Lawrence Lee

Jacks Book: an Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac Lawrence Lee Unabridged edition

The classic and fascinating story of Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats and American literary legend, recorded through the voices of his friends and lovers. Authors Barry Gifford and Lawrence Lee retraced Kerouacs life at home and on the road and talked with the prophets, musicians, poets, socialites, and working people who knew him. Some are famous (Allen Ginsberg, Gore Vidal, William Burroughs); some are not (Jacks boyhood buddies, his lovers, his barroom companions). All have contributed to a remarkably vibrant, riveting portrait of a life. We see Jack at Columbia University and on the scene of Greenwich Village; speeding across the tarmac of America with Neal Cassidy (Dan Moriarty in Kerouacs classic novel, On the Road); at home with his possessive mother; in California, drinking wine and talking Buddhism; and finally, in Florida, where his life ends tragically at forty-seven years old. Jacks Book, like Kerouacs novels, makes a unique contribution to our understanding of a man and a generation that shaped the dreams and visions of those who followed.