Purchase an advance copy of the revised and updated Memory Babe by Gerald Nicosia

Cover of the last edition of Memory Babe, published by University of California Press in 1994

I received a message from Gerry Nicosia and he asked me to post it here on The Daily Beat to get the word out about his effort to publish a revised and updated edition of Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac. What follows in blue Gerry's message. Please note: people wishing to order the advance hardback copy from anywhere outside the U.S. should contact Mr. Nicosia directly about the added postage cost. Write to him at gnicosia@earthlink.net . Cool Grove Press is now looking into an overseas distributor, so if this applies to you, please check the Cool Grove Press website periodically for updates.

DEAR RICK:

As you may know, my Kerouac biography Memory Babe has been out of print for 18 years.  It was published originally in 1983 by Grove Press, and needed an update and some revision based on new material about Kerouac that has come to light in the past 36 years.  I did that revision last year, and I also added a long epilogue about developments in the Kerouac and Beat worlds over the past 25 years, since the book was published in its last edition by the University of California Press (in 1994).  But the publisher who was to reissue the revised and updated book backed out at the last minute.  Since then, I have found the book repeatedly rebuffed by dozens of publishers, both commercial and university presses. 

I am now working with an extremely courageous publisher, Tej Hazarika, who founded Cool Grove Press, an independent literary press, in Brooklyn, several years ago.  Tej is also a brilliant book designer, and the new edition of Memory Babe will contain many new photos, some of them never seen publicly before.  We have only one problem: we lack money for the first print run of the book.

To this end, we are attempting to raise the money needed to print the new edition of Memory Babe by offering friends and fans of the book the chance to make an advance purchase of a special hardback copy, with book jacket, for $30.  That price includes delivery of the book. 

Those who make this advance purchase will receive their special hardbound copy of Memory Babe within a year.  However, if not enough money is raised to do the first printing, everyone who made an advance purchase will receive a full refund of their money.

This may seem like an unusual way to publish a book, but as most writers have come to realize, the publishing business today is dismal and the prospects for getting serious and important books published—unless they are potential best-sellers—is virtually nil.  Many people around the world have attested to Memory Babe’s importance, and for this reason we believe it is worth the extra effort to make a revised and updated edition of the book available to all people who care about Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation.  We hope you can help.

If you are interested in making an advance purchase of the revised and updated Memory Babe, as a special edition hardback with book jacket, please send $30 to Gerald Nicosia, 11 Palm Avenue, Corte Madera, CA 94925, within the next two months.  Time is of the essence here, since if insufficient funds are raised by mid-summer, the project will have to be abandoned.

Please send money to me as check or money order, by mail.  I will soon have PayPal connected as a means of payment as well (but not yet).

Best,

Gerry