Original Press Release
for the Reading
by George Wallace, event
coordinator
The Big Sur Marathon will
take place in San Francisco (Washington Square Park), New York
(Heckscher Park), Lowell, Mass. (Kerouac Monument and Park) and
Orlando, Florida (Kerouac house) on July 22, 2001, from approximately
1-9 p.m. local time. It is timed to commemorate the fortieth
anniversary of the day that Jack Kerouac got on a train in Northport,
NY and traveled to California, where he stayed for several weeks
in a cabin in Big Sur and among friends in San Francisco. This
experience formed the foundation for his masterful book Big
Sur, written in a two-week period in Florida after his return
from the trip.
We believe that Big Sur
is an important and valuable work by Kerouac, not just because
of its compelling nature as a piece of writing, but because it
demonstrates that Kerouac retained, well into the 1960s, an ample
creative talent, despite what some critics call a period of personal
decline. We agree with critic Richard Meltzer who calls Big
Sur Kerouac's "masterpiece, and one of the great, great
works of the English language...a great first-person now-I-begin-to-die
novel (that) documents a few weeks of horror as Jack was pushing
40 at Lawrence Ferlinghetti's cabin overlooking the Pacific...".
In our view Big Sur is a mature and honest work by the
beat author written years after his youthful on the road experiences,
confronting a wide range of issues and emotional points of view,
and retaining some of the linguistic brilliance, psycho-social
insight and fundamental exuberance that marks the career of a
major figure in 20th-century American Literature.
The event is an outgrowth of
the July 2000 museum exhibition Kerouac in Northport, which was
a revealing and unprecedented exploration of the author's life
and times from 1958-1964 while he was living in that community,
mounted by the Northport Historical Society. It was the argument
of the show that, in contrast to critical assertions that the
author was in a period of decline due to alcohol abuse and other
personal problems, Kerouac was substantially active and productive--both
creatively and socially--during the period. We agree with that
contention. And through the marathon we intend to celebrate the
spiritual, social and aesthetic attributes of Jack Kerouac by
reading the book in its entirety. The events will also feature
musical performance, including an appearance by Kerouac contemporary
David Amram in concert in New York, and other appearances by
notable figures. It is anticipated that the event will be video-documented
in all four locations for future airing.
We are encouraging all those
with an appreciation for the life and writing of Jack Kerouac
to stay abreast of our plans for this important event as it develops,
and plan on attending one of the events. Further information
will be posted regularly on the www.poetrybay.com e-group newsletter, as
well as in other media outlets. Or contact George Wallace at
Poetrybay@aol.com.
