First Edition of the On the Road, 1957 Today is the birthday of Jack Kerouac. Best known as the father of The Beat Generation his spontaneous prose style changed the game, bringing a fresh approach to the novel. Kerouac's iconic status shows no signs of letting up. All is books are still in print and his masterpiece On the Road remains a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations. On his spontaneous writing style: Many of his books exemplified the spontaneous approach, including On the Road, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, Big Sur, and The Subterraneans. The central features of this...
Going to any length: The manuscript of Marquis de Sade’s ‘The 120 Days of Sodom’
Part of the festivities celebrating the bicentenary of the death of Marquis de Sade is an exhibit at the L’ Institut des Lettres et Manuscrits in Paris featuring the original manuscript of The 120 Days of Sodom. Regarded by Sade as his magnum opus, The 120 Days of Sodom also known as The School of Libertinism, was written by Sade in the space of thirty-seven days in 1785 while imprisoned. The production, construction and preservation of the manuscript is itself an epic tale. Sade wrote for 3 hours each evening, copying his drafts on strips of paper 11" wide, he then glued them together to...
Jack Kerouac reads from ‘On The Road’, 1959
[youtube]http://youtu.be/QzCF6hgEfto[/youtube] Published in 1957 by Viking, On The Road would quickly become a cornerstone work of the Beat Generation and the bible of the American counterculture. Here is Kerouac appearing on the Steve Allen Show in 1959. First we get a nice background of the book's history from Kerouac: 7 years on the road, 3 weeks to write, and that it was written on a continous piece of teletype paper. Then Kerouac gets reading and Steve Allen gets playing, providing a stellar piano accompaniment. Reading from a novel written "in a form that reflected the improvisational fluidity of jazz" with Allen and company...
Lost Souls Are Contained In "The Library of Dust"
Canister #55-559(All Photos By David Maisel.)"Avoid the world, it's just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end."-Jack Kerouac.The crematorium, autopsy room, and hallways of an outbuilding at the Oregon State Hospital, formerly known as "The Insane Asylum," need to be cleaned. Not exactly a plum assignment. So a prisoner from a nearby penitentiary has been brought in for the job. He's perfect for it. He has no choice. But even the man in prison blues balks at entering one room. When its long-locked door is opened by a visiting photographer--fittingly one of those crazy artist...