Atop an Underwood cover art

Atop an Underwood

Early Stories and Other Writings

Preview

Listen with Audible free trial

Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Atop an Underwood

Written by: Jack Kerouac, Paul Marion
Narrated by: Andrew Eiden, Bronson Pinchot
Free with 30-day trial

₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹546.23

Buy Now for ₹546.23

Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his 1957 classic On the Road, he spent years figuring out how he wanted to live and, above all, learning how to write.

Atop an Underwood brings together more than sixty previously unpublished works that Kerouac wrote before he was twenty-two, ranging from stories and poems to plays and parts of novels, including an excerpt from his 1943 merchant marine novel, The Sea Is My Brother. These writings reveal what Kerouac was thinking, doing, and dreaming during his formative years and reflect his primary literary influences. Listeners will also find in these works the source of Kerouac’s spontaneous prose style.

Uncovering a fascinating missing link in Kerouac’s development as a writer, Atop an Underwood is essential listening for Kerouac fans, scholars, and critics.

©1999 the Estate of Stella Kerouac, John Sampas. Introduction and commentary copyright © 1999 by Paul Marion (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing
Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Short Stories United States World Literature
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic Reviews

“This is a Jack Kerouac developing his skills, awaiting his muse.”

(Cleveland Plain Dealer)

“Offers a wonderful glimpse into the author’s formative years.”

(Boston Herald)

“It’s good to dip into the early writings and see the confident, hopeful Jack Kerouac who was the source of his own dreams.”

(Philadelphia Inquirer)

“Kerouac’s intense desire to be a writer hit him early and stayed with him his entire life. This passion colors all of his early stuff…And his themes are all here: America, travel, jazz, the delicate presence of death…The passion Kerouac brought to all of his writing is here.”

(American Book Review)

“Atop an Underwood is indispensable for the reader who wants to chart the development of one of our talented writers.”

(Chicago Tribune)

“Provide[s] a tantalizing glimpse of the future Beat generation originator, spanning Kerouac’s adolescence and his first years in New York.”

(Publishers Weekly)
No reviews yet