His pen turns to Norma: “ You are dark and burning Helen . . . remember that den in Chinatown, and the way you sang in German for me on the Ferry? I can still envision your blown straw-colored hair . . . all silhouetted against the New York skyline. And the strong wind . . . This is a mad letter, I know. But I’ve always been this way”. He asks after her, requesting her picture (”I should like very much to brood over your letter and picture”), and laments that the call of
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although it ends with the narrator experiencing the vision of the Cross of Christian redemption, Kerouac himself was unable to recover from the depths he plumbed in his writing” ( ANB ). Octavo. Original black cloth-backed blue marbled boards, titles to spine in gilt, top edge blue. With dust jacket. Hint of shelfwear to bottom edge, book block square, a fine copy in the like jacket, not price-clipped, rear panel just a little rubbed. £1,250 [153510] 107 KEROUAC, Jack – RUSCHA, Ed. On the Road. New York, London, Göttingen: Gagosian Gallery and Steidl Verlag, 2009 BEAT GOES POP
First edition, number 20 of 390 copies signed by Ruscha. The book was designed by Ruscha, taking the cover and slipcase text from a drawing by Kerouac. Kerouac’s entire text appears accompanied by black-and-white photographic illustrations that Ruscha has either taken himself, commissioned from other photographers, or selected from found images to refer closely to the details and impressions that the author describes. Folio. Original grey leather boards, titles to spine and front cover in black, text printed in letterpress on 220 gsm Hahnemühle paper. Housed in the publisher’s grey leather slipcase, titles to front panel in black. All contained in the publisher’s printed packing box. Illustrated throughout with photographs by Ed Ruscha, Gary Regester and others unknown on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper tipped-in by hand, photo plates surrounded with blind embossing. All in fine condition. £6,500 [153374]
adventure prevents him from seeing her (”I was still of a mind to go to your camp this summer and see you – and I was going to tell you these things – but now I must go down to the sea, in ships”). Titled in pink by Kerouac “Love Letter to Norma Blickfelt” and almost certainly never posted, this is a superb example of his early writing, chronicling his self-consciously literary wanderings and hopes for future fame. 12pp. Autograph letter written in black ink, titled “love letter to Norma Blickfelt” in pink ink on the first page. Spine a little rubbed, crease from being folded once, a few trivial marks primarily to outer leaves, else bright and sharp. ¶ Paul Maher, Kerouac: His Life and Work , 2007. £37,500 [153211] 106 KEROUAC, Jack. Big Sur. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1962 ON A ROLL AGAIN First edition of one of Kerouac’s last novels, in remarkable condition. Big Sur was written in just ten days with Kerouac typewriting onto a teletype roll. In this, “his 1962 ‘comeback’ novel, Kerouac starkly depicted the self-destructive trajectory of his life since the publication of On the Road . Craving both solitude and genuine companionship, his fictional counterpart Jack Duluoz careens from the retreat of a cabin at Big Sur to San Francisco’s North Beach and back. The novel offers one of the most arresting treatments of alcoholism in modern literature, and
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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