Curation #160 from my Kerouac bookshelf: Reflections Upon the 50th Anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road edited by Ron Whitehead and Robert M. Zoschke

Item #160 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this softcover 2007 Published in Heaven Books edition of Reflections Upon the 50th Anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road edited by Ron Whitehead and Robert M. Zoschke. 174 pages, it measures about 8-1/2" x 11" and is in very good condition. The provenance is that it was given to me by Gerry Nicosia. The title page is signed by editor Zoschke and inscribed by Gerry thus:

For Rick Dale-- Who
gets the spirit of Jack
better than anyone I know --
Love,
Gerry Nicosia
4/2/12

That's high praise from a legitimate Kerouac scholar -- I'll take it, humbly. And with a grain of salt as Gerry is my friend.

This book is a collection of over 50 essays and poems in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. There are also numerous pictures and drawings throughout (over 70). Contributors range from the well-known (David Amram and Anne Waldman and Lawrence Ferlinghetti -- the latter did the front cover art) to the lesser known (Dave Church and Angelica Engel) but they all have something to say about Jack Kerouac. All the contributors have short bios in the back.

I'm sure Gerry gave me some backstory on the genesis of this book when he gave it to me, but my memory fails me. Next time we chat I will query him and update this post as appropriate.

Does this belong on your Kerouac bookshelf? If you are going for a complete collection of everything ever written about Jack, the answer is Hell to the yeah.






Below is a picture of Shelf #5 (last one!) of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this item (14th from the top of the pile) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: Beat Scene Number 60, A Jack Kerouac Special Issue, Autumn 2009. Please note: I am finding all sorts of things in this pile that are not worth the trouble to curate, so I am making command decisions and skipping them. Examples of such items are printed out e-mails, newspaper clippings, files with travel papers from a trip to Lowell, etc. Trust me -- I am not skipping anything of merit or of interest to readers.

Shelf #5 of my Kerouac bookshelf