Kerouac Ascending: Memorabilia of the Decade of on the Road
Katherine Burkman, best known for her contributions to Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, and modern drama studies in general, now provides an essential reference for students of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and the beats through this memoir by Elbert Lenrow about his relationship with Kerouac as he worked on On the Road. Lenrow, a beloved teacher at the New School for Social Research, and coincidentally Katherine Burkman s cousin, met and taught Jack Kerouac in the late forties. Over the years, the two remained friends, and Lenrow met many of Kerouac s friends such as Allen Ginsberg ,Neal Cassady, and other beats. Kerouac and Lenrow corresponded, and this collection includes not only letters but observations made by Lenrow on Kerouac s and Ginsberg s travels, disappointments, and talents. Consequently, Kerouac Ascending offers unprecedented insight into the beats in general and Kerouac s development as a writer, thinker, and cultural force in American literature. The reminiscences by Burkman and Lenrow's niece, Barbara Phillips, humanize and conceptualize Lenrow and his charisma, while the introduction by Howard Cunnell places not only Kerouac but also Lenrow at the heart of the beat generation. He notes that through his friendship with Kerouac, Lenrow 'got to ride in what would become the most famous car in modern American literature.' And thanks to Katherine Burkman s book, now readers of Kerouac Ascending do, too. --Ann C. Hall, Professor, Ohio Dominican University and President, Harold Pinter SocietyThe larger significance of the sustained and sustaining friendship between Elbert Lenrow and Kerouac and Ginsberg in this book is that it exhibits Jack and Allen in ways that are seldom, if ever, represented in accounts of their lives, As a bonus, from this fine, small book, the reader can acquire an enriched and enhanced understanding of the multifarious political, literary, and artistic relationships of virtually all the principal players in the cultural scene in the mid- to late 20th century --James L. Battersby, Professor Emeritus of English, Ohio State UniversityAlways their affectionate elder, Lenrow presents Kerouac and Ginsberg mostly in their own words, making no broad claim or judgments beyond the recognition that both writers spoke for their time as Walt Whitman did for his and that they have become iconic figures for a literary movement. It is a modest but important work presenting original materials saved by a gentle, sensitive, and literate man. --Mark S. Auburn is Professor Emeritus of English, former Senior Vice President and Provost, former Dean of Fine and Applied Arts, and former Professor of Theatre at The University of Akron