Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
by Joyce Johnson
|
Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution by Brenda Knight |
by Diane DiPrima
|
by Ronna Johnson
|
by Hettie Jones
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
They met in early 1957, eight months before the publication of On the Road made Jack Kerouac the most famous young writer in America. Some of the bitterest, saddest letters Kerouac wrote to his 21-year-old lover, Joyce Glassman, reveal the personal cost of the hysterical media attention that followed. Yet their early correspondence shows a side of Kerouac not always evident in his fiction: tender, spiritual, and supportive of Glassman's efforts to write her first novel. Now known as Joyce Johnson, she supplements the text of their epistles with commentary whose sensitive, rueful tone will be familiar to readers of her memoir, Minor Characters. The loving but independent air she assumed in her letters, Johnson notes, came from painful rewriting to eliminate all hints of hurt or need; as he wandered in and out of her life, Kerouac kept reminding her he didn't want to be tied down, even as he urged her to come visit whatever city he'd alighted in. Spiced with marvelously evocative period slang like dig and swing, and references to friends such as Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, this poignant epistolary record of a 22-month love affair also brings to life an exciting moment in American cultural history, when the Beat writers gave "powerful, irresistible voices to subversive longings." --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In a hip, literate correspondence marked by high diction and '50s slang, 21-year-old Johnson (born Glassman) and 35-year-old Kerouac chart the flowering of the Beats and their complicated love affair. An initial matchmaking move by Allen Ginsberg led to Johnson's and Kerouac's first meeting in Greenwich Village, followed by 22 months of romance, withdrawal and, eventually, friendship. Through her understated commentary and narrative links, NBCC-Award winner Johnson (Minor Characters) provides tender insight into Kerouac's troubles, particularly his unease at becoming the Beat spokesman with the 1957 publication of On the Road and his "convoluted attachment" to his mother, Memere, which made it impossible for him to sustain relationships with other women. Johnson's presence throughout makes the story hers--that of a sheltered Barnard grad who considered writing "an illicit and transgressive act" and who must have found in Kerouac a kindred soul. Yet it was her desire for a more lasting union than Kerouac would give that led to their breakup: "'You're nothing but a big bag of wind," she told a dallying Kerouac, and left. Although the Kerouac romance dominates the text, the author's brief description of her happy marriage to James Johnson, which ended with his death in a motorcycle accident, puts the affair in perspective and shows readers a greater reason for the sadness that suffuses the book. First serial to Vanity Fair; 3-city author tour. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
They met in early 1957, eight months before the publication of On the Road made Jack Kerouac the most famous young writer in America. Some of the bitterest, saddest letters Kerouac wrote to his 21-year-old lover, Joyce Glassman, reveal the personal cost of the hysterical media attention that followed. Yet their early correspondence shows a side of Kerouac not always evident in his fiction: tender, spiritual, and supportive of Glassman's efforts to write her first novel. Now known as Joyce Johnson, she supplements the text of their epistles with commentary whose sensitive, rueful tone will be familiar to readers of her memoir, Minor Characters. The loving but independent air she assumed in her letters, Johnson notes, came from painful rewriting to eliminate all hints of hurt or need; as he wandered in and out of her life, Kerouac kept reminding her he didn't want to be tied down, even as he urged her to come visit whatever city he'd alighted in. Spiced with marvelously evocative period slang like dig and swing, and references to friends such as Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, this poignant epistolary record of a 22-month love affair also brings to life an exciting moment in American cultural history, when the Beat writers gave "powerful, irresistible voices to subversive longings." --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In a hip, literate correspondence marked by high diction and '50s slang, 21-year-old Johnson (born Glassman) and 35-year-old Kerouac chart the flowering of the Beats and their complicated love affair. An initial matchmaking move by Allen Ginsberg led to Johnson's and Kerouac's first meeting in Greenwich Village, followed by 22 months of romance, withdrawal and, eventually, friendship. Through her understated commentary and narrative links, NBCC-Award winner Johnson (Minor Characters) provides tender insight into Kerouac's troubles, particularly his unease at becoming the Beat spokesman with the 1957 publication of On the Road and his "convoluted attachment" to his mother, Memere, which made it impossible for him to sustain relationships with other women. Johnson's presence throughout makes the story hers--that of a sheltered Barnard grad who considered writing "an illicit and transgressive act" and who must have found in Kerouac a kindred soul. Yet it was her desire for a more lasting union than Kerouac would give that led to their breakup: "'You're nothing but a big bag of wind," she told a dallying Kerouac, and left. Although the Kerouac romance dominates the text, the author's brief description of her happy marriage to James Johnson, which ended with his death in a motorcycle accident, puts the affair in perspective and shows readers a greater reason for the sadness that suffuses the book. First serial to Vanity Fair; 3-city author tour. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
THE NIGHT OF OUR BLIND DATE in January 1957, Jack couldn't even afford to buy me a cup of coffee-his last twenty had vanished earlier that day when he'd bought a pack of cigarettes and received change for a five-so I treated him to a hot dog and baked beans at Howard Johnson's. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
memory babe, dont worry, beat generation Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Mexico City, Allen Ginsberg, Long Island, Dharma Bums, Joe Lustig, Helen Weaver, Henri Cru, Black Mountain, Hiram Haydn, North Beach, Jack Kerouac, Joan Haverty, Desolation Angels, Sterling Lord, City Lights, Donald Cook, Evergreen Review, Five Spot, John Holmes, Lucien Carr, West End, Bob Donlin, Dean Moriarty, Don Allen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
THE NIGHT OF OUR BLIND DATE in January 1957, Jack couldn't even afford to buy me a cup of coffee-his last twenty had vanished earlier that day when he'd bought a pack of cigarettes and received change for a five-so I treated him to a hot dog and baked beans at Howard Johnson's. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
memory babe, dont worry, beat generation Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Mexico City, Allen Ginsberg, Long Island, Dharma Bums, Joe Lustig, Helen Weaver, Henri Cru, Black Mountain, Hiram Haydn, North Beach, Jack Kerouac, Joan Haverty, Desolation Angels, Sterling Lord, City Lights, Donald Cook, Evergreen Review, Five Spot, John Holmes, Lucien Carr, West End, Bob Donlin, Dean Moriarty, Don Allen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 19
books:
See all 19 books this book cites
12
books
cite this book:
See all 12 books citing this book
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac on 12 pages
- Beat Generation by Jack Kerouac on 5 pages
- Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac on 4 pages
- The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac on 4 pages
- Naked Lunch (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) by William S. Burroughs on page 6, and page 77
See all 19 books this book cites
- Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation by Ronna Johnson on 4 pages
- Breaking the Rule of Cool: Interviewing and Reading Women Beat Writers by Nancy M. Grace on 4 pages
- Reconstructing the Beats by Jennie Skerl on page 148, and Back Matter
- Reconstructing the Beats by Jennie Skerl on page 149, and Back Matter
- Bukowski and the Beats: A Commentary on the Beat Generation by Jean-Francois Duval in Back Matter
See all 12 books citing this book
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
57% buy the item featured on this page: Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters 1957-1958 $11.70 |
 |
18% buy Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir $10.20 |
 |
11% buy Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution $13.46 |
 |
7% buy Memoirs of a Beatnik $10.20 |
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
|
This product's forum
(0 discussions)
Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Active discussions in related forums
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Information from the Amapedia Community
Beta (What's this?)Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.
› See featured Amapedia.com articles
Listmania!
|
|
So You'd Like to...
|
|
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Authors
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > Kerouac, Jack
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Letters & Correspondence
- Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > United States > Classics
Everything to Maintain Your Landscape |
Buy Three Books, Get a Fourth Free |
|||||||||
|
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
