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Book of Sketches

jack kerouac george condo

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In 1951, it was suggested to Jack Kerouac by his friend Ed White that he "sketch in the streets like a painter but with words." In August of the following year, Kerouac began writing down prose poem "sketches" in small notebooks that he kept in the breast pockets of his shirts. For two years he recorded travels, observations, and meditations on art and life as he moved across America and down to Mexico and back. In 1957, Kerouac sat down with the fifteen handwritten sketch notebooks he had accumulated and typed them into a manuscript called Book of Sketches; he included a handful of new sketches he had written that year. Published now for the first time, and with an introduction by George Condo, Book of Sketches offers an intimate glimpse of Kerouac at a key period of his literary career.

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2006

This edition

Format
432 pages, Paperback
Published
April 4, 2006 by Penguin Books
ISBN
9780142002155
ASIN
0142002151
Language
English

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About the author

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jack kerouac

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Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian ancestry, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marine; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.
Kerouac is recognized for his style of stream of consciousness spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City, Buddhism, drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. He has a lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jerry Garcia and The Doors.
In 1969, at the age of 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 57 votes)
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57 reviews All reviews
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BansheeGoose
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Me ha parecido magnífico como escritor poder leer este libro de mi admirado Jack Kerouac por que me ha permitido acceder a su pensamiento, a la forma en que él componía, construía, ese universo que formo parte de la Generación Beat, un testimonio en primera persona del Estados Unidos que no sale en los libros de Historia. Altamente recomendable para acercarse al autor y al momento histórico
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forgot2sleep
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A book of sketches as only Kerouac envisioned; that of words. Written during what critics have called Kerouac's most literate periods - between 1952 & 1957 while not coincidentally he was on the road almost constantly - published posthumously in 2006.
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Coela
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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insightful as a window into his creative process in writing on the road. good to see even someone as groundbreaking as kerouac is subject to personal procrastination.
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SilentDeicide
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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El Libro de esbozos (o Book of sketches) es imperfecto, veloz, desgarbado, indisciplinado. Estamos ante un texto único porque es el Kerouac más honesto y fresco. Luego de que todos sabemos que On the road fue un texto más pulido que improvisado de algún modo buscaba un Kerouac más cercano a esa improvisación jazzística de su prosa. Junto con la publicación del texto original de On the road creo que Book of sketches es lo más cercano a ese Kerouac del mito.
El libro es un inmenos poema dividido en distintos estadios, fragmentos, notas tomadas en el estribo de trenes o autos, detrás de ventanas de cuartos ajenos mientras observa su mundo: México, Europa, campos, ciudades de noche, en el verano o al final del otoño.
El libro no agota al lector y da cuenta de las mil crisis, dudas, esperanzas y amores que tuvo Kerouac previos a la publicación de On the road. Fue idea de un amigo del autor que le recomendó llevar una libreta donde tomar apuntes en sus viajes y así no perder la iniciativa de la escritura. Los años que abarca son los previos al salto a la fama de Kerouac así que estamos ante un norteamericano anónimo que goza de su anonimato al mismo tiempo que lo sufre porque quería en algún momento que publicaran su obra. Mientras escribe y da cuenta de novelas que luego saldrían y serían clásicos indiscutidos, como La vanidad de los Duluoz, Los subterráneos o el mismo En el camino. Estamos ante un Thoreau del siglo XX que goza de la naturaleza y al mismo tiempo de un heredero desgarbado de T.S. Eliot cuando describe la miseria que esconde el sueño americano. El autor ama y odia con fulgor a su país y eso es éxtasis y dolor.
La belleza se expande y la traducción (por momentos demasiado ibérica para un lector latinoamericano) no impide disfrutar de esos esbozos e inclusive son por momentos un logro en si mismo. Fue acertado de todos modos que la editorial incluyera el texto original en inglés porque hay momentos en los que Kerouac juega con onomatopeyas que solo admiten leerse en inglés.
De seguro este entra en uno de mis libros favoritos y de consulta constante de ahora en más.
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darhkm8
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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For fans of Kerouac, this is one more option to soak up his imagery and float along on the unique cadence of his language. The book is as the title describes a collection of sketches of places, people and ideas from various points in Kerouac’s travels and life. He developed this technique as a strategy to hone his spontaneous writing. But make no mistake, he refined and improved his off the cuff writing to great effect in the finished pieces.

If you are new to the author, this is as good a place as any to make a start. If tripped up by the form or language, I suggest reading aloud slowly and naturally, as though reciting the lyrics of a song or the words of an excited conversation between great friends.
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_Lazaroth_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book showed me that making a mess and seeing what happens is the best possible way ti write poetry and begin fiction.
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tami4875
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This books of notes (which were not supposed to be published) taught me something new about writing, that there's some kind of order and meaning behind anything that seems at first random. I like Kerouac's voice and it could be heard clearly in this book, but I can't say I enjoyed every poem. There were parts and Sketches I liked but others bored me.
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