“ONE OF HIS TWO MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS”: FIRST EDITION OF KEROUAC’S THE DHARMA BUMS
KEROUAC, Jack. The Dharma Bums. New York: Viking, 1958. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket.
First edition of Kerouac’s celebrated follow-up to the classic of his generation, On the Road.
“There were three books that really shaped Kerouac’s public image, the three that came out within a year of each other in 1957 and 1958: On the Road, The Subterraneans and The Dharma Bums” (Charters, 295). Published only a year after On the Road, this highly autobiographical novel “became, along with On the Road, one of his two most influential works,” and features many characters based on Beat poets and writers in Kerouac’s circle (Nicosia, 563). The poet-woodsman-Buddhist, who becomes the narrator’s spiritual mentor, is a thinly disguised portrait of the poet Gary Snyder. Charters A4a.
Book fine, lightly rubbed dust jacket with a bit of shallow wear along extremities. A very nice copy.