Charters, Ann (Kerouac, Jack)

Kerouac: A Biography

London, England: Andre Deutsch, 1974. First UK Edition. Hardcover. "Ann Charters demythifies Kerouac's public image as 'king of the Beats' and tells the truth about the original hopes and visions, about experiments with drugs and sexuality; about frenzied quests across the country, in Mexico and in Tangier; about the years of failure; about accidental murders, madness and despair. She unlocks the literary mysteries of his books, revealing who really was who and what really happened...Ann Charters first met Kerouac while on a date with Peter Orlovsky at one of the earliest San Francisco Poetry Readings. Later he helped her compile his formal bibliography...Since his death in 1969 she has consulted closely with his surviving peers -- friends, enemies, lovers, particularly Ginsberg himself -- exhaustively researching every aspect of his work and his life to produce this first biography." (from Front Flap). Offered here is the first UK edition of Ann Charters' pioneering biography of Jack Kerouac. As the blurb quoted above states, Charters exhaustively probed the complex, confounding history of her subject. The result is an essential addition to any Kerouac collection or Beat-&-Beyond library. [ISBN: 233-96516-5]. First British hardcover edition in unrestored, clipped dust-jacket. Book in strong near fine condition with only minute shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; similarly-minute salmon-pink toning (most likely from sunning-related bleeding of the color on the front cover tanning the boards a bit) along most fine-edges of same; former owner has ornately written his name on recto of interior FFEP in blue fountain pen ink (see photo). Dust-jacket also in near fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; a few exhibits of modest rubbing to latter; lone, faintly visible spot slightly above & to the right of Kerouac's nose on front cover illustration; since-flattened vertical closed tear at topmost fine-edge of back cover near center-middle. Near Fine / Fine. [Item #5208]

Price: $65.00