The first volume of Jack Kerouac's selected letters, published in 1995, was hailed as an important and revealing addition to Kerouac scholarship. This second and final volume of letters, written between 1957, the year On the Road was published, to one day before his death in 1969 at age forty-seven, tell Kerouac's life story through his candid correspondence with friends, confidants, and editors--among them Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Johnson, and Malcolm Cowley. Documenting his continuing development as a writer, his travels, love affairs, and complicated family life, the letters also reveal Kerouac's amazing courage in the face of criticism and his never--ending quest to be the best writer possible.

Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957-1969 offers unparalleled insight into the life and mind of this giant of the American literary landscape.