Hassett, Brian (Kerouac, Jack et al.)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac

ISBN: 9780994726209
Monee, IL: Get Things Done Publishing, 2015. Tenth Edition. Softcover. "The exploits chronicled in this book happened before I was on the Beat Circuit, but then this was really the first one...but I've been hearing about this thing ever since it happened. Every time any two people who were both there were in the same room they'd talk about it like they'd taken some wild trip together. That's why I was so "chuffed" to hear there was finally going to be a book on it...and who was writing it." (from Introduction by John Allen Cassady, pg. iv) A monumental memoir-chronicle of the legendary On the Road Conference held at the Naropa Institute's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado during 1982 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's breakthrough Beat Generation novel's first publication in 1957. Author Brian Hassett, the prolific Canadian poet, songwriter & Beat journalist extraordinaire, attended this historic event, met & conversed with the many primary Beat figures who were then still alive & (relatively) well: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, John Clellon Holmes, Herbert Huncke, Michael McClure & many others. Hassett is particularly close to the family of Neal Cassady (see quote above from Neal's son John), & Neal's widow Carolyn attended the Conference with him. There they both commiserated with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey & other then-living legends who were important members of Neal's post- On the Road, psychedelic 1960s "Acid-Test" period when he piloted the famous "further" bus & created the first bridge between the Beats & the nascent Hippie movement. With many contemporary photographs. A lengthy, stranger-than-fiction, fascinating work that recreates in great detail Hassett's experiences & encounters at this once-in-a-lifetime event which, we see in retrospect, launched Kerouac et al. & the Beat Generation from cult to canonical status, a phenomenon still playing out with no end in sight. Trade-format softcover original, first published in 2015, this is the "Tenth Edition- Fall 2020- The Blissful Revolution" as stated on copyright page. With eccentric exuberance, Hassett lists ten editions each named for some Holiday, promotional event or publishing milestone in his life & work. On the final page is publisher's reference to "17 March 2021," so we presume this & all copies are print-to-order productions. Surely the deepest description of what was one of the earliest & perhaps most significant gathering of original members of the Beat Generations, their scholars & acolytes. In very fine condition with only tiny bumps at lower right corners of front cover & first few pages; a bit of rubbing to side edge of text block; otherwise substantially as-new inside & out. Very Fine. [Item #4270]

Price: $30.00