Search Results: Signed Books by kerouac

February 28,1964.

1960. Rare mimeographed questionnaire sent by a graduate student of City College of New York to Jack Kerouac; completed and signed twice by him with a lengthy inscription in conclusion. Two pages, partially printed the questionnaire begins with a typed letter signed by James A. Sherlock politely requesting Kerouac's response which reads in part: "Dear Mr. Kerouac, I am a graduate student of City College of New York, working upon an original research project aimed at uncovering certain educational factors in the lives of successful writers. As you undoubtedly know, there always has been considerable interest in analyzing the psychological make-up of the writer, but seldom has the more prosaic factor of the writer's education been taken into consideration. Through this questionnaire, I would like to find out if the average successful writer considers his high school education in English a help or a hindrance in preparing him for his profession. Did frequent composition assignments aid the writer in… Read More

New York: Grove Press, 1966. Satori In Paris is a tale of Kerouac's own trip to France, to trace his ancestors and explore his own understanding of the Buddhism that came to define his beliefs, contains some of Kerouac's most lyrical descriptions. From his reports of the strangers he meets and the all-night conversations he enjoys in seedy bars in Paris and Brittany, to the moment in a cab he experiences Buddhism's satori - a feeling of sudden awakening - Kerouac's affecting and revolutionary writing transports the reader. Published at the height of his fame, Satori in Paris is a hectic tale of philosophy, identity and the powerful strangeness of travel.

New York: The Viking Press, 1957. First Edition. Hardcover. Dust Jacket Included. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Author. Kerouac, Jack. ON THE ROAD. Signed. New York: Viking Press, 1957. 8vo., 310pp. A very good or better copy, the white spine lettering partially rubbed, evidence of a bookplate having been removed from the front free endpaper otherwise the book block is clean & free of blemish. Kerouac has signed in black ink at the top of the second blank page which has likely been added later to this copy. Notwithstanding it is indeed signed & as such not to be toyed with as there are only a handful of really top-of-mind modern titles & right beside Catcher & Mockingbird sits OTR or is it the other way round? The dustwrapper is very good or better having been professionally restored with work done primarily at the spine heel & crown. An extremely good copy.

Chicago: Playboy Press, 1965. Jack Kerouac's personal advance copy of The Twelfth Anniversary Playboy Reader. Quarto, original cloth. Laid in is the original transmittal letter on Hefner's Playboy Press letterhead dated September 8, 1965, which reads in part: "Dear Mr. Kerouac: Here, with my personal compliments, is your advance copy of The Twelfth Anniversary Playboy Reader, which is being published by Playboy Press. It is a hallmark in the history of Playboy, a distinguished compilation of the very best prose we have published in our magazine during its first twelve years. Your work has contributed mightily to our success, and I am very pleased to have included it in this volume... Cordially, Hugh M. Hefner." Signed by Hefner in facsimile. Kerouac was one of a staggering number of authors whose work was published in Playboy Magazine early in their writing careers, when they were still virtually unknown. Published to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the magazine's first appearance on December 1,… Read More

New York: Viking. 1957. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Good+ in a Very Good dust jacket. Owner personalization on title page. Rubbing along panel edges. Light chipping at spine crown/heel. Shelf wear on front/rear boards and spine. ; Check signed by Jack Kerouac laid in. .

New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1950. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 499 pages. In Very Good condition, with a Good plus dust jacket. Spine illustrated with white titling. Dust jacket protected with a mylar covering. Price unclipped: "$3.50". Dust jacket shows mild chipping and wear to all extremities, some tape reinforcement along interior of jacket on the rear hinge and lower edge. Boards have light wear to bottom edges. The Text block has a small price-stamp to rear endpaper. Signed flat by Kerouac as 'John Kerouac' on the front free end page, unusually signed as such. CX Consignment. Shelved in Case 3. The first major work published by Kerouac, The Town and the City was originally published under the name of 'John Kerouac'. However, for the remainder of his writing career, Kerouac elected to go by the name 'Jack'. This novel shows Kerouac at an early stage in his development as a writer, before his embrace of "spontaneous prose" and deeply indebted stylistically to Tom… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950. First edition of the Jack Kerouac's first book. Octavo, original red cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Jack Kerouac To Judge Eno- belated Thanks for driving me home in your Buick in '32, and for your friendship to my father-." The recipient, Judge Eno was the father of Kerouac's close friend Arthur Eno who were classmates at St. Joseph's School. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. An exceptional inscription, rare and desirable. Kerouac began writing The Town and the City in late 1945, according to Ellis Amburn, who edited Kerouac's last two novels and wrote the biography Subterranean Kerouac. Heavily influenced by Thomas Wolfe, he sent the completed manuscript to Wolfe's publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons, in 1948. Allen Ginsberg lobbied his former teacher at Columbia University (Kerouac had also attended Columbia), Mark Van Doren for help, and Van Doren set up an interview with Alfred Kazin,… Read More

1959-62. Framed note, matted, with a black and white photo of Kerouac holding a cat. Frame measures w 13.25 in. x h 24.75 in. with white background and engraved black placard reading 'Jack Kerouac' below note. Note torn from a notepad, with spiral perforations on the top edge, measuring 9 in. x 6 in. The note reads, in Kerouac's hand: "Dear Lois - See you Friday - Got your beautiful letter about Gerard - We've got to go be quiet. Jack XXX" There is a pencil drawing of a mountain or leaf outline above his signature. JH Consignment. Shelved in Dupont. Jack Kerouac is generally considered the father of the Beat movement, along with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. His 1957 novel On the Road made him an icon, and was hailed as "the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat,' and whose principal avatar he is." by the New York Times. Lois Sorrells Beckwith married actor Robert Sorrells in… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950. First edition of the Jack Kerouac's first book. Octavo, original red cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Dave Creviston To Scribner's With Luck To Dave With Luck (f.s) Jack Kerouac." An interesting inscription as Kerouac submitted this work to Charles Scribner's Sons twice, and was rejected both times before being accepted by Harcourt Brace. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional inscription, rare and desirable. Kerouac began writing The Town and the City in late 1945, according to Ellis Amburn, who edited Kerouac's last two novels and wrote the biography Subterranean Kerouac. Heavily influenced by Thomas Wolfe, he sent the completed manuscript to Wolfe's publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons, in 1948. Allen Ginsberg lobbied his former teacher at Columbia University (Kerouac had also attended Columbia), Mark Van Doren for help, and Van… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950. First edition of Kerouac's first book. Octavo, original red cloth. Signed by Kerouac on the front free endpaper and with the ownership name of his close childhood friend and neighbor in Lowell, Massachusetts, Charles Dudevoir. With a note of provenance signed by Charles Dudevoir's granddaughter which reads in part, "Phil - my mother lived in Lowell when she was young - Irene Dudevoir - Her dad, Charles + mother, Martha knew Keroauc... Thanks! Melinda" and a very detailed three-page typed letter of provenance which reads in part, "I bought this book from a very well known dealer out here in California in '97. His name is Jerry Melon... The Kerouac is a very good signature from him as he frequently signed just 'Jack' or JK... there are a few formal copies of the 'Town' signed 'John Kerouac' but a full fledged Jack Kerouac on any book is very rare... I believe the [inset from the granddaughter of Charles Dudevoir] was written to Phil Chaput, a local Lowell… Read More

Northport, NY: n.p., 1963. First edition. Custom cloth folder. Fine. SIGNED LETTER FROM KEROUAC FEATURING RARE DRAWING AND DISCUSSIONS OF FELLOW WRITERS. Dating from the final decade of Kerouac's life, the present letter is an unpublished insight into how the writer's relationships, attitudes and motivations developed in his later years. On the back of the second leaf is a collection of abstracted forms to which he refers at the start of the letter. Kerouac ironically describes his artwork as a gift "worth 10,000 dollars within 5 years". Identifying the piece, completed in pencil and marker, as an oil painting, he further comments on its value and rarity arising from the probability that he will "suddenly get bored with paint again". Subsequently, Kerouac describes an original piano composition titled "Procession of the Iroquois Chieftain" which-though left un-scored, "'cause I dont know how"-he claims to have recorded on tape. Charting his creative impulses, with increasing proficiency, from… Read More

New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1960. First edition of Kerouac's deeply personal collection of autobiographical vignettes. Octavo, original half-cloth, illustrated with drawings by Larry Rivers. Laid in is an autograph letter signed by Kerouac which reads, "Dec. 3 1962 Dear Louis, Voila, contracts signed - Glad to hear too of Deutsch London reprint contract which means I can pay for my Sins - Jack Kerouac Tell Sterling I see him Dec. 29 or 28 & You too J." Here, Kerouac refers to his novel Big Sur, first published in September of 1962 by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, and subsequently by Deutsch in London. He also refers to Kerouac's literary agent, Sterling Lord, who was responsible for the publication of Kerouac's masterpiece On the Road (which took him four years to sell) and represented several other major names in American writing including Ken Kesey, Howard Fast, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Larry Rivers. The letter is in fine condition… Read More

Palma de Mallorca and Black Mountain, North Carolina: Black Mountain Review, 1957. First edition. Paperback. Very Good. Seven volume complete set of perhaps the most distinguished and sought after small press poetry magazine. Edited by Robert Creeley with assists variously by Charles Olson, Irving Layton, Allen Ginsberg and others. The house organ of Black Mountain College in the waning years of the school's existence. Featruing a who's who of mid-century American poets and artists. each of the first four issues featured illustrations by a different artist in each issue. Condition varies slightly between issues, but all are in very good condition. Issue 6 is signed by poet Charles Tomlinson. Issue 5 has a couple of small ink underlinings on one page. Issue 7, perhaps the rarest of the bunch is in particularly high condition and is distinguished by the fact that it has been SIGNED by Allen Ginsberg at his contribution. Issue 7 also features William Lee (a.k.a. William S Burroughs) who contributes a… Read More

New York: The Viking Press, 1957. First edition of Kerouac's classic novel. Octavo, original black cloth. Near fine in a bright very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Bill English. With the original New York Times article for On the Road laid in. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A sharp example. The raucous, exuberant, often wildly funny account of a journey through America and Mexico, Jack Kerouac's On the Road instantly defined a generation on its publication in 1957: it was, in the words of a New York Times reviewer, "the clearest and most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat.'" Written in the mode of ecstatic improvisation that Allen Ginsberg described as "spontaneous bop prosody," Kerouac's novel remains electrifying in its thirst for experience and its defiant rebuke of American conformity. In his portrayal of the fervent relationship between the writer Sal Paradise and his outrageous,… Read More

New York: An Aperture Book: Grossman Publishers, 1969. Second Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Near Fine. Revised and Enlarged second edition. Introduction by Jack Kerouac. Original black cloth, slight spine lean; rubbed along bottom edges. Dust jacket nice and bright. Inscribed and Signed by Robert Frank in 1983.

New York: Atheneum,, 1968. Inscribed by Jack Kerouac First edition, first printing, of this anti-war novel, inscribed on the first blank "Happy Birthday to my Brother-in-Law John, Jack Kerouac", and with a signed letter of provenance from Jeffrey Weinberg (bookseller), dated 1983, stating that this copy was given to Kerouac by the publisher's agent for a possible review. The recipient was John Sampas, brother to Stella, Kerouac's third wife. Sampas became the executor of the Kerouac estate after Stella and Jan's deaths in the 1990s. Rooted in the author's own Korean War experience and trauma, A Sense of Dark would have added fuel to Kerouac's own anti-war sentiments, as the Vietnam War continued into its second decade. "By [Malliol's] estimates he had killed more than 100 enemy soldiers in Korea and Algeria, felling dozens and dozens of them with a samurai sword in the trenches of Inchon... It was the love of a young woman and four years at Oxford University that changed William and helped him see… Read More

Millerton, NY: Aperture, Inc, 1978. Third edition. Oversize oblong format. Signed and inscriberd by the author / photographer Robert Frank to Harold Hayes, editor in chief of Esquire magazine from 1961 to 1973 having been handpicked by the magazine’s founder, Arnold Gingrich, as his successor. Inscribed: “For Harold and the New Life in California. Robert, July 23, 1984.” During Hayes’s editorship, the magazine kept pace with the tumultuous sixties with landmark articles, fiction, and essays by the likes of Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Gay Talese, Garry Wills, Michael Herr, William Burroughs, Jean Genet, Terry Southern, etc., and was a major influence on a generation of writers. In 1981, Hayes took over as editorial vice president of CBS magazines. He moved west in 1984 to become editor of California magazine, a position he held through 1987. Additionally, in 1984, Robert Frank was commissioned by Harold Hayes, editor of California magazine (a position he held through 1987) to photograph the… Read More

Avon, 1959. INSCRIBED AND DATED BY KEROUAC--"To Judith, Jack Kerouac 1958." Spine glue has crystallized, so there's a little break between pages 92 and 93, but everything remains attached. The Judith to which the book is inscribed has requested that her last name should not be made public. Serious inquiries will be supplied with her full identity, though some Kerouac fanatics may be able to guess. We did not know who she was for a long time, but a generous colleague supplied the information to us, and confirmed it with Judith. The discrepancy between the publication date and the inscription date is either explained by Kerouac receiving copies early or perhaps he just misdated the inscription after a few too many. . INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. First Edition. Mass Market Paperback. Very Good.

NY: Viking Press, 1950. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. An association copy: signed by Gary Snyder on the copyright page. Apparently when asked to sign the book, Snyder replied, slyly, "But I didn't write it." He then relented, though, and out of deference to Kerouac signed the copyright page instead of the title page. The book is a roman a clef,  and Snyder is the main character, Japhy Ryder, who models Buddhist practice and eventually leads the narrator up the Matterhorn in the Eastern Sierra for a sublime experience. Very good with some light rubbing to board edges, a drip stain to top face of text block, toning to pages. In a very good jacket with rubbing and slight loss to corners and spine ends. An iconic book and scarce signed by Japhy.