Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings

by Jack Kerouac

Book Overview

An "indispensable" (Chicago Tribune) collection of more than sixty previously unpublished works from Jack Kerouac, ranging from stories and poems to plays and excerpts of novels

"Fascinating . . . provides a poignant picture of a life brimming with promise."--The Boston Globe

Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his classic On the Road, he spent years figuring out how...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140296395
• ISBN13: 9780140296396
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Fascinating

I'm liking this book way more than I expected I would. Most of the selections were written by Kerouac between the ages of 16 and 23. Sure some of them reflect the early author's innocence, but virtually all have fascinating insights. Here's a good example: One of the best selections concerns Jack's one-day employment in a sweat-shop cookie-making factory. Check out this quote: "Shorter hours will provide the laborer with a new desire to live, not to be a productive animal, but to have time to be a man, to have time to enjoy the rights of man in the use of his divine intellect, a gift of God that is overlooked by our overloads of the present Industrial Era." AMEN.

"Must" reading for all Jack Kerouac fans.

Use Paul Marion's Jack Kerouac Atop An Underwood (88822-2, $24.95) as an accompanying volume surveying his early stories and other writings: this gathers over sixty previously unpublished pieces from Kerouac's personal files and represents a treasure trove for any avid Kerouac reader. Both are highly recommended, even essential picks for any Beat collection.

atop an underwood

a good book into the mind set of a young JK. It takes you into the young mind of JK and lets you see how this excellent writer started. Alot of short stories of how jack got into writing and we all know the results of those young days. A must of a JK fan and a good book to have in your own JK librarysteve