Subterranean Kerouac

Drawing upon original interviews, his own relationship with Kerouac, Kerouac's recently published letters, and still-unpublished journals from the Kerouac archives, Ellis Amburn reveals an inner Kerouac that has not appeared in any previous biography. This is the "subterranean" Kerouac whom Amburn, the editor of his last two novels, knew personally, having witnessed the legendary Beat writer's decline into alcoholic despair during the last few years of his life. Perhaps the greatest of Kerouac's conflicts centered around his sexual relationships with men. Amburn recounts what Kerouac himself told him about these experiences, which other biographers have never before reported, and sheds new light on their profound impact on the man who remained convinced until his death that he was not bisexual, and that homosexuality was in fact immoral.

First sentence: Jack Kerouac's childhood and adolescence were lived at a pitch of romantic intensity and fulfillment rarely equaled in his adulthood, when he became tormented, and often paralyzed, by conflicting sexual passions.

Year

1998

Language

English

Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin

Editions

4

Pages

448

ISBN

9780312206772

Data source: Wikidata