Skip to Main Content (Press Enter) Toggle side nav
Kerouac: Selected Letters by Jack Kerouac
Add Kerouac: Selected Letters to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf

Kerouac: Selected Letters

Volume 2: 1957-1969

Volume 1: 1940-1956

By Jack Kerouac
Edited by Ann Charters

By Jack Kerouac
Edited by Ann Charters

By Jack Kerouac
Introduction by Ann Charters

By Jack Kerouac
Introduction by Ann Charters

Best Seller
Paperback $25.00

Nov 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780140296150

Paperback $25.00

Mar 01, 1996 | ISBN 9780140234442

All Formats
+
    Kerouac: Selected Letters by Jack Kerouac
    Paperback $25.00
    Nov 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780140296150

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    Paperback (2)
    –

    • Paperback $25.00

      Nov 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780140296150

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Paperback $25.00

      Mar 01, 1996 | ISBN 9780140234442

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Paperback:

    About Kerouac: Selected Letters

    The first volume of Jack Kerouac’s selected letters, published in 1995, was hailed as an important and revealing addition to Kerouac scholarship. This second and final volume, comprising letters written between 1957, the year On the Road was published, and the day before his death in 1969 at age forty-seven, tells Kerouac’s life story through his candid correspondence with friends, confidants, and editors—among them Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Johnson, and Malcolm Cowley. Documenting his continuing development as a writer and his travels, love affairs, and complicated family life, the letters also reveal Kerouac’s amazing courage in the force of criticism and his never-ending quest to be the best writer possible.

    Jack Kerouac Selected Letters 1957-1969 offers unparalleled insight into the life and mind of this giant of the American landscape.

    About Kerouac: Selected Letters

    It was in his letters that Jack Kerouac set down the raw material that he transmuted into his novels, exploring and refining the spontaneous prose style that became his trademark. The letters in this volume, written between 1940, when Kerouac was a freshman at college, and 1956, immediately before his breathless leap into celebrity with the publication of On the Road, offer invaluable insights into Kerouac’s family life, his friendships with Neal and Carolyn Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and William S. Burroughs, his travels, love affairs, and literary apprenticeship. At once fascinating reading and a major addition to Kerouac scholarship, here is a rare portrait of the writer as a young adventurer of immense talent, energy, and ambition in the midst of writing and living an American legend.

    Also by Jack Kerouac

    On the Road
    Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
    Big Sur
    Wake Up
    On the Road: the Original Scroll
    See all books by Jack Kerouac

    Also by Jack Kerouac

    On the Road
    Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
    Big Sur
    Wake Up
    On the Road: the Original Scroll
    See all books by Jack Kerouac

    About Jack Kerouac

    Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, the youngest of three children in a Franco-American family. He attended local Catholic and public schools and won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he first met… More about Jack Kerouac

    About Jack Kerouac

    Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, the youngest of three children in a Franco-American family. He attended local Catholic and public schools and won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he first met… More about Jack Kerouac

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Collections | Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Paperback | $25.00
    Published by Penguin Books
    Nov 01, 2000 | 608 Pages | 5-1/16 x 7-3/4 | ISBN 9780140296150

    Category: Literary Collections | Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Paperback | $25.00
    Published by Penguin Books
    Mar 01, 1996 | 656 Pages | 5-1/16 x 7-3/4 | ISBN 9780140234442

    Praise

    “Reveals the boldness and originality of Kerouac’s artistic vision.”
    —The Boston Globe

    “It remains clear from his later letters that Kerouac understood what he was doing as a writer. He consistently explains his aesthetic, his plan to create the Duluoz Legend of books, and the essentially benign charity of his vision.”
    —San Francisco Chronicle

    “Rambunctious and energetic . . . the letters convey the genius of that special American type—the perpetual motion man.”
    —The Washington Post

    “Kerouac’s letters and early stories supplement his legend, providing a fuller portrait of a true American original.”
    —The Boston Globe

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Get the latest updates from Jack Kerouac
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
    Dismiss
    Thanks!
    Something awesome is on its way.
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?
    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook