Charters, Ann; Gifford, Barry; Lee, Lawrence (Kerouac, Jack)

Jack Kerouac Biography Bundle: Ann Charters’ “Kerouac: A Biography” (1) with: “Jack’s Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac” (2)

San Francisco, CA; New York, NY: Straight Arrow Books; St. Martin's Press, 1973; 1978. First Editions. Hardcovers. Gathered here for the assiduous and dedicated Jack Kerouac scholar-&-enthusiast are two of the earliest professional volumes of Kerouac scholarship, Ann Charters’ “Kerouac: A Biography” (1) and “Jack’s Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac” (2). In the 1970s, Beat Scholarship was still in its infancy; a new generation of academics that had come up with The Beat Generation and were convinced of its existence and substance were cresting into maturity, and it was this period that saw the first flourish of major works of Beat Scholarship completed. Two of these early triumphs came in the form of the books offered here, Ann Charters’ “Kerouac: A Biography” & the Barry Gifford-Lawrence Lee co-production “Jack’s Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac.” (1) Proceeding chronologically, we begin in 1973 with Ann Charters’ “Kerouac: A Biography,” written with the author’s memory of her subject still fresh, and with most of his associates & family still alive and generously cooperative. Although the warring claims and typical scholastic quarrels that are the inevitable byproducts of biography-writing have not spared this biography of Kerouac (John Montgomery is one notable objector) “the nays do not have it,” as it were, and is still today an essential item for any serious collector & student of Kerouac’s life and work. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket, first printing as stated on copyright page. Book in very fine condition with only the faintest shelf-wear to topmost & bottom most fine-edges of front & back covers; the brown speckles on the boards—which, if one does not look closely, might seem to be scuffs—but are in fact part of the designs of the boards as issued. Dust-jacket in equally pristine condition, quite beautifully preserved with only a slight speck of visible shelf-wear at top left-hand corner of front cover and a tiny circular chip at the bottom right-hand corner of same along fine-edge; single tiny instance of rubbing and shelf-wear at bottom left-hand corner of back cover along bottommost fine-edge; a few very slight appearances of shelf-wear along rightmost fine-edge of same. A most beautiful copy worthy of any serious collector’s library. (2) Next, we have 1978’s “Jack’s Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac,” an incredibly interesting but oft-overlooked contribution to the canon of Kerouac scholarship. Perhaps this is because it’s easy to assume from the title that it will lack in the structure and organization required of great biography; that it will be merely a disconnected assembly of anecdotes—the biographical equivalent of a hairnet lunch lady remorselessly ladling prison slop onto the pages. The facts of the matter could not be any more different; the composition alone is unique, as it’s divided into six primary sections (“The Town”; “The City”; “The Road”; “The City Revisited”; “Big Sur”; “A Gloomy Bookmovie”) and the sort of explanatory hand-holding native to detail-laden biography is woven throughout the text—they don’t just drop you off in Anecdote Land and expect you to figure it out. These six sections are rounded out by an informative, if biting Prologue which precedes them and followed by an “Epilogue” (which isn’t actually an epilogue but a set of “Last Words on the Subject”-of sorts from a few of the interviewees Gifford & Lee consulted while creating “Jack’s Book”). In the Prologue, Gifford & Lee stake out a position in direct opposition to the one established in John Tytell’s 1976 masterwork “Naked Angles: The Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation” (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1976). Tytell, for his part, does much to prove that The Beat Generation was, in fact, a “generation:” that the subject matter and emotions represented by characters and narrators which populate Beat novels and poetry did in fact match the energies of the cultural zeitgeist. In contrast, Gifford & Lee go as far as to proclaim that there is no such thing as The Beat Generation—that any use of the term as it pertains to sociological observations, cultural currents, or the milieu in which Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, & William S. Burroughs lived and worked is invalid. They claim the only valid use of the term is in relation to the writing, philosophy, and creative or intellectual products of Ginsberg, Kerouac & Burroughs. We’re not sure if Gifford & Lee ever expounded upon this thesis more fully, but the reader of Jack’s Book will be happy that they didn’t here—because this book is an Emperor’s Buffet of Anecdotes. The interviewees range from every period of Jack’s life, from high school girlfriends like Mary Carney to key associates that personally witnessed and aided his literary-philosophical development (John Clellon Holmes, Lucien Carr, etc.)—and of course, we mustn’t forget to include the invaluable additions to the book provided by those who Gifford & Lee claim to be his only equals: Allen Ginsberg and the great William S. Burroughs. The recollections of Carolyn Cassady & Luanne Henderson are also a fun, Page Six-gossipy touch—by turns cringing and laughing at the adolescent instability of these Men of Genius. The final distinguishing feature of “Jack’s Book” is the “Character Key to the Duluoz Legend” supplied at the back of the book—an indispensable resource for the Beat scholar as they probe the life, work, and “lonely victory” of Jack Kerouac. From the Collection of Robert Zaidman, noted blues guitarist and former director of the legendary Folk Music institution “The Folklore Center, NYC” where the likes of Simon & Garfunkel & Tim Buckley once played. [ISBN: 0-312-43942-3]. First Edition hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket. (2) Book in very fine condition with only slightest shelf-wear to fine-edges and small bump to bottom right-hand corner of front cover; tiny bump at top right-hand corner of same; small bump to bottom left-hand corner of back cover; tiny bump at top left-hand corner of same; typical age-toning, spotting to top of text block. Unrestored dust-jacket in fine condition with only small bumps corresponding exactly to those described during the “Book” part of this description and faint horizontal rubbing running along the left side of Kerouac’s face on front cover; minute shelf-wear to fine-edges of front, back covers; small spot affecting only the “th” in the word “the” at bottommost promotional blurb on back cover which reads (in part) “…words of the men and women who were his companions on his lifelong trip through America.” It is by far one of the cleaner copies of “Jack’s Book” that we’ve seen, unsurprising given that it is from the meticulously-kept Zaidman Collection. An extra handling fee will be added for shipping due to the weight of this item. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #4572]

Price: $125.00