Beat Generation

Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” The Scroll, Coming to Ireland

Posted by Marty on October 27, 2008
Posted in: Beat Generation, Book Stuff. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

 Jack Kerouac’s 120 foot-long scroll of “On The Road” is En Route to the UK and Ireland. It will be on show at the University of Birmingham, UK, from December 3rd 2008 - January 28 2009, and in University College Dublin, Ireland, from February 5 – 27th. (Just down the road from me so I’ll be going to see it.)

New York City in the spring of 1951 Kerouac started typing ”On The Road” using teletype paper which he taped together so he could write with a flow and without interruption. It took him 3 weeks to type it, but it took him a lot longer to put it together in his head. One could be forgiven for thinking he just sat down and blurted it out on paper but it probably would have taken a lot of piecing together in his head and from notes he had taken a few years before 1951.  After experimenting with as many as six drafts (to try and please editors) it was finally published in 1957 with the help of his agent Sterling Lord.

One of the most interesting things to me is that some of the text in the original scroll is different to what was published. Some parts were shortened, names had to be changed for fear of libel. The last few feet of the scroll are lost due to a dog eating it. There is a note at the end of the scroll handwritten by Kerouac reading “DOG ATE [Potchky-a-Dog]” Potchky who ate the last few feet of the scroll was belong to Lucien Carr a friend of Kerouac.

Last year Penguin Modern Classics published “On the Road The Original Scroll” which is the text as it was when first typed out by Kerouac in 1951. It’s Edited by Howard Cunnell, he inserted paragraph breaks, corrected spelling but all in all left the scroll as it would be if you had it on your lap. There are also great introductions by Penny Vlagopoulos, George Mouratidis and Joshua Kupetz. They all give fine insights and interesting background reading.

I read the regular “On the Road” (for the third time) on a plane trip to Colorado last April, when I came home I read the “Original Scroll” to see if there was much of a difference. I was not looking for differences such as name changes, but differences in flow or how it read or felt. I’m not going to say that I was “moved” or “felt closer to Kerouac” or anything trite like that. I will say though it was a pleasure to read knowing it is for the most part untouched and how Kerouac probably wanted folks to see it.

On a related note, the latest issue of Kevin Ring’s Beat Scene Magazine is on display next to the original scroll where it is being exhibited in the US. It’s well deserved I reckon considering what Kevin has done over the years to Keep the memory of  Jack Kerouac and keeping the Beat Generation alive. You can see the pictures here http://www.beatscene.net/news.asp

Here is a short video of Kerouac reading from “On The Road” on the Steve Allen Show.

Beat Scene Issue 16.

Posted by Marty on October 22, 2008
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Kevin sent me a copy of “Beat Scene” issue number 16 from 1993 that he found while doing a clear out. Ken Kesey is on the cover. Amongst other things it has a review by Jay Jones of Paul Perry’s book “Fear and Loathing The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson.” Another piece that caught my eye was the excerpts from Charles Bukowski’s “Pulp”. Also tucked in with the magazine there is a broadside by Charles Plymell titled “Neal Cassady. As always Kevin Ring’s site is at http://www.beatscene.net/index.asp.

William S. Burroughs By Hunter S. Thompson In Rolling Stone.

Posted by Marty on August 19, 2008
Posted in: Beat Generation, HST Rolling Stone. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 6 comments

By coincidence JR sent me some scans of an obituary in Rolling Stone magazine that includes a piece Hunter S. Thompson wrote about William S. Burroughs, at the same time my Beat Scene magazine issue 56 came in the door from Kevin Ring. Both of which gave me some fodder for to-days post. William S. Burroughs 11th anniversary was August 2nd.

Rolling Stone issue # 769 published  9/18/1997 has an obituary published just after the death of William S. Burroughs, here is the piece HST wrote about him.

“William had a fine taste for handguns, and later in life he became very good with them. I remember shooting with him one afternoon at his range on the outskirts of Lawerence. He had five or six well oiled old revolvers laid out on a wooden table, covered with a white linen cloth, and he used whichever one he was in the mood for at the moment. The S&W .45 was his favorite. “This is my finisher” he said lovingly and then he went into a crouch and then put five out of six shots through the chest of a human-silhouette target about 25 yards away.

Hot Damn, I thought, we are in the presence of a seroius Shootist. Nicloe had been filiming it all with the Hi8, but I took the camera off her and told her to walk out about 10 yards in front of us and put an apple on her head. Wiliam smiled wanly and waved her off. “Never mind my dear” he said to her. “We’ll pass on that trick” Then he picked up the .454 Casul Magnum I’d brought with me. “But I’ll try this one” He said. “I like the looks of it.” The .454 is the most powerful hand gun in the World. It is twice as strong as a .44 Magnum, with a huge scope and a recoil so brutal that I was reluctant to let an 80-year-old man shoot it. This thing will snap back and crack your skull if you don’t hold it properly. But William persisted. The first shot lifted him two or three inches off the ground, but the bullet hit the throat of the target, two inches high. “Good shot,” I said. “Try a little lower and a click to the right.” He nodded and braced again.

His next shot punctured the stomach and left nasty red welts on his palms. Nicole shuddered visibly behind the camera, but I told her we’d only been kidding about the apple. Then, William emptied the cylinder, hitting once in the groin and twice just under the heart. I reached out to shake his hand as he limped back to the table, but he jerked it away and asked for some ice for his palms. “Well,” he said, “this is a very nasty piece of machinery. I like it.” I put the huge silver brute in its case and gave it to him. “It’s yours,” I said. “You deserve it.”

Which was true. William was a Shootist. He shot like he wrote- with extreme precision and no fear. He would have fired a M-60 from the hip that day if I’d brought one with me. He would shoot anything, and he feared nothing.”

Beat Scene magazine issue 56 has a great cover with a caricature of William S. Burroughs holding a gun, by Ashley Holt,  http://ashleyholt.com a site well worth checking out. In it there is an article by Oliver Harris called Everything Lost, the Latin American notebook of William S. Burroughs. The inside story.

Oliver Harris has done a huge amount of research on William S. Burroughs’ work, amongst other things he edited the 50th anniversary of “Junky”, he put together “The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959. There is some more information about his work on The Latin American Notebook here… http://judoairlines.blogspot.com/2007/12/everything-lost-latin-american-notebook.html

Also in this issue is an interesting article about Jack Kerouac’s On the Road scroll, and in the Beat Scene review section… Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Dammed Poems 1951-1993, Dan Fante, Kissed by a Fat Waitress, The letters of Allen Ginsberg and many more.

Many thanks to JR for his ideas / thoughts on this and for the scans.

The Beat Scene Press pocket Book Series.

Posted by Marty on July 29, 2008
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This morning I received the latest additions to my “Beat Scene Press Pocket Edition Chap Books” So far in the collection there are 17 in total with more to come I’m sure. I still have to get number 5 but with some luck I will have one in hand at some point in time. Their appeal to me is that they are a neat and tidy publication and an easy, quick read. I also think a few of them could be an easy introduction to reading some of the Beat authors, for those who are not too familiar with the poetry or writing style. Most of them are signed by the respective authors and all of them are either numbered or lettered.

Kevin Ring of Beat Scene magazine is the man behind the chap books, and before posting this I asked him if he had any comment about the chaps he told me that “they are just a tiny way on my part of keeping the Beats alive”  You can find Kevin’s website at http://www.beatscene.net/ 

Pocket Edition No 1 is called I’m Bukowski, And Then? It’s about 3 Italian friends, Enrico Francheschini (The Author) and his two friends Gionata and Piero, who travel to California in 1979 to try and meet their hero Charles Bukowski. They found his house and spent a little time in the company of their Hero.

Pocket Edition No 2 is called Downstream From Trout Fishing In America (A Brief Extract). A Memoir of Richard Brautigan. By Keith Abbott.  Brautigan’s second published novel Trout Fishing In America was written in 1961 but not published until 1967. This piece by Keith Abbott recalls the early days of his friendship with Brautigan. kevin Ring also wrote about the death of Richard Brautigan in Pocket Edition No 7.

 Pocket Edition No 3 is called Marble Man by Dan Fante. A really funny story with a first person account from Fante’s alter-ego Di Salvo, who is commissioned by his boss Milt to accompany his wife Irene to view an apartment available for sub-let. Di Salvo gets an unwanted history of marble and it’s uses in the bathroom. And an also unwanted shower demonstration from the well-hung occupant of the apartment.

Pocket Edition No 4 is called Jack Kerouac In San Francisco by Tom Clark. The title speaks for it’s self. Tom Clarke also wrote Jack Kerouac a biography.

 Pocket Edition No 6 is called High Peak Hiakus An Interview With Gary Snyder by James Campbell. It give a small insight into Gary Snyder with a some information on the last page about his bio, works and awards. According to the Beat Scene web site this interview has only appeared in one newspaper some years back.

Pocket Edition No 7 is called The sad and Lonely Death of Richard Brautigan by Kevin Ring. A nice essay accounting the death of Brautigan, with some good anicdotes about him from the likes of Jan Kerouac (Jacks daughter) and Michael McClure. An early version of this essay first appeared in Beat Scene Magazine in 1998.

 Pocket Edition No 8 is called A Fierce God And A Fierce War an Interview with Michael McClure By Rod Phillips. A great and interesting read with a nice surprise at the end, the 1965 anti war poem Poisoned Wheat.

Pocket Edition No 9 is called Jack Kerouac At 681 Lexington Avenue by Elizabeth Von Vogt. She shares some nice, fond memories of Jack Kerouac. One of my favorites.

 

Pocket Edition No 10 is called Arizona Highway and Other Poems by Dan Fante. More of Dan Fante’s great work in the form of poems.

Pocket Edition No 11 is called Mutate or Die-With Burroughs in kansas by David Ohle.  David Ohle knew William S Burroughs for the last 10 years of his life, he kept a log of the time they spent together, this chap book contains some of the entries of them times.

 Pocket Edition No 12 is called Rexroth, Bukowski and the Politics Of Literature by Ben Pleasants. To me it what it says it is, the politics of literature with some interesting comments and takes on the subject.

Pocket Edition No 13 is called Scenes form East Hill Farm, Seasons with Allen Ginsberg by Gordon Ball. This one is excerpts from Gordon Ball’s “book length manuscript, East Hill Farm, Seasons with Allen Ginsberg” A really enjoyable read, leaving me wanting to read the rest of the manuscript.

 Pocket Edition No 14 is called Neal and Anne At Gough Street by Charles Plymell. This covers some of the time that Charles Plymell spent sharing a “Pad” with Neal and Anne. Plymell may not be as widely known as some of the other beat writers, but always had an iron in the fire and can stand next to any of the others when it comes to writing.

Pocket Edition No 15 is called Charles Bukowski Letters to Beat Scene by Kevin Ring. In here are some letters that Bukowski sent to Kevin Ring, giving some insight into what the man was really like. It’s always hard to know what someone is really like until you read their letters. Apart form anything else this one is a great read.

 Pocket Edition No 16 is called Remembering Jack Kerouac by John Clellon Holmes. I was always of the opinion that Holmes had a interesting and funny take on Jack kerouac, well worth a read from someone who knew Kerouac well.

Pocket Edition No 17 is called Cool Kerouac by Jim Burns. This touches on the influence Jazz had on the writings of Kerouac. Where most Kerouac fans will immediatly connect both Jazz and kerouac, some wouldn’t. So this is an ideal starting point for those who want to explore the subject, and a nice read for those who do connect both. Jim Burns is the author of many books of essays and poetry, and is also the assistant editor of Beat Scene magazine.