Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, Vol. 1, 1940-1956

ISBN: 0140234446

Author: Kerouac, Jack

Condition: New

An exhilarating (Chicago Tribune) selection of Jack Kerouacs most personal, truthful, and mesmerizing letters that trace his life and craft-edited by Ann ChartersAs we just now begin to map fully the fallout of [the Beat Generations] creative explosion, these letters offer an invaluable blueprint to the intricate, high-yield ballistics that went into creating it.-San Francisco ExaminerIt was in his letters that Jack Kerouac set down the raw material that he transmuted into his novels, exploring and refining the spontaneous prose style that became his trademark. The letters in this volume, written between 1940, when Kerouac was a freshman at college, and 1956, immediately before his breathless leap into celebrity with the publication of On the Road, offer invaluable insights into Kerouacs family life, his friendships with Neal and Carolyn Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and William S. Burroughs, his travels, love affairs, and literary apprenticeships.At once fascinating reading and a major addition to Kerouac scholarship, here is a rare portrait of the writer as a young adventurer of immense talent, energy, and ambition in the midst of writing and living an American legend.