Kerouac, Jack

Big Sur

New York, NY: Bantam Books, Inc., 1963. First Softcover Edition. Softcover. "A NIGHTMARE SUMMER/ Duluoz- The King of the Beatniks- tortured, broken idol of a whole generation; great, modern sex god who just wanted to be alone with his cat; all-time boozer of the century who was slowly drinking himself out of his mind./ BILLIE- his fashion-model mistress who knew every dirty trick in the book. Duluoz was her man, meal ticket and stud rolled up into one, and she wasn't going to let him get away from her no matter what!/ ELLIOT- Billie's son- he saw things that would make any adult flinch./ AND/ BIG SUR- the lonely, wild, surf-pounded shore where Duluoz went to hide; where the world tracked him down and made its final attempt to destroy him." (front endpaper) One of the great works of fictionalized memoir by Beat Generation Founding Father Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), describing his decline in reaction to "The Catastrophe of Success" (to borrow a phrase from Tenessee Williams) & portending his rapid spiral toward doom. The remote, scenically spectacular cabin to which Kerouac's alter ego Jack Duluoz retreats to was in real life a home of Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021, "Lorenzo Monsanto"), the great Beat-&-Beyond publisher, poet & bookseller. Other legendary fellow Beat- San Francisco Renaissance luminaries in this work include Neal Cassady ("Cody Pomeray"), Allen Ginsberg ("Irwin Garden"), Michael McClure ("Pat McClure"), Gary Snyder ("Jarry Wagner") & Lew Welch ("Dave Wain"). In exemplary Kerouac fashion, as in Desolation Angels (1965, see our item No. 5071), his character swings like a pendulum from reclusive escape back into the maelstrom of Bohemian revelry he somewhat unwittingly inspired. Offered here is the first mass-market format softcover edition published the year following the first hardcover edition of 1962, first printing with no reference to further printings. Featuring an evocative, signed but uncredited front cover illustration; & with ironically lurid, exploitative promotional copy (quoted above) toward which Kerouac must have shaken his head in distress. A canonical Kerouac classic in a penultimately original contemporary form. See also our item No. 3453 (first British hardcover edition). In relatively good-to-near-fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing, scratching to front, back covers & spine; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; moderate-to-significant rubbing, browning of faded yellow-dyed edges of text block. Interior good-to-near-fine with moderate rubbing, occasional spotting to blank inner covers; (inevitable) moderate-to-significant browning of all page leaves esp. at margins/edges; tiny bumps, creases at corners of some of same; hand-written cursive notation ("keep 2"?) in black ink at blank area of front endpaper near upper right corner; small, closed horizontal tears at blank middle margin/edges of first few leaves. Good- Near Fine. [Item #5215]

Price: $50.00