Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouacs roman De underjordiska i översättning av Andreas Vesterlund och med efterord av Peter Glas. De underjordiska är en av Kerouacs många självbiografiska berättelser som bara fått lätt förklädnad genom att de verkliga personerna har fått nya namn. Även platsen har bytts ut - från New York till San Francisco - annars är allt som sker precis vad Kerouac tyckte att han upplevde. Det hela utspelas 1953, under två månader när Kerouac genomlevde en kärleksrelation samtidigt som han festade hårt med vänner och bekanta. Vänkretsen som porträtteras är "denna fantastiska nya förbryllande grupp underjordiska" som Adam Moorad (i verkligheten Allen Ginsberg) hade upptäckt och namngett. "De är hippa utan att vara tillgjorda, intelligenta fast inte töntiga, intellektuella som fan." Gruppen har sina manér och poser: en "underjordisk typ" är inte alls öppenhjärtig och godmodig utan tvärtom "hal och hemlig", men så är de underjordiska också omöjliga att trycka ner, "de är de mest onedtryckbara i hela världen". I denna känslomässigt karga miljö träffar huvudpersonen Leo Percepied (Kerouac) den väna, fina flickan Mardou Fox (Alene Lee). Mardou är "svart överklass", delvis också indian, hon är "ung, sexig, slank, mystisk, hip". Hon är alltid sofistikerat klädd, till exempel i märkliga byxor och med fötterna i sandalremmar, medan Leo beskriver sig själv som "en stor gladlynt huligan" som kan vara så tölpigt klädd att han kan ha en "riktigt anstötlig o-Beach-aktig skjorta". Så visst är de till det yttre ett omaka par. Ändå fungerar de fint ihop. Mardou är "den enda tjejen jag nånsin känt som verkligen kan förstå och sjunga bop" och bop, alltså den improviserade bebopjazzen à la Charlie Parker, är Leos högst älskade musikform, så här har paret en trivsam, rent ut sagt underbar mötesplats. De kan också konsten att småprata tillsammans om allt möjligt. De har så likartade tankar, de "ser samma sak". Sådan är upptakten till denna smärtsamt vackra kärlekshistoria. Ingen kan som Kerouac berätta som det är, som det faktiskt är, utan skygglappar, utan självcensur. Han är inte det minsta rädd för att avslöja sina egna tillkortakommanden. Och Mardou (Alene) stannar i läsarens minne för evigt. De underjordiska (originalets titel: The Subterraneans) i översättning av Andreas Vesterlund och med efterord av Peter Glas. ISBN 978-91-7742-619-6. Högkvalitetspapper, sydda ark, mjuka pärmar med flikomslag, 176 sidor.

A book of letters revealing the inner desires and turmoils of Jack Kerouac after his rise to literary acclaim in the 1960s. In 1960, Jack Kerouac began a correspondence with a New York artist by the name of Jacques Beckwith. The basic subject of their letters was always the same. They each longed to build a cabin in the forest which would serve as a retreat from the pressure and disappointment of the outside world. "I want to live in the woods where I don't even have to think about this evil world of wars and dishonesties," Kerouac wrote. Beckwith offered to help Jack design and build his retreat, but after years of planning only Jacques realized the dream. The world was too much with Kerouac. Alcoholism, a paternity suit, travel, the demands of a writing career, marriage, and eventually his mother's declining health kept him from making his break. These letters document all these distractions and frustrations and reveal Kerouac's desire for the solitude which Beckwith found in the New England woods.

A collection of previously unpublished writing culled from the Kerouac archive Jack Kerouac’s archive is vast. Throughout his life he was constantly writing, and he meticulously saved and catalogued his material. The result is that beyond the work published in his lifetime there has been a rich stream of posthumous writing that is far from tapped, adding depth to his lifework—the Duluoz Legend—and our understanding of Kerouac the man. Far from being the adrenalized thrill-seeker that he depicted in On the Road’s Dean Moriarty, Kerouac himself was deeply spiritual, shy, and reclusive. He sought adventures for the sake of experience, needing them to fuel his writing, which according to him was his sole reason for living. Few people sacrificed more for their art. This collection of previously unpublished writing culled from the Kerouac archive, and as a companion to Paul Maher Jr.'s Becoming Kerouac, spans Kerouac’s adult life, from a journal written at age seventeen to autobiographical reflections a few years before his death. Self-Portrait is a blend of fictional and nonfictional pieces, a few abandoned starts but most complete in themselves and all of them chosen for the revelations they contain. In The Moon and Sixpence, Somerset Maugham wrote, “A man’s work reveals him… No one can produce the most casual work without disclosing the innermost secrets of his soul.” There are more than two dozen Kerouac biographies, but Self-Portrait reveals the artist in his own words, from his early ambition to the deep self-examination of his “Self-Ultimacy” period, his three-year struggle to write On the Road, musings about himself and America in the half-dozen years before the novel was published and then in the aftermath amid his public withdrawal, suffering from alcoholism and hounded by fame. Through it all there are tortuous feelings about his family—love, guilt, duty, and betrayal. As fans of Kerouac have come to learn, reading his work is a visceral probe.

Dzhek Keruak (Zhan-Lui Lebri de Keruak, 1922-1969) - pisatel-epokha, pisatel-paradoks, posejavshij veter i ne uspevshij tolkom uznat, chto pozhal burju, ne utikhshuju i v nashi vremena. Vykhodets iz obednevshej semi frantsuzskikh aristokratov, on stal golosom protestujuschej amerikanskoj molodezhi i poznakomil molodykh amerikanskikh intellektualov s buddizmom. "Moja samaja sereznaja, pechalnaja i pravdivaja kniga", - tak otzyvalsja Keruak o "Videnijakh Zherara", svoem pervom romane iz avtobiograficheskogo tsikla "Legendy Duluoza", romane, napisannom v pamjat o gorjacho ljubimom starshem brate, kotoryj prozhil ochen korotkuju, no schastlivuju zhizn, ostaviv neizgladimyj sled v serdtse malenkogo Dzheka. V "Doktore Sakse" my vstrechem ego uzhe podrostkom. Bujnye pokhozhdenija s druzjami peremezhajutsja snami i fantazijami, glavnyj geroj kotorykh - zagadochnaja figura v razvevajuschemsja plasche i shirokopoloj shljape, nochnoj prizrak Doktor Saks, prizvannyj pobedit Mirovoe Zlo v litse Velikogo Vsesvetnogo Zmeja. I, nakonets, "Meggi Kessidi" - pronzitelnyj, svetlyj i po-junosheski zharkij rasskaz o pervoj ljubvi.

From one of themost famous of the Beat writers, Kerouac's final novel of brotherhood and travel, now reissued in a standalone edition following his centenary celebration Pic--full name Pictorial Review Jackson--isa ten-year-old Black boy living in rural North Carolina with his grandfather inthe 1940s. When Pic is forced to move in with his aunt after his grandfather'spassing, his older brother Slim appears to rescue him. Together, they hitch aride to New York City, where Slim lives with his pregnant girlfriend, but thecity's poverty shocks young Pic. When Slim loses job after job, the brotherswill pick up and head west, making their way to California across a countrysuffused with hardship, music, love, and danger. Kerouac's last publishednovel, Pic is an endearing portrayal of brotherhood and the classicAmerican road trip, seen through the adventurous eyes of a child.

"Välkommen nyöversättning. En helt annan slags upplevelse!" Magnus Eriksson, Sydsvenskan "Litterär galenskap så som den skrevs. Tonsäker översättning!" Gunnar Balgård, Västerbottens-kuriren "Vesterlund kommer nära författarens ursprungliga prosaflöde. Det är utmärkt!" Thomas Kjellgren, Smålandsposten "Utmärkt översättning... underbart att äntligen få ta del av ett manus om stympades så kraftigt av femtiotalets moraltanter och gubbar!" Elisabeth Brännström, Tidningen Kulturen Jack Kerouacs roman På väg – originalversionen. För första gången på svenska. Översättning av Andreas Vesterlund, efterord av Per Planhammar. Äntligen är den här. Jack Kerouacs omåttligt inflytelserika roman On the Road i sin ursprungliga version – så som han faktiskt skrev den. Tidigare svenska utgåvor har varit baserade på den förenklade och censurerade text det amerikanska förlaget valde att publicera när boken första gången kom ut 1957. Kerouac själv var bedrövad – trots det stora genombrott boken skänkte honom. Det var nämligen inte hans text som gått i tryck, det var något annat, något förvanskat, något han knappt ville kännas vid. Rimlighetens kvarnar malde sedan på långsamt men obevekligt och till sist kom så – efter mer än femtio år – boken ut i sin korrekta oförstörda utgåva på samma amerikanska förlag, en utgåva som helt och hållet följer författarens manuskript. Hade Kerouac fortfarande levt hade han sträckt en segernäve i luften. On the Road / På väg är den berömda romanen om att kasta loss, om att ge sig iväg, om att ta sig dit omständigheterna leder en, hela tiden med att öppet yrvaket sinne och en alert livsutforskande vilja att ta reda på vad omvärlden (i detta fall: hela USA) inrymmer och vad själva livet går ut på. Det är starten på en hel genre, föregångaren till alla road movies, alla ge-järnet-nu-drar-vi-försök, alla full-fart-mot-horisonten-uppror. Och den är fortfarande oöverträffad. Speciellt nu när vi får läsa den i sitt rätta skick. Det amerikanska förlaget ansåg att boken var för omoralisk och rakt på sak och satte en redaktör till att skriva om den. Idag är det groteskt att se vad som gjordes, oräkneliga ändringar, och än märkligare är det att det är den förvanskade versionen som alltid tidigare gått i tryck på svenska, i två tidigare översättningar som båda kommit i flera upplagor. Redan bokens inledande mening, när författaren berättar att han för första gången mötte romanens huvudperson Neal/Dean "not long after my father died" ändrades av den manipulativa redaktören till oigenkänneliga "not long after my wife and I split up". Varför? Ja, det kan man grubbla över. Hursomhelst utsattes romanen för en brutal misshandel som rimligen måste ha tätplats i kategorin litteraturhistoriens värsta redaktionella övergrepp. Sexuell klartext dämpades eller ströks, homosexuella handlingar skrevs om eller hoppades över, drogbruket tonades ner. Hela den vilda spontana galna romanen genomgick en feghetstvätt, en försiktighetsomvandling som idag framstår som ofattbar.

Dzhek Keruak (Zhan-Lui Lebri de Keruak,1922-1969) - pisatel-epokha, pisatel-paradoks, posejavshij veter i neuspevshij tolkom uznat, chto pozhal burju, neutikhshuju i v nashi vremena. Vykhodets iz obednevshej semi frantsuzskikharistokratov, on stal golosom protestujuschej amerikanskoj molodezhi ipoznakomil molodykh amerikanskikh intellektualov s buddizmom. Kritikivysokomerno ne zamechali ego, chitateli-nonkonformisty - nosili na rukakh. O chem by ni pisal Dzhek-buntar, on vsegda rasskazyval - upoenno i strastno - o sebe i svoem pokolenii. Pokolenii, iskavshem vozmozhnosti ljubymi sposobami vyrvatsja iz privychnogo obyvatelskogo ujutnogo bytija v mir absoljutnoj i, kak sledstvie, nedostizhimoj svobody. Dva ochen raznykh i ravno talantlivykh proizvedenija Dzheka Keruaka. Nebolshoj i polnostju avtobiografichnyj roman"Podzemnye", po legende, napisannyj vsego za tri dnja, o strastnoj, boleznennoj ljubvi-oderzhimosti belogo parnja k chernokozhej krasavitse, roman, napolnennyj rvuschimi dushu golosami dzhaza, potokamialkogolja i isstuplennoj, na iznos i naotmash, zhiznju molodoj bogemy 50-kh. Ipovest "Zhiv" - tragikomicheskaja saga, napisannaja ot litsa neunyvajuschegomalchishki iz juzhnoj glubinki.

Angely opustoshenija - kniga, kotoraja podvodit itogi ne tolko pervykh dvukh romanov trilogii - Na doroge i Brodjagi Dkharmy, no i vsej bujnoj, jarkoj i svoeobraznoj kultury amerikanskogo bitnichestva. Mozhno li uderzhat v sebe tishinu vysokogornykh vershin, snova spustivshis v shum i sutoloku gorodov? Mozhno li sokhranit s trudom obretennoe vnutrennee odinochestvo, vnov okazavshis v beskonechnoj krugoverti ljudej, blizkikh i chuzhikh, znakomykh i neznakomykh? Mozhno li, nakonets, zhit dalshe, s kazhdym dnem vse ostree oschuschaja, kak umiraet v tebe dukh buntarstva i poiska, - vse, chto ty godami schital svoim podlinnym i edinstvenno vozmozhnym smyslom zhizni? Vremena menjajutsja, i vmeste s nimi menjaemsja my. Gody idut, zhiznennyj opyt neumolimo vedet dushu k vzrosleniju. I po-drugomu zvuchit dzhaz, i gorek vkus alkogolja, i slivajutsja linii beschislennykh dorog i litsa beschislennykh zhenschin... Chto - i zachem - emu delat teper?

Now reissued following his centenary celebration, the renowned Beat writer's colorful and meandering search for his family historySatori in Paris is the semi-autobiographical tale of Jack Kerouac's trip to France in search of his heritage. Beginning in Paris and moving west to Brittany, Kerouac traces the paths of his ancestors and explores his own understanding of the Buddhism that came to define his beliefs. From his familiar milieu of strangers and all-night conversations in seedy bars, to a pivotal cab ride in which he experiences Buddhism's satori--a feeling of sudden understanding--Kerouac's affecting and revolutionary writing transports the reader. Published at the height of his fame and showcasing his mature talent, Satori in Paris is a lyrical, rollicking tale of philosophy, identity, and the power and strangeness of travel.

From the most famous of the Beat writers, the semi-autobiographical novel of growing up between dreams and nightmares in early twentieth century Massachusetts, now reissued following Kerouac's centenary celebrationA haunting novel of deeply felt adolescence, Dr. Sax is the story of Jack Duluoz, a French-Canadian boy growing up in Kerouac's own birthplace, the dingy factory town of Lowell, Massachusetts. There, Dr. Sax, with his flowing cape, slouched hat, and insinuating leer, is chief among the many ghosts and demons that populate Jack's fantasy world. Deftly mingling memory and dream, Kerouac captures the accents and textures of his boyhood in Lowell in this novel of a cryptic, apocalyptic hipster phantom that he once described as "the greatest book I ever wrote, or that I will write."

Truth and Beautiful Meaningful Lies is a collection of memorable quotes from one of the most quoted writers in American literature. One of the most celebrated writers in American literature, Jack Kerouac helped an entire generation of post-WWII Americans explore a purpose beyond the standard narrative values, spiritual ideologies, and economic materialism that was rampant throughout pre-war America. Alongside prominent beat writers like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, Kerouac crafted a magnum opus that would later be connected to counterculture movements throughout the 1960s. His extensive collection of novels, short stories, poetry, journals, letters, and other writings are often littered with long-winded reflections, observations, proclamations, and other mad ramblings about life, love, loss, loneliness, and the search for a new American identity. Constantly pivoting from a recluse searching “...once and for all what is the meaning of all this existence and suffering and going to and fro in vain,” to a seasoned road-warrior exploring the country and sifting through the profound philosophies of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and the meaning of Dharma, Kerouac’s spontaneous style of prose generates a kind of unpolished wisdom that leaves a lasting impression long after reading. The insights and quotes assembled in this book have been woven into a patchwork of reoccurring themes found throughout Kerouac’s writings, such as adventure, life, self-reflection, and spirituality are heavily featured, but more niche quotes around topics like cats, coffee, music, and sports can also be found. This collection pulls from prominent novels such as Big Sur, Desolation Angels, The Dharma Bums, On the Road: The Original Scroll, The Subterraneans, Tristessa, Vanity of Duluoz, and Visions of Cody, as well as some of his selected short stories, poems, letters, and journals. Whether you’re new to Kerouac, searching for inspiration in his words, or are a self-proclaimed “mad one” looking to make sense of it all, this quote book will undoubtedly serve as a go-to reference for the discerning Kerouac reader.

From the acclaimed Beat writer, Jack Kerouac's unique collectionof personal travel writing, now reissued following his centenary celebrationIn his first directly autobiographical book, Jack Kerouac relates the exhilarating stories of the years he spent restlessly traveling and writing his acclaimed novels. He journeys from the California deserts crisscrossed by train tracks to the bullfights of Mexico to the Beat nightlife of New York City, and across the Atlantic to Paris, Morocco, and London. With echoes of landscapes that appear in his other novels, including The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels, and featuring his distinctive exuberant style and "jazzy impressionistic prose" (New Yorker), Lonesome Traveler is a unique addition to Kerouac's body of work.

"A great masterpiece, a singing religious poem."--Michael McClure Written between 1954 and 1957, and published originally by Grove Press in 1959, Mexico City Blues is Kerouac's most important verse work that incorporates all the elements of his theory of spontaneous composition. Memories, fantasies, dreams, and surrealistic free association are lyrically combined in the loose format inspired by jazz and the blues. Now featuring a striking new cover as part of Grove's centenary reissues, and with references to William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Bill Garver, this important book in Kerouac's oeuvre is an original and moving epic of sound, rhythm, and religion.

"Something will happen to me on Desolation Peak…I can feel it." In the summer of 1956, Jack Kerouac hitchhiked from Mill Valley, CA, to the North Cascades to spend two months serving as a fire lookout for the US Forest Service. Taking only the Diamond Sutra for reading material, he intended to spend his time in deep contemplation and to achieve enlightenment. He wrote in his journal that he planned "to concentrate on emptiness of self, other selves, living beings, and universal self." In letters to friends he proclaimed, "Something will happen to me on Desolation Peak…I can feel it." Kerouac's experience on Desolation Peak forms the climax of his novel The Dharma Bums and has also been depicted in part 1 of Desolation Angels and a chapter in his nonfiction book Lonesome Traveler. None of these versions offers a full, true picture, however; and for that reason, Desolation Peak is essential reading. What separates Kerouac from all other writers is the depth that he went in exploring his own consciousness, and what will prove his most enduring legacy is the record he left of that exploration, revealing the psyche of a sensitive, tortured artist grappling with himself in the mid-20th Century. The highlight of Desolation Peak is the journal he kept, starkly revealing the depth of his poverty, the extremity of his mood swings, and the ongoing arguments with himself over the future direction of his life, his writing, and faith. Along with the journal, he worked on a series of projects, including "Ozone Park," another installment of the Duluoz Legend beginning in 1943, after his discharge from the Navy; "The Martin Family," an intended sequel to The Town and the City, and "Desolation Adventure," a series of sketches that became part 1 of Desolation Angels,. In writing it, Kerouac was re-committing himself to his more experimental, then-unpublishable style, declaring in the journal that "the form of the future is no-form." Also included in Collected Writings is "The Diamondcutter of Perfect Knowing," Kerouac's "transliteration" of the Diamond Sutra, his "Desolation Blues" and "Desolation Pops" poems, and assorted prose sketches and dreams.