Books

First edition, first printing, this copy in a variant binding not noted by Charters, with "Dharma Bums" lettered in silver on the spine rather than metallic blue, and without the green top edge. This title outlines "the equipment and attitudes it took to live Kerouac's way, including both the spiritual equipment [Zen Buddhism] as well as ordinary equipment like prosaic tents and Oakland store sleeping bags" (Charters, p. 270). This copy has two postcards and a bookmark from Gotham Book Mart, the Manhattan cultural landmark and literary salon. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in silver and green, titles in green on front cover. With dust jacket. Housed in a custom flat-backed folding box. With three newspaper clippings loosely inserted. Edges a little rubbed, upper outer corners bumped, slight wear to lower edges; jacket rubbed with two short closed tears, edges nicked with a few chips to foot of spine and lower corners, unclipped; a very good copy in like jacket. Charters A4a. Ann Charters, Kerouac: A Biography, 1994.

The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi-autobiographical story is based on the author's experiences during the mid-1950s while living in California, after he'd become interested in Buddhism's spiritual mode of understanding. One of the main characters, Japhy Ryder, is based on the real poet Gary Snyder, who was a close friend and whose interest in Buddhism influenced Kerouac.