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britannica - americana
KEROUAC JACK
(1922-1969).
On the Road
New York: The Viking Press, 1957
20 000 / 30 000 €
In-8 format, 310 pp., original black cloth, spine and front board
lettered in white, top edge in red, with near fine original dust jacket.
Dedication in blue ink on the half-title, with an added drawing of a
piano and musical notes. Good copy (a few creases and slight wear
to the corners of the dust jacket). Dimensions: 143 x 221 mm.
First edition, presentation copy to Bud Powell « To Bud (Powell) /
From his buddy / Jack Kerouac ».
This is Bud Powell (1924-1966) the American Jazz pianist.
Along with
Charlie Parker
, Monk, and
Dizzy Gillespie
, Powell was
a leading figure in the development of modern jazz, or
bebop
. His
virtuosity led many to call him the Charlie Parker of the piano. In
a 1953 letter to Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, Kerouac
includes Monk in the list of “musical geniuses” alongside “Bud
Powell, Bird, Billy Holiday, Lester Young, [and] Jerry Mulligan”
(
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters
(2010), 197).
This copy is dedicated to one of those “geniuses”. The Beat Movement’s
interest in jazz is, of course, already well-trodden ground. And
Kerouac’s jazz poetics has been explored by a number of scholars.
When
On the Road
was published, Kerouac was so overwhelmed
by the publicity that he went into self-imposed exile with his mother.
Consequently, inscribed copies of any printing of this opus, his most
important book, are rare.
Jack Kerouac’s classic
Roman A Clef
, published in 1957, was the
defining work of the Beat Generation. It follows the travels of Sal
Paradise, a stand in for Kerouac himself, and is based on a series of
journeys Kerouac took from 1947 to 1950. The work was typed up
on a continuous “scroll” of sheets that Kerouac had taped together.
On The Road
appears on both Modern Library’s list of the 100
best novels of the century and on Time Magazine list of the 100
best English language novels from 1923-2005. “[I]ts publication is a
historic occasion. The most beautifully executed, the clearest and
the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac
himself named years ago as ‘beat,’ and whose principal avatar he is.”
(Contemporary New York Times Review).
« [...] the only people for me
are the mad ones, the ones
who are mad to live, mad to
talk, mad to be saved, desirous
of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say
a commonplace thing, but burn,
burn, burn like fabulous yellow
roman candles exploding like
spiders across the stars and
in the middle you see the blue
centerlight pop and everybody
goes “Awww!” »
J. Kerouac,
On the road