{"product_id":"atop-an-underwood-early-stories-and-other-writings-9780140296396","title":"Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn \"indispensable\" (\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e) collection of more than sixty previously unpublished works from Jack Kerouac, ranging from stories and poems to plays and excerpts of novels\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Fascinating . . . provides a poignant picture of a life brimming with promise.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBefore Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his classic \u003ci\u003eOn the Road\u003c\/i\u003e, he spent years figuring out how he wanted to live and, above all, learning how to write. \u003ci\u003eAtop an Underwood \u003c\/i\u003ebrings together works that Kerouac wrote before he was twenty-two years old, including an excerpt from \u003ci\u003eThe Sea Is My Brother.\u003c\/i\u003e These writings reveal what Kerouac was thinking, doing, and dreaming during his formative years and reflect his primary literary influences, including the source of his spontaneous prose style. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUncovering a fascinating missing link in Kerouac's development as a writer, \u003ci\u003eAtop an Underwood \u003c\/i\u003eis essential reading for Kerouac fans, scholars, and critics alike.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJack Kerouac\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, the youngest of three children in a Franco-American family. He attended local Catholic and public schools and won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he first met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. His first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Town and the City\u003c\/i\u003e, appeared in 1950, but it was \u003ci\u003eOn the Road\u003c\/i\u003e, published in 1957 and memorializing his adventures with Neal Cassady, that epitomized to the world what became known as the \"Beat generation\" and made Kerouac one of the most best-known writers of his time. Publication of many other books followed, among them \u003ci\u003eThe Dharma Bums\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Subterraneans\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBig Sur\u003c\/i\u003e. Kerouac considered all of his autobiographical fiction to be part of \"one vast book,\" \u003ci\u003eThe Duluoz Legend\u003c\/i\u003e. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969, at the age of forty-seven.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50409647571218,"sku":"9780140296396","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8eddc846-2756-4d35-85cf-6b81a12ba026.jpg?v=1729292325","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/atop-an-underwood-early-stories-and-other-writings-9780140296396","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}