Beat Writer Jack Kerouac Explored in In-Depth Exhibition Featuring Famous On the Road Scroll and Treasures from The New York Public Library's Jack Kerouac Archive

Unpublished Manuscripts, Diaries, Journals, Correspondence, Drawings and Paintings, Photographs, and Kerouac's Fantasy Baseball and Horse Racing Materials on Display, along with 60 Feet of the On the Road Scroll


Jack Kerouac. Design for front cover of proposed paperback edition of On the Road, 1952. NYPL, Berg Collection, Jack Kerouac Archive. and reproduced courtesy of John G. Sampas, legal representative of the estates of Jack and Stella Kerouac.

Jack Kerouac. Design for front cover of proposed paperback edition of On the Road, 1952. NYPL, Berg Collection, Jack Kerouac Archive. and reproduced courtesy of John G. Sampas, legal representative of the estates of Jack and Stella Kerouac.

The largest assemblage of Jack Kerouac's manuscripts, diaries, journals, notebooks, photographs, paintings, mixed-media artworks, and sketches ever shown will be on display in the exhibition Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road at The New York Public Library from November 9, 2007 - February 24, 2008 and March 1 - 16, 2008.

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the publication of Kerouac's seminal novel On the Road, 300 Kerouac and Beat-related materials will be on display, including typescript and manuscript drafts of On the Road. Figuratively and literally at the center of the exhibition will be the iconic 120-foot scroll on which Kerouac, in three weeks in New York City, composed and typed the novel later emended by him in typescripts that are also on display, in three weeks in New York City. The first 60 feet of the scroll, on loan from James Irsay, owner of the National Football League's Indianapolis Colts, will be on view from November 9, 2007 through February 24, 2008. Beatific Soul is drawn almost exclusively from the contents of the Library’s Jack Kerouac Archive (acquired in 2001) and other Beat holdings, including the William S. Burroughs Archive (acquired in 2006), housed in the Library’s Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature; a small group of materials has been selected from other Library collections. With few exceptions, the archival material displayed has never before been seen by the public.

[Note: The original scroll of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road will be on view from Friday, November 9 through Sunday, February 24. The exhibition will be closed from Monday, February 25 through Friday, February 29. Reopening on Saturday, March 1, the exhibition will continue through Sunday, March 16; during this period, a full-size facsimile of the scroll’s first 60 feet will be on view.]

“The arrival of the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road is an important moment in American letters for at least two reasons: first, because Kerouac (1922 –1969) is generally regarded as chief of the triumvirate comprising himself, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, who were fathers of the Beat movement; and second, because the sensation caused by the publication of On the Road brought Kerouac to the attention of a national audience,” said Library President Paul LeClerc. “The New York Public Library could not allow this significant anniversary to pass without a significant exhibition and accompanying publication, especially since in 2001, the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature acquired the Jack Kerouac Archive.”

On the Road was inspired by four cross-country road trips taken by Kerouac, three from New York to California and back, and a round trip from New York to Mexico. Drafts, fragments, and journal entries show Kerouac's literary journey while writing the novel. The 1949 notebook “Night Notes,” which includes a hand-drawn map of the United States; the 1949-52 Rain and Rivers notebook, bearing the evocative subtitle, “The Marvelous notebook presented to me by Neal Cassady in San Francisco Which I have Crowded in Words”; the 1950 “Hip Generation,” and the 1950 fragmentary draft bearing the working title “Gone on the Road with Minor Artistic Corrections,” are among the revelatory journals, notebooks, and drafts that reveal the enormous amount of work and thought that Kerouac expended on the novel, and the daring with which he carried it out. A visual highlight displayed is a 1952 pencil and red pen drawing of Kerouac's design for a never-published paperback edition of On the Road; a man stands with his back to the reader, in front of a highway with the words “by John Kerouac KerouacKerouacKerouac” cascading down the road like a speed warning. Photos and communication to, from, and by the other Beats are interspersed throughout the exhibition. Drawings and paintings by Kerouac are also featured, revealing the seriousness of his artistic ambition and the talent that justified it.

The exhibition title, Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, echoes a line in On the Road, in which the novel’s narrator, Sal Paradise, says of the charismatic Dean Moriarty, the Neal Cassady character, “He was BEAT – the root, the soul of Beatific.” Since 1948, Kerouac had been insisting on the essential spirituality of the Beat idea by linking “Beat” to “beatitude,” and he affirmed this proposition strenuously in numerous conversations with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, and in books, articles, and interviews for the rest of his life.

“Because Kerouac saw life as a spiritual quest, it was inevitable that he should adapt his chosen vehicle of exploration – literary expression, supplemented, later, by painting and drawing – to spiritual purposes,” said Exhibition Curator Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of the Berg Collection. “The novels of Thomas Wolfe were his most direct early stylistic influences, but in spirit and literary sensibility he was also influenced by Whitman, Thoreau, Twain, and Joyce, as well as a host of other writers, not only literary, but philosophical, theological, and historical. The exhibition explores the familial, literary, and spiritual roots of Kerouac’s creativity and the psychological conflicts that both nourished and suppressed it; the evolution of his major works, especially On the Road; and his views on writing, writers, and artistic creativity.”

Beatific Soul’s eight thematic sections interpret Kerouac's life and work based chiefly on the Archive’s materials: The Beat Generation; Early Life, Influences, and Writings; On the Road: Proto-Versions, Drafts, Fragments and Notes; On the Road: The Scroll and Its Successors; The Buddhist Christian; Confession, Reflection, and Judgment: Life and Work; Fiction, Poetry, and Prose; and Fantasy Sports. While focusing on the writer’s work, the exhibition also sheds light on aspects of Kerouac’s personal and inner life: his close and ambivalent relationship with his mother, his evaluations of the writing and personalities of the other Beats, his relationships with women, and his religious and political beliefs. The eighth section, Fantasy Sports, explores the fantasy horse racing and baseball games he created and around which he created a rich literature. Though he stopped writing about the game after he left Lowell (with one 1958 exception), he played the fantasy baseball game from childhood until his death.

“The New York Public Library must now be acknowledged as the center for Beat research in the world,” said David Ferriero, the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries. “In addition to the Kerouac and Burroughs Archives, the Library’s Berg Collection holds significant papers by Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, and comprehensive collections of printed materials and ephemera by and relating to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Michael McClure. Also, the Library's general collections contain vast resources in American history, society, politics, and culture from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1960s that richly document the context in which the Beat writers and the Beat phenomenon are embedded.”

Companion Volume

Written by Isaac Gewirtz, Exhibition Curator and the Curator of the Berg Collection The New York Public Library, Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road traces Kerouac's tumultuous and often traumatic journey from his working-class boyhood in Lowell, Massachusetts, to New York City, where he, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs would become the fathers of the Beat movement, and beyond. The book explores Kerouac’s evolution as a writer and his spiritual passage from Christianity to Buddhism and back again. It also documents in detail the complex evolution of On the Road from its numerous pre-scroll drafts of the late 1940s, through the post-scroll drafts that reveal not only editorial pressures, but Kerouac’s changing attitudes toward his road experience. Illustrated throughout with more than 100 reproductions of diaries, journals, typescripts, and paintings by Kerouac, as well as family photographs and striking portraits of Kerouac and his contemporaries.Beatific Soul is a fitting tribute to its subject on the 50th anniversary of his pioneering and best-known work. Published by The New York Public Library in association with Scala Publishers. 208 pp., 110 color images; notes, a checklist of illustrated works, suggested reading, and an index of names; 9 x 12 in.; $45. Cloth: ISBN 978-1-85759-497-3.

Curatorial Talks

Curatorial talks with Isaac Gewirtz are planned in conjunction with the exhibition.

Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road

Tuesdays, December 4, January 15, and February 12 at 6 p.m.

South Court Auditorium, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street

Dr. Gewirtz discusses and displays images from the exhibition, including Kerouac’s paintings and drawings.

Additional Lectures

Road Maps with Alice Hudson, Chief of the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library

Thursdays, December 6 and February 7 at 2:15 p.m.

South Court Auditorium, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street

This lecture traces the history of the road map, emphasizing the road trips described in Kerouac’s On the Road.

This Is the Beat Generation with Jason Bauman, Special Assistant to the Director, The New York Public Library

Saturday, February 23 at 2:15 p.m.

South Court Classrooms, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street

This class takes a closer look at the Beat Generation and explores the possibilities of researching its history.

These programs are free on a first-come, first-served basis. Lectures are not part of a series but are in some cases offered several times. More information about these and other programs and classes are available in the Fall-Winter edition of Now, available in Astor Hall or at www.nypl.org/southcourt/.

Film Series

There are two scheduled film series, both held in January at the Donnell Library Center Auditorium at 20 West 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Aves. Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 212.691.0609 or visit www.nypl.org.

The American Road

Every Wednesday in January at 2:30 p.m., the Donnell Media Center celebrates American wanderlust with the film series Featuring: The American Road. The series is eclectic, including features (Five Easy Pieces, Down by Law, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure), short narrative (The Wizard of Speed and Time), documentary (Where Are We? Our Trip Through America), and independent video (The Motorist). Each work expresses the distinctively American need to keep in motion.

January 2, 2008Five Easy Pieces, DVD, color, 96 min. Directed by Bob Rafelson, 1970.

Starring Jack Nicholson, Karen Black.

January 9, 2008Down by Law, 16mm film, b&w, 107 min. Directed by Jim Jarmusch, 1986.

Starring Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni.

January 16, 2008The Wizard of Speed and Time, 16mm film, color, 3 min. Directed by Mike

Jittlov, 1980.

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, 16mm film, color, 95 min. Directed by Tim Burton, 1985. Starring

Paul Reubens.

January 23, 2008Where Are We? Our Trip Through America, video, color, 73 min. Directed

by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, 1992.

January 30, 2008The Motorist, video, color, 69 min. Directed by Chip Lord, 1989.

Viewpoint: Beatific Screen

Every Thursday in January at 2:30 p.m., the Donnell Media Center encompasses the works, aesthetics, and lives of the Beats through documentary portrait (The Source, What Happened to Kerouac?, The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg), observation (Pull My Daisy, Wholly Communion), adaptation (Naked Lunch), and inspiration (Lowell Blues, The Cedar Bar) with the wide-ranging film series Viewpoint: Beatific Screen.

January 3, 2008Lowell Blues: The Words of Jack Kerouac, DVD, color/b&w, 27 min.

Directed by Henri Ferrini, 2000.

What Happened to Kerouac?, video, color, 96 min. Directed by Richard Lerner and Lewis

MacAdams, 1986.

January 10, 2008The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, DVD, color, 84 min. Directed by Jerry

Aronson, 2005.

January 17, 2008Pull My Daisy, 16mm film, b&w, 29 min. Directed by Robert Frank and

Alfred Leslie, 1959.

The Cedar Bar, DVD, color/b&w, 83 min. Directed by Alfred Leslie, 2001.

January 24, 2008Wholly Communion, 16mm, b&w, 35 min. Directed by Peter Whitehead,

1965.

The Source, DVD, color, 89 min. Directed by Chuck Workman, 1999.

January 31, 2008Naked Lunch, 16mm film, color, 115 min. Directed by David Cronenberg,

1991. Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm.

Docent Tours

Free public tours of Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Roadare conducted Monday through Saturday at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. All group tours, including school groups, must be scheduled well in advance. Unauthorized tours are not permitted. To schedule a tour, call 212.930.0501. Group tours are $7 per person for adults ($5 for seniors); there is no charge for full-time students.

Complementary Exhibition

The Author as Artist: Jack Kerouac and Friends

November 12, 2007 – February 29, 2008

Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Butler Library, 6th Floor East

Columbia University, 535 West 114 th Street

Hours and directions: www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/rbml/.

Selected from the collections of Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, this small exhibition features drawings (mainly portraits of one another) by Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Robert LaVigne, Peter Orlovsky, and others.

About The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers – the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library – and 87 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The New York Public Library serves over 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.

About the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature

The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature was assembled and presented to The New York Public Library by Dr. Albert A. Berg, famous New York surgeon and trustee of the Library, in memory of his brother, Dr. Henry W. Berg. Both men found relaxation from their medical careers in collecting the works and memorabilia of English and American writers. The original collection, which numbered 3,500 items, has grown through acquisitions and gifts to include some 35,000 printed items and 115,000 manuscripts, covering the entire range of English and American literature.

Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road is on view November 9, 2007 through February 24, 2008 and March 1 through March 16, 2008 in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall at The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library, located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan. The exhibition is open during regular Library hours: Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Closed the following days: Sunday, November 11; Monday, November 12; Thursday, November 22; Sunday, December 9; Monday, December 10; Tuesdays, December 25 and January 1; Monday, January 21; Monday, February 18; and Monday, February 25 through Friday, February 29. Admission is free. For more information, call 212.592.7730 or visit www.nypl.org.

Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road has been made possible, in part, by the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Bequest for English and American Literature.

Support has also been provided by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Additional support has been provided by Martha Fleischman, Viking Penguin, and The L Magazine, the exhibition's media sponsor.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz I. and Adam Bartos, Jonathan Altman, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.

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Contact: Gayle Snible 212.592.7713 | gsnible@nypl.org

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