Wouldn't you know it? Jack kerouac had written a play by the name of 'Beat Generation' about his crew. That's Neal, Jack and Allen Ginsberg; absent lovers. The play was recently uncovered by one Stephen Perrine. The play will be published later this year.
"The part we're excerpting will show Kerouac and Neal Cassady at a racetrack, and they're partying and gambling," Best Life editor-in-chief Stephen Perrine said Monday. "But they're also talking about reincarnation and other obsessions.
It's more an exploration of their inner lives." The entire play will be published this fall by Thunder's Mouth Press.Kerouac wrote "Beat Generation" — which draws on his life and those of other Beat writers, including Cassady and Allen Ginsberg — in 1957, the same year his classic "On the Road" was released. He tried to build interest for "Beat Generation" in the theater world, contacting such people as Lillian Hellman and Marlon Brando, but he failed and set the manuscript aside. Kerouac died in 1969.
Perrine said that he learned about the play while having lunch with Sterling Lord, Kerouac's agent. "I swear this is true: On my way to lunch, this voice came into my head, telling me to ask Sterling whether he had any old manuscripts," said Perrine, whose men's magazine focuses on family, career and self, has also published work by David Mamet, Steve Martin and Nick Hornby. "It turns out he had had a bunch of files sent to him from a New Jersey warehouse to his New York office and he came across this play."
It's an era where previously unreleased material is unleashed from the vaults to make an extra buck, even after one is dead; or perhaps especially after one is dead. After all dying artists immediately raise the value of their art works. You'd think somebody in the Kerouac estate is salivating at the cashflow.
I can just imagine how rambling this play would be. Even though I'm a fan and I've even named my fantasy baseball league in his honour, this play might be something I'll approach very carefully. In the mean time, dust off your old copy of 'Beat' by King Crimson; it's likely to be far more enjoyable.
- Art Neuro
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