Maher Jr., Paul; Marion, Paul (Kerouac, Jack)

I Am the Revolutionary: Young Jack Kerouac with: Atop an Underwood

ISBN: 9781387096824
Lowell, MA; New York, NY: Paul Maher Jr., 2017; 1999. First Editions. Softcover; Hardcover. Signed by Paul Maher Jr. "I Am the Revolutionary: Young Jack Kerouac had its origins with my intentions to write an even longer book for an academic press. It was to be a standalone tome that would have covered Kerouac's formative years as an upstart writer clawing his way through the thickets of frequently-read books (Joyce, Wolfe, Dostoevsky) and world circumstances (World War II), writing abandoned drafts, and go-nowhere novels to ultimately triumph before being altogether dismissed as a hack. There it was until I shared the concept with a biographer who absconded the idea and thus gave me cause to toss this project into the dustbin of memory and vainglorious aspiration." Thus begins the explanatory Preface to Paul Maher Jr.'s near-500 page, intensive study of Jack Kerouac's epic struggles to find his literary voice & become the Founding Father of the Beat Generation. Maher is the author of the acclaimed Jack Kerouac's American Journey: The Real Life Odyssey of 'On the Road' (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007), & has written or edited many other volumes on Kerouac, Miles Davis et al. This volume describes & analyzes Kerouac's background, life & work from his birth until September 1957, when On the Road was published to favorable reviews & "...Kerouac had finally achieved all his lifeblood stirred him into creating. He now had recognition, his name known throughout the country. His time had come- for better or worse." (pg. 486) Maher is a self-described non-academic writer, & this study is without foot- or endnotes, but there are many quotes from Kerouac's works & an acknowledgments section which shows the depth of his research (including an interview with Allen Ginsberg). I Am the Revolutionary is a very readable, most informative & insightful narrative. Trade-format softcover, first & only self-published edition. On the title page, Maher has hand-written his signature & date: (Signed) Paul Maher Jr./ December 17, 2018." We have bundled this with a collection of Kerouac's earliest writings, Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings. As stated on front flap, "Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his 1957 classic On the Road and became the definitive voice of Beat culture, he spent years figuring out how he wanted to live and, above all, learning how to write. In Atop an Underwood, editor Paul Marion has brought together more than sixty previously unpublished works that Kerouac wrote between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one, ranging from stories and poems to plays and parts of novels, including an excerpt from his 1943 merchant marine novel, The Sea Is My Brother. Readers, scholars, and critics will find in this book a fascinating missing link in Kerouac's development as a writer." Edited, with an introduction & commentary preceding each piece by Marion, an acclaimed poet & scholar who (like Maher) is a native & resident of Lowell, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Kerouac made famous in his works. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first edition, first printing as indicated by number sequence on copyright page. A scarce, most rewarding biographical-critical study of Kerouac's formative period preceding his notoriety; & a complimentary collection of his earliest writings- both essentials for the serious Kerouac scholar & collector. I Am the Revolutionary in very fine as-new condition with only a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine. Atop an Underwood: Book very fine with only a touch of wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket fine with very light rubbing & faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a few tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same & flaps; one short, closed vertical tear at upper right corner & side between spine & front cover. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #4309]

Price: $110.00