Curation #72 from my Kerouac bookshelf: Jack Kerouac Selected Letters 1957-1969 edited by Ann Charters

Item #72 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this paperback 2000 Penguin Books first printing of Jack Kerouac Selected Letters 1957-1969 edited by Ann Charters. 576 pages, it's 5" x 7-5/8" and in good condition. The provenance is uncertain, but it's probably an Amazon purchase.

This is the second volume of Kerouac's letters edited but Ann Charters. We curated the first volume in yesterday's post. Everything I said about the first volume can be said about the second, so I won't waste bandwidth repeating myself. One big difference, of course, is the time period covered and so the referenced life events are different, Jack's attitude has changed, his understanding of his craft has developed, and the folks Jack corresponded with differ somewhat. Jack kept writing to most of the people represented in the first volume, with the addition of paramours Helen Weaver & Joyce Glassman (Johnson), friends Ed White & Stanley Twardowicz, Beat compatriots Lucien Carr and David Amram, poet Robert Creeley, publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, biographers Ellis Amburn and Ann Charters, in-laws Tony & Nick Sampas, and others. (Note: I wrote this list without cross-referencing the first volume so one or more of these people may have shown up there. My memory isn't what it used to be....)

As I said yesterday, Kerouac's letters are gold for fans and scholars. I highly recommend both volumes.








Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (22nd item from the left) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: The Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City by Bill Morgan.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf