Monday, October 29, 2018

Curation #165 from my Kerouac bookshelf: Playboy from June 1959 featuring Jack Kerouac's "The Origins of the Beat Generation"



Item #165 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this June 1959 issue of Playboy featuring Jack Kerouac's essay, "The Origins of the Beat Generation." It's in very good condition and the provenance is that I bought it online (eBay, I think).

Of course, you can read Jack's famous essay in Thomas Parkinson's A Casebook on the Beat, which I curated here. It's probably available full text online somewhere, but my quick searching didn't uncover it. If you have a link, send it to us via a comment on this post. I've mentioned this essay before -- here, for example. And here.

Below is a (poor) scan of the first page of the essay.



In case you're wondering about the other interesting aspects of this issue, the pin-up girl was Marilyn Hanold ("Charlie"), and there isn't a shot of her that couldn't be in People today. For example:



It's hard to find a bare breast in the whole issue. Times have sure changed since 1959.

This definitely belongs on your Kerouac bookshelf.




Below is a picture of Shelf #5 (last one!) of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this item (19th from the top of the pile) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: Playboy from January 1965 featuring Jack Kerouac's short story, "Good Blonde." Maybe a bare breast will make an appearance -- 6 years is a long time....

Shelf #5 of my Kerouac bookshelf

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