Cultural Capital

Reflections on books and the arts from the New Statesman culture desk

Words in pictures: Jack Kerouac

The Beat novelist discusses the Hippie movement.

By Androulla Harris Published 29 November 2011 17:02

Jack Kerouac, the American novelist and author of The Dharma Bums, Big Sur and On the Road was a significant member of the postwar "Beat Generation" of American authors. On the Road stands alongside Allen Ginsberg's Howl and William S Burroughs's Naked Lunch in the Beat pantheon.

In this week's issue of the New Statesman, Olivia Laing reviews hitherto unpublished Kerouac's first novel, The Sea Is My Brother, written in 1943, shortly after Kerouac's first tour as a merchant marine. Aboard a ship named Voyage to Greenland, Kerouac kept a journal which would shape much of the lost novel. According to Laing, The Sea Is My Brother "shows that [Kerouac's] gifts, and flaws, developed early".

In this clip from an episode of William F Buckley's Firing Line from 1968, a drunked Kerouac puffs on a cigar while discussing the hippie movement with Ed Sanders of the counter-cultural band the Fugs and the academic Lewis Yablonsky.

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5 comments

Wed, 2011-11-30 19:23 — Freeman2

Oh yes, Orwell every time. But I'd love to have seen Orwell meeting Allen Ginsberg.

Tue, 2011-11-29 18:45 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

To me the travels of Kerouac is like someone who has had a three month inter-city European train trip and has written a book about it. I spent years on the road living really rough and I know people who spent longer and done amazing things.

Tue, 2011-11-29 20:54 — Freeman2

Yes Mr Divine, but did you write a book about it read and enjoyed by millions? And that's the point really isn't it?

Mon, 2011-12-05 05:57 — John Thorne (not verified)

It's always good to see more Kerouac published, including this early unpublished novel which many of us Kerouac fans have been curious about for years.