Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- A Kerouac Chronology
- Additional material
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Kerouac’s Concept of His Duluoz Legend
- Chapter 2 Kerouac and the Profession of Authorship
- Chapter 3 Truth in Confession
- Chapter 4 The Textuality of Performance
- Chapter 5 The Spontaneous Aesthetic in The Subterraneans
- Chapter 6 Kerouac and the 1950s
- Chapter 7 The Impact of On the Road on the 1960s Counterculture
- Chapter 8 Vanity of Duluoz and the 1960s
- Chapter 9 Late Kerouac, or the Conflicted “King of the Beatniks”
- Chapter 10 Visions of Cody as Metafiction
- Chapter 11 Making the Past Present
- Chapter 12 Spun Rhythms
- Chapter 13 Kerouac’s Representations of Women
- Chapter 14 Kerouac and Blackness
- Chapter 15 Kerouac, Multilingualism, and Global Culture
- Chapter 16 The Two Phases of Jack Kerouac’s American Buddhism
- Chapter 17 Jack Kerouac’s Ambivalences as an Environmental Writer
- Chapter 18 The Essentials of Archival Prose
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Chapter 2 - Kerouac and the Profession of Authorship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- A Kerouac Chronology
- Additional material
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Kerouac’s Concept of His Duluoz Legend
- Chapter 2 Kerouac and the Profession of Authorship
- Chapter 3 Truth in Confession
- Chapter 4 The Textuality of Performance
- Chapter 5 The Spontaneous Aesthetic in The Subterraneans
- Chapter 6 Kerouac and the 1950s
- Chapter 7 The Impact of On the Road on the 1960s Counterculture
- Chapter 8 Vanity of Duluoz and the 1960s
- Chapter 9 Late Kerouac, or the Conflicted “King of the Beatniks”
- Chapter 10 Visions of Cody as Metafiction
- Chapter 11 Making the Past Present
- Chapter 12 Spun Rhythms
- Chapter 13 Kerouac’s Representations of Women
- Chapter 14 Kerouac and Blackness
- Chapter 15 Kerouac, Multilingualism, and Global Culture
- Chapter 16 The Two Phases of Jack Kerouac’s American Buddhism
- Chapter 17 Jack Kerouac’s Ambivalences as an Environmental Writer
- Chapter 18 The Essentials of Archival Prose
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
This chapter assesses Kerouac’s literary career from the perspective of the profession of authorship. Despite his bohemian reputation, Kerouac was a diligent professional writer who engaged publishers directly and via literary agents in order to actively manage his professional career. Kerouac’s goal was to convince publishers and thus the reading public of the significance of his signature artistic style, which he called “Spontaneous Prose.” Viking Press was not interested in his Spontaneous Prose books as viable sellers, and his income and reputation declined in proportion with his insistence on producing books in this style. Despite the belief held by many Kerouac fans today that he was a literary saint who disavowed money and materialism, in fact he both wanted to make money and earn literary respect based on his artistic merits. He was not a commercial writer per se, since he sacrificed publication for the integrity of his art, but he did want the publishing industry to see the inherent value in his Spontaneous Prose books.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac , pp. 23 - 37Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024