Books

First Edition; Advance Review Copy. Bound in publisher's salmon wrappers with title printed on front wrapper. Front wrapper has a bit of what appears to be tape residue towards the bottom corner with some accompanying scuffing. Large smoothed out crease to front wrapper. Small stain and mild soiling to rear wrapper, with two small smoothed out creases. Minor wear to spine ends. Spine crinkled, as typical for this volume. A bit of soiling to text block edges. A solid copy securely housed and beautifully presented in a custom clamshell box with marbled paper on the inside and leather title label on the spine. Better than Very Good. An uncommon review copy of Kerouac's first novel, and the only one where his name appears as John. It is largely if not strictly autobiographical, set in a fictionalized version of Lowell, MA, his hometown. The novel is unique in that it is Kerouac's first and one written before he solidified his distinctive, spontaneous voice for which he became known. However, it certainly does not fall short in lyricism and passion. In her bibliography, Anne Charters transcribes a few lines of conversation with Kerouac, "The Town and the City was written according to what they told me at Columbia University. Fiction. But I told you, the novel's dead. Then I broke loose from all that and wrote picaresque narratives. That's what my books are" (Charters p. 4). Additionally, Charters excerpts a letter Kerouac wrote to a friend about this novel, which captures something about Kerouac's relationship to his hometown and his growing up. Kerouac writes, ".Lowell, like Winesburg, Ohio or Asheville, North Carolina or Fresno, California or Hawthorne's Salem, is always the place where the darkness of the trees by the river, on a starry night, gives hint of that inscrutable future Americans are always longing and longing for. And when they find that future, not till then, they begin looking back, with sorrows, and an understanding of how man haunts the earth, pacing, prowling, circling in the shades, and the intelligence of the compass, pointing to nothing in sight save starry passion" (Charters pp. 3-4).

The Town and the City was Jack Kerouac's debut novel, published in 1950. It presents a coming-of-age story of a young man who experiences the dichotomy between provincial American life and the attraction of the city. Kerouac's alter ego is Peter Martin. The novel is heavily influenced by the works of Thomas Wolfe and is based on Kerouac's own early life.