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Sale 86
Lot 428
Kerouac, Jack (1922-69) American novelist; On the Road (1957) established him as the leader and spokesman of the Beat Generation. Six letters, comprising three autograph letters signed and three typed letters signed, 6 pages (11 x 8 1/5 in.), St. Petersburg, and Lowell, Massachusetts, February 11 to May 15, 1965, and July 29 and September 13, 1967. Important letters to Ellis Amburn, his editor at Coward-McCann (and author of the 1998 biography, "Subterranean Kerouac), concerning Desolation Angels (published May 3, 1965) and Vanity of Duluoz (published in February 1968). In the letter of February 11, 1965 Kerouac corrects Seymour Krim's introduction to Desolation Angels, listing errors, or judgments he disagrees with, on 11 pages; Amburn has checked them off in ink in the left-hand margin. Kerouac writes: "Krim's introduction corrected as follows:…Not 'all' of my novels, but 'most' of them, covered the beat generation…[William] Burroughs was never a department store thief but he did hold up a Turkish bath 'for a Gidean laugh'… Burroughs and Ginsberg and I met around 1943, not 'before' the war. And I never was, or wanted to be, a homosexual, so I inserted the truth: our hero 'compassionately include(d) non-participant acceptance of the homosexuality of his literary confreres'. If this change is not instituted, Krim will have to give me satisfaction…Krim says I'm not an original thinker in any technical sense but has just finished describing my invention of a new prosody: so I inserted 'prose-theorist' to avoid his contradicting himself, and to set the fact straight about my technical original thought, which is my due…The ' I ' of Kerouac is always surrounded by appearing, disappearing and reappearing characters from book to book in the 'Duluoz Legend,' and there is, therefore, a chronological order which has to be vouchsafed. This is the part of the intro I don't like, because while praising me for minor reasons of 'charm' etc., the structure of my work, block by block, is being bulldozed (and why?)…As I told you over the phone, no need to have 'dirty words' in an intro to a book that has no dirty words in it. Dirty words are no longer revolutionary innovations, but simple braggart vandalism now. For 'jacking off' substitute 'onanism' or, if you prefer, 'masturbation.' 'Fucksack' is dirty afterthought, we can substitute 'sexsack' and mean same. This kind of stuff could also prevent Desolation Angels from selling widely…"
April 20, 1965 (responding to an early copy of Desolation Angels): "The book looks superb and I want to thank you for the perfect transcription to print…I'm writing Seymour Krim and congratulating him on how fine his intro looks now that I see it in print and with my little solipsistic corrections out of the way…be sure to mail the editor's manuscript of ANGELS to agent Sterling Lord as soon as feasible: we're donating it and other things to Morgan Library or someplace for tax deduction purposes…The intro will sell twice as many copies as it would have sold, I can see now, among college students for instance. Will give reviewers more meat than dust cover meat for lazy critiques…Notwithstanding what they say about 'Duluoz Legend,' as it goes on into future it will not be repetitious and eventually Duluoz will fade away like the narrator in Maugham's marvelous series of stories. I write nothing I haven't seen with my own eyes - (advice from Scott Fitz[gerald], who really didn't take his own advice with all that fictionalizing of what he saw.) (Just finisht Last Tycoon). Let me know about reprint sale, movie sale, world premiere and all the rest…." April 26, 1965: "And now, Ellis, I want to take that trip to Europe at last and write that new book in a quiet room by candlelight - I'll visit Paris a couple of times but my writing room will be in some German or Dutch city - So I would like that first installment of $3,999.60 right now, since my first royalty statement won't be till 1966…"
May 15, 1965: "Thanks for sending Algren review [of Desolation Angels] - He aint read about my real 'youth' yet (Vanity of Duluoz next book) and it certainly wasn't 'defensive' at all: - football, war, 300 love affairs, 2 marriages, jail and the rest -- As to whether I'm 'Kerouac' or not, what kind of logic is that? How could Trib print such an inept turn of mind? Advertising plans show you aren't being taken in by [Saul] Maloff's 'gagging' puke [in the Times Book Review] or anybody else's slobbering fury - (Say, I must be pretty good!) (To get my work hated) like that)…" July 29, 1967: "Negatives following--making copies for ourselves--The bill will follow from Parkway Photo, Lowell--Hope these O.K."
September 13,1967 (regarding Vanity of Duluoz): "I like your 'endpaper' montage very well. Now all I want to know is did you receive the further photos I had prepared for you?… I had included a photo of me taken last November 1966, profile, laughing in chair, did you get that? I want that one for the cover…Waiting right now for the galleys, already to go, my proofreader friend gave me last-minute instructions…(I read your instructions before for our 1964 galleys of Desolation Angels.)…I haven't changed [since the 1966 photo], as you'll see when I bust in on you with my Boston Costa Nostra gang and raid your office of erasers…P.S. Astronomical charges yourself [for author's alterations on galleys] - do you want perfection in literature or don't ya?…"
The letter of February 11, 1965 is included in Selected Letters 1957-1969, ed. Charters; the others are presumed to be unpublished.
Estimated Value $16,000 - 20,000.
The Maurice F. Neville Collection of Modern Literature (Part II), Sotheby's New York, Nov. 16, 2004.
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