Creeley, Robert (Kerouac, Jack)

Robert Creeley on Jack Kerouac and Doctor Sax

Coventry, England: Beat Scene Press, 2021. Limited First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. Transcript of remarks delivered by the great Beat- Black Mountain School poet Robert Creeley (1926-2005), as a participant in the major conference that was held in Boulder, Colorado at the Naropa Institute during 1982 to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first publication of On the Road, the breakthrough novel by Jack Kerouac, Founding Father of the Beat Generation. Creeley was on a panel of distinguished Kerouac colleagues & contemporaries, each of whom were asked to discuss a particular Kerouac work. Creeley chose Dr. Sax (1959), Kerouac's haunting childhood memoir-fantasy. As noted on rear flap, Creeley "...only connected briefly with Jack Kerouac in San Francisco in the mid-1950s. It was the time of the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. On May 26, 1956 Creeley wrote to Kerouac- 'PS. Say goodbye to Locke & Valery and the kids for me please. I'll hope to see them too, before too long. Say goodbye to Neal (Cassady) for me too- I'm sorry all the time was so short.' As noted in acknowledgments, this transcript was posted on a website in 2015, & this we presume is its first appearance in print. With reproductions of vintage images, this handsome chapbook production in stapled wrappers with flaps is a publication of the Pocket Book series of Kevin Ring's indispensable Beat Scene Press imprint in the UK (see our many other volumes in this series & Beat Scene magazine issues). One of 200 hand-numbered copies produced in April 2021 per colophon, this is copy No. 63/200, issued as No. 70 in the series. A rewarding & significant Creeley/ Kerouac collectible; an instant rarity in this exquisite series. In very fine as-new condition, substantially mint inside & out. Very Fine. [Item #5121]

Price: $35.00