Big Sur. By Jack Kerouac. First Edition, First Printing. Farrar, Straus, Cudahy. New York, 1962.

American author Jack Kerouac is arguably the greatest writer of the Beat Generation. In the late 1950s and the 1960s, he published a series of works that are often hailed as some of the best fiction and poetry of the twentieth century. In particular, On the Road is lauded as a masterpiece, but so, too, is the Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels, and this volume: Big Sur. It is a novel deeply set in its title place. In some ways, one could compare Kerouac’s Big Sur to Thoreau’s Walden Pond. It was a place he isolated himself to write in a flurry. But in ways so emblematic of Kerouac’s work, Big Sur compounds the timely themes of the Beat Generation–things like mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, loneliness, and alienation. Like Kerouac’s other works, it is also metafictional with a lead character whose circumstances largely reflect Kerouac’s own life at the time. It remains one of his most well-received novels. While initial criticism did not respond well to Kerouac, in Big Sur and his other works, generations of readers have now found brilliant appeal and unquestionable talent.

This first edition, first printing is in very good condition. In the original quarter cloth with blue boards, about-fine with only bumping and fading to edges. Text block fine. In the original dust jacket, good with some chipping, creases and closed tears. Spine lightly faded.

A very good first edition of Big Sur.