World Famous Comics: Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome Traveler / Journal Selections (Library of America)
Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome Traveler / Journal Selections (Library of America)
By: Jack Kerouac Publisher: Library of America Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Library of America Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 900 Publication Date: September 01, 2007
Product Description: The raucous, exuberant, often wildly funny account of a journey through America and Mexico, Jack Kerouac's On the Road instantly defined a generation upon its publication in 1957: it was, in the words of a New York Times reviewer, "the clearest and most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat.'" Written in the mode of ecstatic improvisation that Allen Ginsberg described as "spontaneous bop prosody," Kerouac's novel remains electrifying in its thirst for experience and its defiant rebuke of American conformity.
In his portrayal of the fervent relationship between the writer Sal Paradise and his outrageous, exasperating, and inimitable friend Dean Moriarty, Kerouac created one of the great friendships in American literature; and his rendering of the cities and highways and wildernesses that his characters restlessly explore are a hallucinatory travelogue of a nation he both mourns and celebrates. Now, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Kerouac's landmark novel, The Library of America collects On the Road together with four other autobiographical "road books" published in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The Dharma Bums (1958), at once an exploration of Buddhist spirituality and an account of the Bay Area poetry scene, is notable for its thinly veiled portraits of Kerouac's acquaintances, including Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Kenneth Rexroth. The Subterraneans (1958) recounts a love affair set amid the bars and bohemian haunts of San Francisco. Tristessa (1960) is a melancholy novella describing a relationship with a prostitute in Mexico City. Lonesome Traveler (1960) collects travel essays that evoke journeys in Mexico and Europe, and concludes with an elegiac lament for the lost world of the American hobo. Also included in Road Novels are selections from Kerouac's journal, which provide a fascinating perspective on his early impressions of material eventually incorporated into On the Road.
A Must Read! Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" was the inspiration for much of the early Beat movement and gained literary respectability for Beat literature. The other novels in this collection, all part of Kerouac's semi-autobiographical tales of wandering in search of self, are more than just good reads, but shed light on much that has happened in American culture and society since the end of World War II.
If you want to understand the counter-culture movement that came to prominence in the 1960s, then you have to understand its origins in the Beat movement, and there is no better introduction to the Beats than Kerouac's "On the Road." This anthology is highly recommended.
An excellent collection. An excellent collection of Kerouac novels. It is worth buying for On the Road & The Dharma Bums alone. Good for keeping your book collection compact. Definitely buy it if you are thinking about it.
All My Favorite Books What a wonderful collection! My copies of these books keep magically walking out the door.
On The Road was the first book I finished and immediately began to read again.
Should be on everyone's must read list!
King of the Beats at his best I had to read the Dharma Bums for a college course, being a fan of Hemingway, I immediately fell in love with Kerouac. With his passion for America and the human spirit most of these stories are invigorating tales of freedom. Also, when he presents heroes like Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty of On the Road) and Gary Snyder (Japhy Ryder in The Dharma Bums) he does so in an unbiased manner, presenting their flaws along with their accomplishments. He blurs the line between poetry and prose to tell his wonderful stories. I think everyone should read at least some Kerouac.
What a great collection! Thank you Library of America for this wonderful collection.
to reviewer sky, I don't think you really know Kerouac's background when you characterize him as one of the "con-men, impostors, poseurs, and talentless hacks". he was actually quite a serious - yet at the same time anguished - person; he drank himself to death because he couldn't handle the fame. amazing what one NYT review can do.
also, I've got to wonder about your literary understanding if you can't pick out the fantastic linguistic rhythms in the paragraph you quoted.
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