Kerouac, Jack

Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1940-1956

ISBN: 0670849529
New York, NY: Viking Penguin, 1995. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed & dated at time of publication by Ann Charters. "Written between 1940, when (Jack) Kerouac was a college freshman, and 1956, immediately before his breathless leap into celebrity with the publication of On the Road, these letters offer invaluable insights into Kerouac's family life, friendships, travels, love affairs, and literary apprenticeship. Dispatches to the real-life models for his fictional pantheon- including Neal and Carolyn Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Gary Snyder- give us our first accounts of the events that inspired On the Road, Visions of Cody, and The Dharma Bums. Many of the letters have annotations added by Kerouac. 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." (from front & back flaps) A long-awaited sensation for dedicated readers & scholars when first published over a quarter-century ago, this is the first of two volumes of letters by Jack Kerouac, Founding Father of the Beat Generation. Edited & with an introduction, extensive notes & commentary by Ann Charters, Kerouac's earliest biographer & bibliographer who stands at the top of the Pantheon of Kerouac scholarship. Among the letters, to family members & those young friends who would join him in creating the Beat Generation, are a few from them to him. Here we offer the first edition, first printing as indicated by number sequence on copyright page. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket featuring detail of a portrait of Kerouac which was used on the DJ back cover of the first edition of his first novel, The Town and the City (1950) on front cover; collage of his manuscript letters & a self-portrait drawing on back cover. On the title page, Charters has hand-signed, placed & dated at the very time of publication: "(signed) Ann Charters/ St. Mark's Church/ 3/15/95." The venue referred to is of course home to the long-running Beat-&-Beyond Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church on the Bowery in NYC; & the date, besides being so contemporaneous with publication, happens to be within days of what would have been Kerouac's 73rd birthday on March 12. An essential, indispensable resource for the Kerouac & Beat Generation collector-scholar; & an exceptional rarity with this most significant signature, place & date. Book in very fine condition with only a few tiny spots at upper edge of text block near spine; very slight rubbing at lower edge of same at side edge; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket very fine with only a few miniscule bumps & short, faint creases at thin edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; slight rubbing & scratching to clear protective jacket which has been affixed to blank inner lower spine by previous seller/ owner & therefore irremovable without slight damage. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #4121]

Price: $125.00