This book explores the life and authorial development of Jack Kerouac through previously unpublished papers, letters, and other literary artifacts.
In Running Through Heaven: Visions of Jack Kerouac, Jacob Loewentheil tells the father of the Beat generation’s story through letters, an unpublished manuscript, notable copies of Kerouac’s major works, literary artifacts, and personal items. These physical objects convey quirks, habits, and intimate facets of Kerouac’s character, showing the writer in the making. His early letters, many previously unpublished and from Loewentheil’s own collection, shed light on his emerging and highly influential stream of consciousness style.
Running Through Heaven testifies to the richness of Kerouac’s writing, his lifelong love of education, his complex relationship with religion, the tensions and contradictions in his sexuality, his influence on other writers, his turn toward conservatism, and his pivotal relationship with his mother. To fixate on the continuing popularity of On the Road is to miss Kerouac’s legacy, which extends far beyond literary circles.
FOREWORD by Ann Charters 11
COLLECTORS STATEMENT 13
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 15
INTRODUCTION: Toward an Understanding of Jack Kerouac 17
ESSAYS by Jacob Loewentheil
BECOMING KEROUAC: A Literary Education in Letters 25
SACRED DRIFT: Kerouacs Religious Evolution 36
ROMANTIC JACK: Myth, Love, and the Spirit of the Road 49
THE LAST ROAD: Jack Kerouacs "Conservative Turn" 61
STILL MOVING: Why Kerouac Matters 67
ITEM DESCRIPTIONS
APOSTOLOS LETTERS 19401967 74
Letters to Lowell by Holly George-Warren 75
February 18, 1940 78
March 1940 79
May 2, 1940 80
June 1, 1940 82
June 4, 1940 82
June 9, 1940 84
September 26, 1940 84
October 27, 1940 86
December 4, 1940 86
Undated (Friday nite), c. 1940 90
Undated, c. 1941 92
January 810, 1941 94
February 3, 1941 96
February 25, 1941 96
March 28, 1941 / Spring 97
April, 1941 97
April 15, 1941 99
April / Spring 1941 101
May 12, 1941 101
May, 1941 101
February 1516, 1942 107
March 26, 1942 109
May 26, 1967 110
ED WHITE LETTERS 19481968 112
Sketches in Friendship: Ed White and the Origins of Spontaneous Prose by
Tim Hunt 113
July 8, 1948 118
November 30, 1948 118
January 15, 1949 121
May 9, 1949 121
January 16, 1950 122
March 5, 1950 125
April 12, 1950 125
April 26, 1950 125
July 5, 1950 127
August 29, 1950 129
September 23, 1950 129
November 3, 1950 131
March 2, 1951 131
March 12, 1952 133
August 31, 1953 134
August 15, 1954 137
April 28, 1957 137
June 19, 1958 140
July 21, 1958 142
August 7, 1961 142
February 9, 1962 145
May 27, 1964 146
March 1, 1965 147
October 2, 1965 147
April 21, 1968 149
THE MUSIC BETWEEN THEM: David Amram on Jack Kerouac 152
OTHER LETTERS 166
Jack Kerouacs Quest for Beatitude by Rob Sean Wilson 167
Letter to Bill Ryan 170
Handwritten Letter to Alan Harrington 171
Two Unpublished Letters to Allen Ginsberg Touching on Buddhism 171
Typed Letter Draft to Allen Ginsberg 172
Handwritten Letter to Robert Lax 173
Letter to Gary Snyder on Completion of Visions of Gerard 175
Letter to Will Petersen 177
Letter to Filmmaker Jerry Wald 178
Letter to Allen Ginsberg 180
Letter to Neal Cassady 182
Typed Letter with Extensive Handwritten Annotations to Girlfriend Lois
Sorrells 183
Letter to Sterling Lord 184
Two Notes to Carolyn Cassady 185 Holiday Card to Carolyn Cassady 186
FIRST EDITIONS AND PUBLISHED WORKS 187
Three Important Associated or Inscribed Copies of the First Edition of On the
Road 189
Targ Copy 189
Extraordinary Jazz Presentation Copy 191
Kerouacs Own First Edition Copy 192
The Town and the City, Jointly Inscribed by Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg 192
Two Inscribed First Edition Copies of The Town and the City 195
Kerouacs Copy of His First Novel, The Town and the City 197
The Dharma Bums, Inscribed to Kerouacs Mother and Their Cats 197
Doctor Sax, Inscribed to Lucien Carr and Francesca von Hartz 199
Kerouacs Personal Copy of Visions of Cody 201
MISCELLANEOUS PUBLISHED WORKS 203
Kerouacs First Published Story: The Brothers 203
Kerouacs Une Veille de Noel 203
Original Printing Paris Review 11 205
Text for Pull My Daisy 205
Signed Off the Road by Carolyn Cassady 207
The Beat Scene 208
Original Printing Paris Review 43 209
Kerouacs Personal Copy of the Evergreen Review Containing His Article
Seattle Burlesque 209
Kerouacs Personal Copies of Three Girlie Magazines with His Writing 209
JACK KEROUAC TYPESCRIPT MANUSCRIPTS 211
Unpublished Story: Ken Harris: A Crime Tale by a Young Kerouac 211
Jack Kerouac and His Long-Lost Brother by Richard Kopley 215
Unpublished Draft of Visions of Gerard: An Analysis 219 Kerouac, Notes to
Myself 224
Kerouac, Letter to Myself 228
JACK KEROUACS PERSONAL VOLUMES 230
Kerouacs Personal, Annotated Copy of Dostoyevskys The Possessed 231
Kerouacs Personal Copy of Boswells Life of Johnson 232
Kerouacs Personal Copy of Melvilles Shorter Novels 234
Kerouacs Personal Copy of Palante Annotated Volume with Letter 235
Kerouacs Personal Copy of The Way of Zen 236 Kerouacs Personal Copy of Sea
& Sky 237
JACK KEROUACS PERSONAL POSSESSIONS 238
Kerouacs Venerated Photo of His Brother Gerard 239
Kerouacs Beat-Era Buddhist Mala Beads 239
Kerouacs Personal Well-Worn Crucifix 242
Kerouacs Crucifix with Rosary Beads 242
Kerouacs Handwritten Railway Work Schedule 243
Kerouacs Tobacco Pouch with Tobacco 244
Kerouacs Personal Religious Wall Art 245
Kerouacs Wedding Band 246
ADDENDUM: Miscellaneous Kerouac-Related Objects 248
Kerouac, Old Angel Midnight 249
Kerouac Family Legal Archive 249
Kerouac and Sampas Family Photo Negatives 251
Two Contact Sheets of Unpublished Photographs of Kerouac 251 Signed Personal
Check 252
Neal Cassadys Chess Set, Oil Portrait of Him, and Chess Books 252
Carolyn Cassady, Letters to Collector Gérard Leman 253
Chicago Jazz Record 254
Carolyn Cassady, Framed Photograph of Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Cathy
Cassady 254
Photographic Portrait of Kerouac Holding Burroughss Cat in Tangiers 256
Photographic Portrait of Kerouac by Ginsberg (Late in Life) 256
INDEX 259
Jacob Loewentheil is an antiquarian and photography expert, as well as the curator of the Marcel Sternberger Collection. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in psychology. Long fascinated by other cultures, he has traveled much of the world, including a year spent circumnavigating the globe. His travels have also taken him across much of the American landscape, from the deserts of New Mexico to deep in the Florida Everglades and Alaska's far eastern mountain ranges.
