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Jack Kerouac "On the Road" 50th Anniversary and its Valley Connection
This month is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." Not only is this one of the greatest novels ever published, it has an impressive Central California Valley connection. Here's an excerpt from chapter 12:
"Tracy is a railroad town; brakemen eat surly meals in diners by the tracks. Trains howl away across the valley. The sun goes down long and red. All the magic names of the valley unrolled--Manteca, Madera, all the rest. Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries. I struck my head out the window and took deep breaths of the fragrant air. It was the most beautiful of all moments. The madman was a brakeman with the Southern Pacific and he lived in Fresno; his father was also a brakeman. He lost his toe in the Oakland yards, switching, I didn't quite understand how. He drove me into buzzing Fresno and let me off by the south side of town. I went for a quick Coke in a little grocery by the tracks, and here came a melancholy Armenian youth along the red boxcars, and just at that moment a locomotive howled, and I said to myself, Yes, yes, Saroyan's town."
The commemorations for the book are already starting. Locally, CSUF radio station KFSR 90.7 FM will be airing an episode of A Prairie Home Companion that will be paying homage to Kerouac and books in general. You can catch it live today at 5 p.m. or noon tomorrow. You can also tune in via audio stream via their Web site:
If you have a few minutes, the New York Times Book Review blog (called Paper Cuts) posted an amazing YouTube clip of Kerouac reading from "On the Road" in 1959:
It can take a few moments to load, but it's well worth the wait.
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~C
Co-author of REMEMBERING CESAR: THE LEGACY OF CESAR CHAVEZ
The first book to be endorsed by the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation
Available through Amazon, your local bookseller, or direct from the publisher at Quill Driver Books, 1-800-497-4909. ISBN 1884956114
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heard a interesting talk on travels with charlie
at the steinbeck festival last week. the presenter was comparing on the road with travels with charlie. especially interesting was the difference between the beat writers/movement, with their youthful drive, almost a worship of youth with that of steinbeck. in travels with charlie steinbeck isnt blazing new trails but tries to rediscover, or perhaps just discover what is already there. travels is slower and more deliberate. ive always preferred "travels" over "on the road," though i really enjoyed "on the road" as well. i guess ive always sort of been somewhat of an old man.
Kerouac-Steinbeck-Hemingway
That's fascinating. I haven't read "Travels," so now I will.
Another interesting comparison is the one in the original 1957 NY Times review of "On the Road." Supposedly, that review is their most famous and influential to date. The reviewer compares Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" as the testament and protest of the Depression-era "Lost Generation." He says, "Hemingway and Kerouac are, at the very least, a depression and a world war apart." It's so interesting to compare each emerging generation's form of protest.
How was the Steinbeck Festival?
~C
http://www.cindywathen.com
Co-author of REMEMBERING CESAR: THE LEGACY OF CESAR CHAVEZ
The first book to be endorsed by the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation
Available through Amazon, your local bookseller, or direct from the publisher at Quill Driv
Steinbeck Festival
There were a lot of people there -- more than I expected. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get up there until Saturday and as it happed Friday had more going on. I hadn't been to the Steinbeck Museum and that in itself was pretty interesting as well. The people I spoke with who had been to more of the talks seemed to really like them, found the talks interesting, and thought provoking.