Joyce Johnson was born September 27, 1935. She is a noted and award-winning author and appeared as Alyce Newman in Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels. Joyce wrote about her firsthand knowledge of Kerouac in Minor Characters and in The Voice is All, both mandatory reads for any true Kerouac fan.
Happy Belated Birthday, Ms. Johnson.
I've been "on the road" and thus missed the below Kerouac-related dates:
Poet and Kerouac influencer William Carlos Williams was born September 17, 1883.
Jack Kerouac's sister, Caroline ("Nin") died on September 19, 1964.
Kerouac's first wife and Beat Generation inner circle member, Edie Parker, was born September 20, 1922 (well, I didn't officially miss this one but I'm grouping it that way)
We've opined about each in the past and detailed their appearance in Kerouac's works:
That's it -- that's the post....
This is the 7th in a series of posts where I provide a quote from one of Jack Kerouac's books and you figure out which one. Post your answer as a comment. Here's the passage:
That's because death,
Void, bleak,
And all those gray
Worries I had
Are now my luminous
Love
& there's nothing
to say
PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES Fuck you all
Good luck! Remember our policy on comments (over there on the right).
P.S. For bonus points, name the other Kerouac work in which you will find the phrase, "Pretty girls make graves."
 |
| Natalie Jackson (L) and Joan Vollmer |
To find out why today -- September 6 -- is a macabre date regarding the above women in the Kerouac saga, click HERE.
That's it for today as I am "on the road."
 |
| My dog-eared copy of On The Road with tabs for readings in the college class I taught on Kerouac |
By my count (2020 - 1957), Jack Kerouac's On The Road was published 63 years ago today (September 5). We said more about this occasion last year (click HERE). For this year, as I am "on the road," that link will have to suffice.
63 years. Not currently quite as old as me but it will keep going ad infinitum and I most assuredly will not.
Yair!
On this date -- September 3 -- Justin W. Brierly was born in 1905. Brierly appeared in several Kerouac books: as Denver D. Doll in On The Road, Justin G. Mannerly in Visions of Cody, and Manley G. Mannerly in Book of Dreams.
Brierly is particularly noteworthy in the Kerouac saga as he was instrumental in grooming a young Neal Cassady during his Denver years. Brierly was a Columbia University graduate, and it is no stretch to say that he was responsible, at least in part, for Cassady and Kerouac connecting at Columbia (where Jack also attended). Another Columbia student, Hal Chase, was a Brierly protégé and he (Chase) introduced Cassady to Kerouac.
No Cassady-Kerouac connection, no On The Road, and so . . . no Brierly, no Kerouac. At least as we know him....
On this date -- September 2 -- in 1911 was born the famous Beat Generation figure pictured above. He appeared in Visions of Cody as Dave Stroheim, Vanity of Duluoz as Franz (Swinburne) Mueller, The Town and the City as Waldo Meister, Ramsey Allen in And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, and Alfred in The Haunted Life.
We wished this person a happy birthday on this date one year ago HERE. Without looking at that link or Googling, can you name this person? Let us know in a comment.
