Beaulieu, Victor-Levy (Kerouac, Jack)

Jack Kerouac: A Chicken-Essay

Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Coach House Press, 1976. Limited Second Printing. Softcover. "This is the record of a Quebec novelist's obsession with Jack Kerouac and with the significance of Kerouac's life and writing for a Quebecois. Victor-Levy Beaulieu finds Kerouac's Americanism superficial, constituted mostly of desperate and unsuccessful flight from the Quebec gloom which was his inescapable heritage. He suggests that Kerouac's fear of women, his mother-worship, and his fear of death all show him to have been irrevocably tied to the culture of Quebec." (back cover) A critical study of the life & work of Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), Founding Father of the Beat Generation, by Victor-Levy Beaulieu (b. 1945), a noted Quebecois (French-Canadian native of Quebec) author, playwright & scholar. As Third Mind Students of Kerouac know, his Catholic French-Canadian heritage was of utmost importance & influence to his life & work. As noted in quote above, the author also discusses the impact of Kerouac's life & work on himself as a kindred Quebecois. Translated from the French language into English by Sheila Fischman (b. 1937), an acclaimed translator of modern Quebec literature. Oblong trade-format softcover in wrappers with flaps, "Second printing of 500 copies, November 1976" as stated at copyright page, preceded by first printing the previous year. A very scarce & rewarding Kerouac collectible in its penultimately rarest (perhaps numerically rarest) near-contemporary form- of great importance to the Kerouac scholar-collector specializing in this critical aspect of Kerouac's character, psyche & immortal creations. See also our item No.s 1748-51, 1779-80- six extreme rarities relating to Kerouac from Quebecois authors in the French language. In relatively quite near-fine condition with mild rubbing, faint scratching to front cover & spine; moderate but more significant rubbing at rear cover incl. small areas with loss of blue surface paper; light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of above & flaps; faint creasing across length of spine; slight inward & toward-front curvature of same; one partially closed, very short tear at upper left corner/edge of same with minimal loss of paper, surface paper; mild rubbing to edges of text block. Interior fine-to-very-fine with only a hint of browning to blank margins/edges of page leaves; tiny bumps at corners of a few of same. Near Fine. [Item #6755]

Price: $40.00