The portable Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
from Doctor Sax. It was in Centralville I was born-- across the wide basin to the hill, on Lupine Road, March 1922, at five o'clock-- -- from Visions of Gerard. For the first four years of my life, while he lived, I was not Ti Jean Duluoz, I was Gerard, the world was his face-- -- Home at Christmas. It's a Sunday afternoon in New England just three days before Christmas-- -- from Doctor Sax. Two o'clock, strange, thunder, and the yellow walls of my mother's kitchen with the green electric clock-- -- from Maggie Cassidy. The Concord River flows by her house, in July evening the ladies of Massachusetts Street are sitting on wooden doorsteps with newspapers for fans-- -- from Vanity of Duluoz. What dreams you get when you think you're going to go to college-- -- from On the road. With the coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life you could call my life on the road-- -- from On the road. The Mexican girl. I had bought my ticket and was waiting for the L.A. bus-- -- from On the road. It was drizzling and mysterious at the beginning of our journey-- -- Jazz of the beat generation. Out we jumped in the warm mad night hearing a wild tenorman's bawling horn-- -- from Lonesome traveler. from The railroad earth. There was a little alley in San Francisco back of the Southern Pacific station at Third and Townsend in redbrick of drowsy lazy afternoons-- -- from The subterraneans. I had never heard such a story from such a soul except from the great men I had known in my youth, great heroes of America-- -- from Tristessa. I'm riding along with Tristessa in the cab, drunk, with big bottle of Juarez Bourbon whiskey in the till-bag railroad lootbag-- -- from The Dharma bums. Hopping a freight out of Los Angeles at high noon one day in late September 1955-- -- from Good blonde. "Damn," said I, "I'll just hitchhike on that highway" (101) seeing the fast flash of many cars-- -- from The Dharma bums. In Berkeley I was living with Alvah Goldbook in his little rose-covered cottage in the backyard of a bigger house on Milvia Street-- -- from Desolation angels. It was on this trip that the great change took place in my life-- -- from Big Sur. The last time I ever hitch hiked, and NO RIDES a sign--
from San Francisco blues -- Daydreams for Ginsberg -- Rose pome -- Woman -- Rimbaud -- Hymn : And when you showed me Brooklyn Bridge -- Poem : I demand that the human race ceases multiplying -- A pun for Al Gelpi -- Two poems dedicated to Thomas Merton -- How to meditate -- Hitch hiker -- Pome on Doctor Sax -- from Book of haikus. Some Western haikus -- Sea : the sounds of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur.
Belief & technique for modern prose -- Essentials of spontaneous prose -- The first word : Jack Kerouac takes a fresh look at Jack Kerouac -- Are writers made or born?
In the ring -- On the road to Florida -- from Visions of Cody. The three stooges ; Well, Cody is always interested in himself-- ; Joan Rawshanks in the fog -- from Book of dreams -- from Old angel midnight.
The beginning of bop -- About the Beat generation -- Lamb, no lion -- Beatific : the origins of the Beat generation -- After me, the deluge.
The last word : because none of us want to think that the universe is a blank dream-- -- from Book of dreams -- from The scripture of the golden eternity.
To Norma Blickfelt, August 25, 1942 : young merchant seaman Kerouac describes his dream of becoming a writer -- To Neal Cassady, May 22, 1951 : account to Neal about "my book about you" (On the road) -- To John Clellon Holmes, June 3, 1952 : Wild form's the only form holds what I have to say-- -- To Allen Ginsberg, October 1, 1957 : "everything's been happening here" the week after publication of On the road -- To Allen Ginsberg, September 22, 1960 : Description of West Coast trip later dramatized in Big Sur -- To Sterling Lord, May 5, 1961 : List of books comprising the Duluoz legend -- To Ann Charters, August 5, 1966 : Invitation to visit him in Hyannis and work together on his bibliography : "I've kept the neatest records you ever saw."
