Johnson, Joyce

Minor Characters

ISBN: 0395325137
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Joyce Johnson. "Joyce Glassman was twenty-one years old when she met Jack Kerouac on a blind date in Greenwich Village arranged by the poet Allen Ginsberg. It was January 1957- nine months before the publication of On the Road would make Beat a permanent part of the American vocabulary. It was a time when most young women did not leave home, unless to move into college dormitories or marriage." (from front flap) The now-classic memoir by Joyce Johnson of her experiences with Kerouac, Ginsberg & other major founding figures of the Beat Generation in NYC just when it burst into notoriety. Subtitled "A memoir of a young woman of the 1950s in the Beat orbit of Jack Kerouac," this is the real-life story of how the very youthful & romantic (then-) Glassman became the lover of then 34-year-old Kerouac, "...who had recently confronted the Void on a mountaintop in California, who had spent himself in too many places and needed to come in off the road; a surprisingly shy man, ill-prepared for his upcoming encounter with the steamroller of fame..."(from front flap) Hardcover in price-clipped dust jacket, first edition, first printing as indicated by number sequence on copyright page. With detail of color photograph depicting Kerouac & the author in the neon-lit milieu of Greenwich Village on dust jacket front cover. On the title page, Johnson has hand-written her signature below her printed name in black ink. An essential & intimate Beat memoir from a relatively rare contemporary female perspective; highly collectible with Johnson's signature. Book in very fine condition with only a bit of wear at lower edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket fine with very slight rubbing & browning to front, back covers; spine & flaps; slightest wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; one very small area of creases & short, closed tear at lower spine-edge & corner of back cover. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #4171]

Price: $90.00