Curation #80 from my Kerouac bookshelf: The Beats Abroad: A Global Guide to the Beat Generation by Bill Morgan

Item #80 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this paperback 2015 City Lights Books (no printing number) copy of Bill Morgan's The Beats Abroad: A Global Guide to the Beat Generation. It's 298 pages, 4-3/8" x 8-3/8", and in very good condition. The provenance is Amazon.

As with the other three Bill Morgan tour guides we've curated (one for NYC, one for the U.S., and one for San Francisco), this book is chock full of detailed information on the Beats relevant to places -- in this case, around the world -- they lived and played and wrote. It's divided into 9 sections from France and Mediterranean Europe to Latin America and the Caribbean. Although not set up as a walking tour, there's enough information in some instances to find exact sites. In others instances, only a city is identified with no street address details.

There is a brief introduction, a bibliography, and a helpful index. I bought this book in advance of going to Europe last September but ended up not taking it with me for the sake of weight (we were trying to fly with just carry-ons), but I did use it in advance to confirm the location of a couple of spots we visited in Paris (The Beat Hotel and Shakespeare and Company). After the fact, I learned from the book that a great place we saw some wonderful jazz -- the Caveau de la Huchette in Paris -- was frequented by Allen Ginsberg, who went there with Alan Ansen looking to pick up men.

Like Morgan's other guides, this is a handy reference to have on hand while traveling as well as an enjoyable read at home. Highly recommended.








Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (sideways on top of the row) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: Departed Angels: The Lost Paintings by Jack Kerouac, text by Ed Adler.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf

Curation #79 from my Kerouac bookshelf: Kerouac & Friends: A Beat Generation Album by Fred W. McDarrah

Item #79 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this hardcover 1985 William Morrow and Company first edition first printing of Fred W. McDarrah's Kerouac & Friends: A Beat Generation Album. 338 pages and about 6-1/4" x 9-1/2", this copy is in very good condition. I don't recall the provenance.

This book comprises 29 written pieces by Beat Generation writers, critics, journalists, and historians along with many pictures (more than 190) from the era (McDarrah was the picture editor for The Village Voice for many years and hung out with the Beats). As McDarrah says in the preface:

Kerouac and Friends is more than a collection of photos and articles from the 1950s; it's a living memoir of the wonderful carefree days when I had nothing to do except go to poetry readings, the Artist's Club, the Living Theatre,, and the Cedar Street Tavern. I stayed out all night with friends and with Gloria. This book is about me and Gloria and a specific time in our lives in New York's Greenwich Village.

The book also contains a section of biographical section, a bibliography, and an index. I must admit that I have not read this book straight through. It's more of the kind of book you pick up from time to time and read an article or two and enjoy the pictures. There's a lot here to digest, including a picture of Allen Ginsberg's kitchen sink from his flat at 170 East 2nd Street. So you can't say it includes "everything but the kitchen sink."

If you've never seen this book, I suspect there are a few pictures in it you haven't seen before -- making it a worthwhile addition to your Kerouac bookshelf.








Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (29th item from the left -- last book on the right) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: The Beats Abroad: A Global Guide to the Beat Generation by Bill Morgan.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf

Curation #78 from my Kerouac bookshelf: John Montgomery's JACK KEROUAC: A Memoir In Which Is Revealed Secret Lives & West Coast Whispers, Being The Confessions Of Henry Morley, Alex Fairbrother & JOHN MONTGOMERY, Triune Madman Of The Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels & Other Trips

Item #78 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this paperback 1970 Gilagia Press (no printing number) edition of John Montgomery's JACK KEROUAC: A Memoir In Which Is Revealed Secret Lives & West Coast Whispers, Being The Confessions Of Henry Morley, Alex Fairbrother & JOHN MONTGOMERY, Triune Madman Of The Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels & Other Trips. It's really a chapbook, with 2,000 copies printed (200 clothbound), amounting to 16 pages. It measures about 6" x 8'3/4" and is in good condition.

This book has a specific provenance. It was given to me by Dr. Celeste Branham, a colleague from University of Maine at Farmington (from which I am now retired). She had held on to it from her college days and when she learned I was a Kerouac fanatic, she gave it to me.

Jack Kerouac: A Memoir... is simply two chapters ("Takes") about Jack by his friend, John Montgomery. We provide information about Montgomery in yesterday's post. Click here for some thoughts, including excerpts, about this book that I posted in September 2016.

That's it until next time. It's July 4 and I have things to do. Happy Fourth of July. Try to appreciate both red and blue in the fireworks tonight.







Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (28th item from the left) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: Kerouac & Friends: A Beat Generation Album by Fred W. McDarrah.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf

Curation #77 from my Kerouac bookshelf:The Kerouac We Knew: unposed portraits; action shots compiled by John Montgomery

Item #77 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this paperback 1987 Fels & Firn Press (no printing number but only 1500 copies were made) edition of The Kerouac We Knew: unposed portraits; action shots, compiled by John Montgomery. This copy is 46 pages, 5-1/2" x 8-1/4", and in very good condition (I keep it in the plastic slipcover it came in, shown above). The provenance, I think, is that I bought it from The Bookery in Ithaca, NY, around 2005 for $25.00.

For those of you who may not know who John Montgomery was, below is a screenshot from Dave Moore's fantastic Character Key To Kerouac's Duluoz Legend (click here for the whole key).

John Montgomery was a friend of Kerouac's who, along with Gary Snyder (Japhy Ryder), scaled Matterhorn Peak in the Sierra Nevada range with Jack in The Dharma Bums (his character's name was Henry Morley in Bums, and he shows up as Alex Fairbrother in two other of Jack's books). In The Kerouac We Knew..., we find an introduction by Montgomery and then 9 essays about Jack by various authors from Gerald Nicosia (author of Memory Babe, to be curated later in the project) to Jim Christy (author of The Long Slow Death of Jack Kerouac, to be curated later in the project). There are several pictures, including the great cover shot by Jerry Bauer of Jack with one of his beloved cats.

The one other Montgomery book I'd like to own is Kerouac at the "Wild Boar" and Other Skirmishes. That would make a trifecta of his books about Kerouac for my collection. I see it on eBay and my birthday and Christmas are coming. Hint, hint....

Anyway, there are some great insights into Jack in The Kerouac We Knew..., and while it's a small book, it's well worth having on your Kerouac bookshelf.






Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (27th item from the left) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: JACK KEROUAC: A Memoir In Which Is Revealed Secret Lives & West Coast Whispers, Being The Confessions Of Henry Morley, Alex Fairbrother & JOHN MONTGOMERY, Triune Madman Of The Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels & Other Trips by John Montgomery.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf

Curation #76 from my Kerouac bookshelf: Go by John Clellon Holmes

Item #76 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this paperback Thunder's Mouth Press edition with the newest date showing as 1997 and having no printing number. It is in fair condition (a few underlinings and annotations and dog-eared cover and page corners), 311+ pages, and it's about 5" x 8". The provenance is lost in memory, but it may have been an Amazon purchase (used). This is hand-printed on the inside, sideways: Jennifer Shaw 870-0131 481-5762. If you're reading this and you think you know who that is, let us know in a comment. I always like to learn the provenance of used books I buy. Of course, Jennifer was unlikely the owner. It looks like something the book's owner wrote down in order to remember Jennifer's phone number (area codes unknown).

Now for the big confession: I've never read Go. I started it once and got bogged down and never returned to it. It's an important book for a Kerouac or Beat fan to read, as Holmes and Kerouac were close friends -- soulmate level -- and Go is about the Beat inner circle, being semi-autobiographical like Kerouac's novels, using pseudonyms for real life characters. I have them listed on an inside cover page for easy reference (see pic below).

Go is considered the first published novel about the Beat Generation, beating Kerouac's On The Road to the punch by 5 years. According to Gerald Nicosia in Memory Babe, Holmes was the first person Jack showed the roll manuscript of On The Road. That's how close they were. In fact, there is book my friend Richard highly recommends about the two of them called Brother Souls by Ann and Samuel Charters. I want to read that.

I have no excuse not to read Go, and after I finish my current library-borrowed book -- The Yale Gertrude Stein (because she influenced Lew Welch) -- I intend to take it up in earnest.







Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (26th item from the left) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: The Kerouac We Knew: unused portraits; action shots compiled by John Montgomery.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf

Curation #75 from my Kerouac bookshelf: Bill Morgan's The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour

Item #75 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this paperback 2003 City Lights Books (no printing number) edition of Bill Morgan's The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour. 231 pages, the book measures about 4-1/2" x 8-3/8" and is in very good condition. The provenance is likely that I purchased it via Amazon (remind me that I should own stock in that company).

As with the last two curations, this is a Beat tour guide -- in this case for one of the two most important cities in Beatdom: San Francisco (the other being, of course, New York). I've hung out in San Francisco three times, the first before I got into Kerouac and the second two before I had Morgan's book (click here for my description of my 2013 trip and here for my talk at the San Francisco Public Library). Thus, unlike his New York guide, I have not had a chance to use it in situ. Nevertheless, it looks like an excellent resource. It contains 13 tours with detailed descriptions about and directions to 243 Beat-relevant sites in San Francisco and surrounds. There is an introduction by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, lots of pictures, maps, and a helpful index (Kerouac appears on some 60-odd pages according to the latter).

Like Morgan's other Beat tour guides, this one has enough interesting information per site that it can serve as an interesting straight-through read as well as provide an excellent resource for getting to various Beat sites in and around San Francisco.

I hope to use this guide in San Francisco some day. If you have done so and have an opinion about its usefulness or accuracy, let us know with a comment!







Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (25th item from the left) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: Go by John Clellon Holmes.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf

Curation #74 from my Kerouac bookshelf: Beat Atlas: A State by State Guide to the BEAT GENERATION in America by Bill Morgan

Item #74 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this paperback 2011 City Light Books (no printing number) edition of Bill Morgan's Beat Atlas: A State by State Guide to the BEAT GENERATION in America. 262 pages, it's about 4-3/8" x 8-3/8" and in very good condition. The provenance is likely that I bought it via Amazon (which you can do below).

Pretty much everything I said yesterday about Morgan's book, The Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City, can be said about this book. It has well-researched information on relevant Beat places, only in this case it encompasses all of America. It obviously cannot go into detail about places like New York City and San Francisco -- that is why Morgan has stand-alone guides for those. There are pictures and a handy index and a preface by Morgan.

As with all of his guides, this one is indispensable and stands up as a straight-ahead read as well as a travel guide. If you live and travel in America, it's a good book to always have with you when you travel as there are entries for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Highly recommended.








Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (24th item from the left) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour by Bill Morgan.

Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf