Author of the 1970s cult bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceWhen, in 1968, Robert Pirsig, who has died aged 88, sent a synopsis and sample of his novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to 122 publishers, only one showed any interest, and James Landis, the editor who responded from William Morrow, warned him not to expect either a large advance or big sales. But within a month Pirsig set off on his Honda Super Hawk, accompanied by his young son, Chris, and friends John and Sylvia Sutherland, on the 17-day journey from Minneapolis to San Francisco that, six years, two drafts and some 700,000 words later, became the basis of an immediate bestseller. Millions of readers were drawn to this guidebook for the transition of a culture from the rebellious 1960s to the “me generation” of the 70s.George Steiner’s New Yorker review, titled Uneasy Rider, famously compared the book to Herman Melville’s sprawling masterpiece Moby-Dick; other reviewers mentioned Thoreau, whose American transcendentalism also sought to link everyday life and the metaphysical. In a road novel in the spirit of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Pirsig drew on the aphoristic humour of hippy writers such as Richard Brautigan. “Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a 30,000-page menu and no food,” he wrote. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
The uniquely enduring literary agent who worked for years to find a publisher for Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and over the following decades arranged deals for everyone from true crime writer Joe McGinniss to the creators of the Berenstain Bears has died Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2022-09-04 21:08:59 UTC ]
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Ferlinghetti was the co-founder of the legendary City Lights bookstore and a champion of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-23 18:50:28 UTC ]
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Author of the 1970s cult bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceWhen, in 1968, Robert Pirsig, who has died aged 88, sent a synopsis and sample of his novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to 122 publishers, only one showed any interest, and James Landis, the editor who... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Illustrated tales introducing youngsters to ‘iconic works of classic literature’ such as Jack Kerouac’s beatnik adventure are missing the pointMy daughter is five, and all for knowing about what her parents are up to. Her father was reading The Lord of the Rings on holiday last week, and she... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, new Murakami, racial reassignment surgery, and looking for Jack Kerouac. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The British author discusses her novel 'The Pink Hotel,' set in L.A.It's almost like something out of a novel by Jack Kerouac: In 2008, Anna Stothard landed at what must have been the last scruffy hotel in Venice Beach, a dingy pink monolith at the end of the wild road trip she took after... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Who says old books can't be made new again? Certainly not Penguin Classics, which is focused on revitalizing literature that has been available in print for decades and sometimes even centuries. For the imprint's first experimentation with apps, it has created an amplified edition of Jack... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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