Published in its entirety for the first time, The Sea is My Brother is Jack Kerouac's first novel. Described by Kerouac as being about 'man's simple revolt from society as it is, with the inequalities, frustration, and self-inflicted agonies', the 158-page handwritten manuscript was not published during his lifetime. He wrote in his notes for the project that the characters were 'the vanishing American, the big free by, the American Indian, the last of the pioneers, the last of the hoboes'. The novel follows the fortunes of ...
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Published in its entirety for the first time, The Sea is My Brother is Jack Kerouac's first novel. Described by Kerouac as being about 'man's simple revolt from society as it is, with the inequalities, frustration, and self-inflicted agonies', the 158-page handwritten manuscript was not published during his lifetime. He wrote in his notes for the project that the characters were 'the vanishing American, the big free by, the American Indian, the last of the pioneers, the last of the hoboes'. The novel follows the fortunes of Wesley Martin, a man who Kerouac said 'loved the sea with a strange, lonely love; the sea is his brother and sentences. He goes down.' Kerouac began this work not long after his first tour as a Merchant Marine on the S.S. Dorchester in the late summer of 1942 during which he kept a journal detailing the gritty daily routine of life at sea. Inspired by the trip, which exemplified Kerouac's love for adventure and the character traits of his fellow shipmates, the journals were spontaneous sketches of those experiences that were woven into a short novel soon after disembarking from the S.S. Dorchester in October of 1942. The edition also contains a number of other fragments of Kerouac's early writing and letters between Kerouac and Sebastian Sampas all from the early 1940s, as well as many images.
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Add this copy of The Sea is My Brother: the Lost Novel to cart. $5.00, very good condition, Sold by HPB Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by Da Capo Press.
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Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. Book. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Brown 1/4 cloth, turquoise paper-covered boards, lettered in white. Text block edges lightly foxed/tanned, with a few early leaves showing minor dampstaining to fore-edge margins, otherwise as issued. Dust jacket Near Fine with mild soiling/dampstaining, now in mylar. 2nd ptg. xviii, 216 pp.
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Very Good. 4 NEW AUDIO CDS COLLECTOR EDITION FOR YOUR LIBRARY. NEW IN THE SHRINK WRAP in the clamshell case. Just a bit of shelf wear. Enjoy this NEW GIFT QUALITY AUDIO CD performance.
Jack Kerouac (1922 -- 1969) painstakingly wrote "The Sea is my Brother", his first novel, in longhand in 1943 at the age of 21. The book predates by seven years "The Town and the City" (1950), Kerouac's first published novel. The Town and the City Published at last in 2012, "The Sea is my Brother" includes a perceptive introduction and analysis of the book by Kerouac scholar Dawn Ward. Joyce Johnson's recent biography of Kerouac, "The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac" also discusses this early effort.
The book is readable in its own right and for the insights it offers into the United States during the early days of WW II. There is a great deal of rambling, philosophical discussion about Marxism, fascism, and the goal of the War. The theme of the book is that opposition to fascism and support of socialism are insufficient, in their materialism, to make life meaningful. Spirituality, individuality, and a sense of human brotherhood independent of economics and politics, Kerouac suggests, are necessary for the good life and good society.
The short novel tells the story of two young men, Wesley Martin and Bill Everhart. The two characters are in fact one as each displays aspects of Kerouac's divided personality. As the book progresses, whether by design or by shortcomings in Kerouac's early writing, it becomes ever more difficult to distinguish the voices of the two nominally separate protagonists.
Martin is a lonely wanderer of 27 who has been at sea since the age of 17 when his youthful marriage fell apart. Everhart in an Assistant Professor of English and American Literature at Columbia University who lives with his sister and her husband and young child together with their aging father in an overcrowded apartment. Everhart is dissatisfied with himself and with what he sees as the meaningless of academic life.
The book has many of the components of Kerouac's later works in its scenes of lonely walks through city streets, long evenings of drinking, and ranting discussions between young people heavily in their cups. Returning from a sea voyage, Martin spends through $850 in two weeks before befriending Everhart and a group of young women in a New York City bar. Everhart is persuaded to abandon his academic life and join Martin in signing up for a voyage with the Merchant Marine. During WW II the Merchant Marine was dangerous work indeed as American cargo ships were targeted and sunk with alarming frequency. Kerouac's novel shows Martin and Everhart hitchhiking together from New York City to Boston in scenes that foreshadow "On the Road".
In the final stages of the book, Martin and Everhart sail on the merchant ship the Westminister after another long rowdy and eventful evening in a local bar. Kerouac describes briefly many of the characters on the ship, particularly a large, blues-singing African American cook named Glory with a long colorful past from Richmond.After the Westminister leaves port in the company of a destroyer, the book ends abruptly. Life on the ship is shown as the "Brotherhood of the Sea". "These men",Kerouac writes, "considered the sea a great leveler,a united force, a master comrade brooding over their common loyalties."
This early Kerouac book shows the influence of many writers. It reminded me most of Melville's novels both in its exploration of the motives of young men taking to the sea and in its treatment of divided personalities. "The Sea is my Brother" will be of most interest to readers who admire Kerouac's writing and who want to deepen their understanding of his work.
