[Item #4330] The Ragged Promised Land: Jack Kerouac's America, and Other Scenes. Gregory Stephenson, Jack Kerouac.
The Ragged Promised Land: Jack Kerouac's America, and Other Scenes
The Ragged Promised Land: Jack Kerouac's America, and Other Scenes

The Ragged Promised Land: Jack Kerouac's America, and Other Scenes

ISBN: 9788797156926
Heidelberg, Germany: Ober-Limbo Verlag, 2020. First Edition. Softcover. "Travels in a holy holy land, sojourns in a skid row hotel, larceny & poetic license, a secret Victorian stoner, raptures of an impoverished consumptive young poet, the strange resurrection of old engravings, a gathering of far-flung fragments, moving a ton of weed. Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Akbar del Piombo, Samuel Greenberg, Jerry Kamstra and someone else." (back cover) A collection of essays & miscellaneous writings by Gregory Stephenson, the American expatriate writer who has long lived in Denmark & is our esteemed colleague at the European Beat Studies Network (ebsn.eu). First & longest is the title piece, a deep & scholarly footnoted essay on the life, ideas & works of Jack Kerouac, Founding Father of the Beat Generation. Also essays on Gregory Corso's early life in prison; Kerouac's residency at a fleabag hotel in Seattle, Washington during the time recounted in his novel Desolation Angels; the Beat-Collage novels of Akbar del Piombo (pen name of Norman Rubington, 1921-1991); the anonymous Victorian-era memoir of a marijuana smoker (the "someone else" referred to on back cover quote above) & Kerouac's contributions to vintage journals & magazines, all with many images of ephemera & footnotes. Also reviews of a collection of writings by Samuel Greenberg (1893-1917, the "impoverished consumptive young poet" in above quote), & of the memoir Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler by Jerry Kamstra, both with images of the volumes & the former with facsimile manuscript page & footnotes. Trade-format softcover original, first edition, a handsome German production. We proudly present a most varied, informative, insightful & delightful collection by our acclaimed friend. In very fine, all-but-mint condition with only a bit of rubbing & faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same. Interior with only miniscule bumps at upper corners of a few page leaves; otherwise substantially mint. Very Fine. [Item #4330]

Price: $20.00