A news segment from back in 1982, from New York’s WNYW, Channel 5 has John David Klein reporting on the 25th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, the occasion being the now legendary Jack Kerouac Conference at Naropa. Included is some brief footage of Allen (and Allen being interviewed). Standing next to him in the image leading us off this week – John Clellon Holmes
from John David Klein’s interview:
AG: “This conference is looking for the found generation (sic) or inaugurating a found generation and basing it on the idea of a sensitive heart, of opening up of heart in America and recollection of the basic old good heart in America.
JDK: That’s why all these people are together?
AG: Yeah.. looking for each other’s hearts, certainly
JDK: Expecting to change anything from this?
AG: Yeah, I think people will pick up that there is a continuity of feeling that’s more important than the fear of tender feeling that’s more important than the mass fear that America has been living with.
Steven Watson‘s remarkable on-going Artifacts project (noted here) continues with further additions to the data base. Here‘s his illuminating interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti
A Substack Round-Up – Substack, the on-line platform that first debuted back in 2017, has now established itself as a ubiquitous and often amenable option (particularly for in-depth, more substantial posts). Our friends at Beatdom are even pondering replacing their web-site with their Substack (right now, we’re fortunate to be blessed with both (not to mention books and the on-line magazine). Beatdom’s Substack, which we’ve noted before can be found here – and don’t miss David Wills‘ current message – “A New Year’s Message..Reflecting on 2024 and looking forward to 2025” – Wills also mentions, en passant, another essential Substack – Simon Warner‘s Rock and the Beat Generation. For his new year posting – “New Year, New Stuff” – see here
and on Simon Warner’s Substack this week
check out Jonah Raskin‘s review of the newly-released volume of Kerouac studies, Rethinking Kerouac: Afterlives, Continuities, Reappraisals, edited by Erik Mortenson and Tomasz Sawczuk
“This long overdue reevaluation of Jack Kerouac gives fresh perspectives on his unique literary output, his vexed relation to issues of race, class, and gender, as well as his continuing cultural afterlife.”
“”Rethinking Kerouac”, Raskin writes, “provides a wonderful opportunity to assess his contributions to American literature. Edited by Erik Mortenson and Tomasz Sawczuk and with contributions from veteran scholars, teachers and translators, this book, with its ample footnotes, splendid index and capsule bios of the authors, tackles controversial topics that have surrounded Kerouac and his works and that have threatened occasionally to eclipse and undermine his popularity.”
“If I had one major criticism…it would be that there’s not nearly enough about Kerouac’s artistry and craftsmanship, but it has seemed to me that Kerouac scholars and readers of his work would rather talk about sex, gender and race, spirituality, ethnicity and class, than talk about the craft of fiction. Kerouac’s emphasis on spontaneity and improvisation may have helped to remove the topic of improvisation and spontaneity from discussions of his work, though there’s an art to improvisation.”
But, nonetheless, “Bravo Mortenson and Sawczuk!”.
Read the full review – and do read the full review – here