Items related to Book of Blues
Best known for his "Legend of Duluoz" novels, including On the Road and The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac is also an important poet. In these eight extended poems, Kerouac writes from the heart of experience in the music of language, employing the same instrumental blues form that he used to fullest effect in Mexico City Blues, his largely unheralded classic of postmodern literature. Edited by Kerouac himself, Book of Blues is an exuberant foray into language and consciousness, rich with imagery, propelled by rythm, and based in a reverent attentiveness to the moment.
"In my system, the form of blues choruses is limited by the small page of the breastpocket notebook in which they are written, like the form of a set number of bars in a jazz blues chorus, and so sometimes the word-meaning can carry from one chorus into another, or not, just like the phrase-meaning can carry harmonically from one chorus to the other, or not, in jazz, so that, in these blues as in jazz, the form is determined by time, and by the musicians spontaneous phrasing & harmonizing with the beat of time as it waves & waves on by in measured choruses." —Jack Kerouac
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Jack Kerouac(1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.
From Booklist:
Gaps in Kerouac's complex and sonorous canon are being filled in slowly but surely. Last winter brought his Selected Letters and The Portable Jack Kerouac , and now we have this set of eight previously unpublished "blues" poems written between 1954 and 1961. These long poems, series of "choruses" or sketches, resemble, in form and avidity, Kerouac's amazing verse creation Mexico City Blues (1959). They are strongly tied to place and are, as the allusion to music implies, boldly improvisational. Kerouac finds and breaks connections between images and observations as he channels the energy of San Francisco, New York, Washington, and various Mexican towns and cities into great rushes of language. As he riffs and indulges in easy wordplay, Kerouac can be either astute or sloppy, visionary or banal, but, as Robert Creeley writes in his fine introduction, his poems "provide an intensely vivid witness of both writer and time." Whatever their failings, these scintillating poems will strike a chord with fans of performance poetry or even rap, as well as with Kerouac enthusiasts. Donna Seaman
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0140587004
- ISBN 13 9780140587005
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages274
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 14.97
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Seller Image
Book of Blues by Kerouac, Jack [Paperback ]
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Soft Cover
Quantity: 5
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780140587005
Buy New
US$ 14.97
Convert currency
Stock Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0140587004xvz189zvxnew
Buy New
US$ 20.11
Convert currency
Stock Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0140587004-new
Buy New
US$ 20.11
Convert currency
Stock Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # DADAX0140587004
Buy New
US$ 20.14
Convert currency
Stock Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Softcover
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780140587005
Buy New
US$ 17.44
Convert currency
Seller Image
Book of Blues (Paperback or Softback)
Published by
Penguin Books 9/1/1995
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Paperback or Softback
Quantity: 5
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Book of Blues 0.55. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780140587005
Buy New
US$ 21.78
Convert currency
Stock Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Softcover
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9780140587005
Buy New
US$ 24.00
Convert currency
Stock Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(2023)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Paperback
Quantity: 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New! This item is printed on demand. Seller Inventory # 0140587004
Buy New
US$ 24.45
Convert currency
Stock Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new0140587004
Buy New
US$ 21.63
Convert currency
Seller Image
Book of Blues
Published by
Penguin Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0140587004
ISBN 13: 9780140587005
New
Softcover
Quantity: 5
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 490543-n
Buy New
US$ 22.37
Convert currency