Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1957-1969

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended for all Jack Kerouac fans!
Review: An excellent survey of the writer Jack Kerouac and recommended picks for any collection strong in Kerouac presentations. Ann Charters edits Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957-1969 presenting his late letters. her first volume contributed to a new understanding of Kerouac and his work: this volume also includes the same attention to notes and detail, furthering her goal of presenting his life via his writings.

Rating:
Summary: definitive-she knew J.K. well...
Review: Ann did interview Jack & takes part in many literary forums..."beat'.The last great living 'Beat' hipster is...L. Ferlinghetti. The last,best bio on J.K. will be Doug Brinkley's..he has full access to archives,Sampas controlled estate,in Lowell, MA.

Rating:
Summary: definitive-she knew J.K. well...
Review: Ann did interview Jack & takes part in many literary forums..."beat'.The last great living 'Beat' hipster is...L. Ferlinghetti. The last,best bio on J.K. will be Doug Brinkley's..he has full access to archives,Sampas controlled estate,in Lowell, MA.

Rating:
Summary: Kerouac....in his own words.
Review: First, the recommendation is to read the companion book, and predecessor, Selected Letters: 1940 - 1956, before starting this one. Both books are really two volumes of the same story.
Those familiar with Kerouac's writing will recognize the characters, scenes and events from the letters as the basis for his groundbreaking novels. Via his letters, you get the unvarnished versions of the later quasi-fictional accounts (and the legend aside, Kerouac's novels were quite polished in their own way - no syllable written by accident). However, these letters (and the excellent non-intrusive editing/comments by Ann Charters) serve as the best biography (auto-biography) written about Kerouac (and I've read them all). Perhaps no person in literature experienced as many self-inflicted highs and lows as Jack Kerouac. He could go from the highest peaks to the deepest vallies from one letter to the next. In addition, the ceaseless restlessness that gripped him his entire life has never been documented any better, or with more frustrating clarity, than in these letters. One day, Kerouac thrills at the prospect of a cabin in the woods in utter isolation(to get away from the partying New York scene); the next day he has plans to live on a commune type ranch with all his friends - or move to Mexico, or Colorado or San Francisco or any number of addresses on Long Island or Florida. Many of these moves he actually followed through on only to find, in very short order, that his urge to wander had returned. At these times you notice Kerouac dropping lines to friends outlining why his new paradise has been destroyed and how perfect the next paradise is going to be. Such was his self destructive path and, in reading these incredibly personal letters, one feels the end approaching as the America Kerouac immortalized dies a slow death, only to be reborn as an entity Kerouac is given partial credit for creating - a credit he had no interest in claiming. When all is said and done, however, the tragedy of Kerouac pales in comparison to his renowned love of life and his obsessive need to document the beauty (and ugliness) that surrounded him. These letters reflect a time when people - a great many people - got excited about poetry, literature, art and just being alive. A time before pseudo-hip irony made it impossible to get excited about anything. KEROUAC LIVES!

Rating:
Summary: Kerouac - Selected Letters Review
Review: Good book. I knew that Jack had his problems later in his life but this book really shows that he got off track in the late 50's rather than the 60's. This book reads real fast in that you can't put it down. It reveals the relationships that Jack had with the other Beat Poets among other people. I recommend this book to all interested in Kerouac and the Beat Generation.