of VISIONS OF NEAL novel).

    Although he doesnt pay anything, it will be good to get a piece of V OF NEAL published and start it a-rolling.

    And as I understand it, we can always sell JOAN RAWSHANKS afterwards anyway. Tell him not to copyright it under anything but my name, of course.

    I will be in to see you Tuesday [January] 8th, late afternoon, to join new addition to TRISTESSA and discuss Viking contract with you, and I'll have prepared MS of ROAD with me in a suitcase, along with other new MSS. SUBTERRANEANS is all ready for Don Allen ... it is 173 pages long, at 300 words per page, therefore it is no less than 50,000 words long and so worth $500 at lca word, tell Barney Rosset.

Till I see you,

As ever,

Jack

While in Florida, Kerouac dropped postcards to his girlfriend Helen Weaver and the editor Donald Allen at Grove Press. Jack had moved into Helen's apartment in Greenwich Fillage after Thanksgiving 1956, and stayed with her until returning to his family in Orlando on December 20. In the last days of 1956 he ex- changed several cards and letters with Helen, describing his Christmas, when he had '?aced on bicycles with young nephew to go buy his present, which was Elvis Presley album, and he takes his banjo and closes his eyes and imitates Elvis to a T... all the little boys love him.... so I was right about his singing like little boys."

TO HELEN WEAVER

[Card postmarked January 5, 1957

Orlando, Florida]

    Dear Helen .... Will be home, call you, probably Wednesday .... Re- ceived your gone letter and Greg's [Corso's] note .... Glad to hear of vari- ous good times you had Xrnas and NY's eve .... Funny about yr. dad digging Screamin Jay [Hawkins].5... Tho I'm sposed to be a lazy bum I havent done anything for the last 12 days hut rattle this typewriter day and night tryna catch up with my wild handscripts writ in desolation & solitude .... money in the future bank for logs on the fire and scotch & soda and the late show and you in my fleecy arms .... Incidentally we are invited to a weekend in Old Saybrook, Conn. dont forget in a big victorian house oer topped by great old trees and with fireplace and jazz and toddies and wonderful couple Johnny & Shirley Holmes so save a January weekend for that, you and me and Pete [Orlovsky] and Allen [Ginsberg] .... I got nice letter from Don Allen, he is swell .... also a pretty Xmas card from English publishers, apparently Bob Giroux wrote them I was back .... (Eyre [&] Spottiswoode).... I hope yr. 33 speed [phonograph] is fixt, I'm bringing back Chet Baker.7 LOVE N'craint pas ... Je t'aime.... Oui ... X X X Jean.

TO DONALD ALLEN

[Postmarked January 5, 1957

Orlando, Florida]

Dear Don-

    Your letter most charming, unexpected, & welcome.8 Working like a dog down here trying to get those 2 new mss. typed up and ready. I'll be over to your place (call first) I believe Tuesday Jan. 8 in the afternoon and with me I'll have a suitcase containing six manuscripts some of them huge ... VISIONS OF NEAL (novel), DESOLATION ANGELS (novel), BOOK OF BLUES (poems long and short), BOOK OF DREAMS (long dream diary written in my "spontaneous prose" & quite rich), SOME OF THE DHARMA (a Pascal-Pensees of Buddhism probably more important than Pascal's and almost as well written), and TRISTESSA (novel, fairly short) .... You can peruse them at yr. leisure while I'm in NY and after I'm gone, it'll just be a question of getting them delivered somehow back to my agent Sterling Lord ... okay? Visions of Neal and Some of the Dharma are the books I really want you to dig. Also, let's make a date to go out and hear some jazz. Your new friend,

Jack K.

On January 8, 1957, after riding a Greyhound bus from Orlando to New York City, Kerouac went to the Viking offices to turn in the manuscript of On the Road to Malcolm Cowley. According to Helen Weaver, Jack told her that he bought a pint of bourbon and chugalugged it in the elevator before meeting Cowley, and then after leaving Viking he continued to celebrate with Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and Gregory Corso before coming back to her apartment in the West Village. Two days later Jack told his Friend John Clellon Holmes that he would sign the contract with Viking "for sure" the next daft.

TO JOHN CLELLON HOLMES

Jan. 10, 1957

[New York City]

Dear Johnny-

    All of us are agreed on the weekend of Jan. 19 for our visit with you & Shirley [Holmes's wife] in Ole Saybrook-Allen [Ginsberg], Peter [Orlovsky], Helen my love & I-Dig February issue of Mademoiselle , our pictures are in it-wherein is called Allen Ginsberg a "bop pioneer"-is date satisfactory? Drop note-

     Excuse paper. I am alone in Helen's Hawthornian room, afternoon, it looks out on the White Horse bar & old cobbles & gables-playing St. Matthew Passion on box-I am sad because I flew into a rage over her Olivetti typewriter (they never work)-Signing contract tomorrow for sure with Viking-Sad because we live to be good but the bad works hard & works us down to despair-But I refuse to be bad!-Gregory [Corso] in town, alone, his Surrah's in Paris waiting-

    I'm looking forward to sweet Shidey's fabulous cooking-hmm! I hope our visit won't leave you exhausted-Diamond Sutra say: "Keep your mind free and all-penetrating and calm"- Tonight I drink with Lucien [Carr] alone in a blizzard-

Your friend

Jack

     On January l1, 1957, Kerouac finally signed his contract with the Viking Press far On the Road. He stayed on in New York City, waiting for a ship to Tangier the following month, the first stage of what he planned as a long sojourn in Eu- rope. After a couple of weeks at Helen Weaver's apartment, she asked him to leave because she couldn't take what she later remembered as the '"nonstop party"at her place, with Jack drinking "prodigious amounts" and Allen, Peter, and Gregory sleeping on her floor.

     For a few days Kerouac lived in a cheap hotel on Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, where he impulsively phoned his first wife, Edith Parker in Michigan, after she sent him an affectionate letter. Jack wrote to Edie giving forwarding address that was the West l13th Street apartment of a new girfriend in New York, Joyce Glassman, with whom he stayed until he left for Tangier. Glassman, a twenty-one-year-old graduate of Barnard College and aspiring novelist who supported herself working at an office job in a literary agency, later published under her married name, Joyce Johnson. She told the story of her love affair with Kerouac in her memoir Minor Characters.

TO EDITH PARKER KEROUAC

Monday Jan. 28 [1957]

[New York City]

Dear Edie,

    That was a beautiful letter you wrote me. I read some of it to Lucien later on.

    You know, before Joan [Burroughs] died, when I saw her in 1950, she said you were the greatest person (I think she said nicest) she had ever known.

    As for Willy B[urroughs], he's queening around now but as ever he never bothers me with that. Instead we take long walks in the evening with hands clasped behind our backs, conversing politely. He is a great gendeman and as you may know, has become a great writer, in fact all the big- wigs are afraid of him (W. H. Auden, etc.) Yes, he knows we're coming in February late.

    Allen never loses track of me even when I try to hide)c He does me many favors publicizing my name. Well, we're old friends anyway. But I cant keep up the hectic "fame" life he wants and so I wont stay with them long in Tangier. I'm going to get me a quiet hut by the sea on the Spanish coast, then join them in Paris in the Spring.

    "Escaping reality to go into simplicity" is just what I do, except I regard reality as being simplicity. That is, God is Alone. Dont worry, I eat plenty. I have my cook kit in my pack and make delicious food wherever I go, when I have to. In NY naturally everybody invites me to big dinners in homes. But like in Spain and Europe, I'll make me pancakes and syrup with black coffee for breakfast, boil me big pots of Boston baked beans with salt pork and molasses, make salads, eat French bread, cheese and dates for dessert. Etc.

    I'll write to you and you keep writing and if you suddenly get the impulse to see Europe I'll be there to show you around.

    I have never left you either, and had many dreams of you, wild dreams where we're wandering in dark alleys of Mexico looking for a place to bang, etc.

    I want to end my life as an old man in a shack in the woods, and I'm leading up to that soon as I dig the whole world including the Orient. I'm invited to a Buddhist Monastery in Japan and will go within 5 years. Also other things. Make movies too, later. I'll have more money than I need. Or maybe only what I need. I'm glad to send my mother her reward, think eventually I'll take her out to California and get her a little rose covered cottage, and get me a shack for half the time, in the wild hills beyond Mount Tamalpais.

    Hearing your voice at night over the phone, in a hotel where I'd gone to hide out to work, was like a strange & beautiful dream. You sounded warmer and more mature. You will always be a great woman. I have a lot of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so dont worry. It's all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just dont know it because of our thinkingminds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky ways of cloudy innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere, or one universal self: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes through everything, is one thing. It's a dream already ended. There's nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the one vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born.

The world you see is just a movie in your mind.

Rocks dont see it.

Bless and sit down.

Forgive and forget.

Practice kindness all day to everybody

and you will realize you're already

in heaven now.

That's the story.

That's the message.

Nobody understands it,

nobody listens, they're

all running around like

chickens with heads cut

off. I will try to

teach it but it will

be in vain, s'why I'll

end up in a shack

praying and being

cool and singing

by my woodstove

making pancakes.

Write again.... I'I1 be at this address

till our ship leaves, c/o J. Glassman

554 W. 113th St.

(fight near Johnny &

the West End, Johnny

asked bout you the

other night.)

Your eternal old man,

Jack

    Before leavinging Tangier on February 15, Kerouac sent a last-minute letter to Malcolm Cowley, who had shown Jack his notes for an introduction he was planning to write for On the Road. A month later, after reading the manuscript of Desolation Angels that Kerouac had typed up for him, Cowley decided to drop his introduction.

TO MALCOLM COWLEY

Feb. 4, 1957

c/o J. Glassman

554 W. 113 St.

New York, N.Y.

,

Dear Malcolm

    Two things we failed to insert in your notes for the introduction.

(1) That as a "recording angel" however I have to do it in a neces- sarily birds-eye personal-view form of a legend, which is the DU- LUOZ LEGEND, to which all the books belong except first novel naturalistic fictional Town & City. "Duluoz" is Kerouac, as you know, but might note.

(2) We forgot to add BOOK OF DREAMS to the complete list of works, which is a 300-page tome of some excellence, sponta- neously written dreams some of them written in the peculiar dream-language of half-awake in the morning.

    If you have the time, let me know what you think literary-spiritually and then professionally of DESOLATION ANGELS, and if you decide for that or DOCTOR SAX as our next venture. Hoping you're having a pleasant rest,-

as ever,

Jack

    Along with Joyce Glassman, Kerouac's friends Lucien Carr and his wife, Cessa, saw Jack depart New York harbor on the Yugoslavian freighter S.S. Slovenija to Tangier. They were among the firstpeople to whom he wrote letters after he'd sur- vived the rough crossing on the stormy North Atlantic Ocean. In Book Two of Desolation Angels, Kerouac described his excitement aboard ship, catching his first sight of the African coastal city:

Then like seeing sudden slow files of Mohammedan women in white ]saw the white roofs of the little port of Tangier sitting right there in the elbow of the land, on the water. This dream of white robed African on the blue afternoon Sea, wow, who dreamed it? Rimbaud! Magellan! Delacroix! Napoleon! White sheets waving on the rooftop!

(Continues ...)

Copyright © 1999 Jack Kerouac. All rights reserved.