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When I Was Cool : My Life at the Jack Kerouac School by Sam Kashner (2004, Hardcover)

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Product Information

As a restless kid on Long Island, Sam Kashner lapped up the beauty and madness of the Beats, living vicariously through the novels, poems, and stories of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. Their words were revolutionary, and they turned their very lives into art. Kashner didn't want to just study the Beats, he wanted to be one of them. So when he heard that Ginsberg had founded an unconventional writing program in Boulder, Colorado, he convinced his parents that college could wait, and became the first certificate student of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. In one motion, Kashner stepped out of a sheltered suburban life and plunged into the chaotic world of his idols. What he discovered was both everything and not at all what he expected. The Beats were facing their twilight years and feeling it in their joints and in their minds. Some of them, like Ginsberg and Burroughs, had achieved international fame, while others, like Gregory Corso, had not, and were coming to the realization that they might never receive the recognition they deserved. In his new role as student, secretary, and psychiatrist, Sam Kashner was caught up in the hilarity of the hijinks and the cross fire of old arguments, finding himself in hot tubs with Ginsberg and on field trips to the marijuana ranch cultivated by Burroughs and his ill-fated son, Billy. Out of this rich material Kashner brings us a funny, touching, and irreverent portrait of the Beats never before seen: one that explodes the myths surrounding these American icons, but one that is also deeply felt and full of admiration. After reading this book, you'll never look at the Beats in quite the same way again. When I Was Cool is also a very personal journey of a young man coming of age on the Beat slope of Mount Parnassus ("the Lower East Side" of the Rockies), a kind of Holden Caulfield for the postmodern era.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
HarperCollins
ISBN-10
0060005661
ISBN-13
9780060005665
eBay Product ID (ePID)
2480150

Product Key Features

Book Title
When I Was Cool : My Life at the Jack Kerouac School
Author
Sam Kashner
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Topic
United States / 20th Century, General, Literary, American / General, Artists, Architects, Photographers
Publication Year
2004
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Biography & Autobiography, Literary Criticism, History
Number of Pages
336 Pages

Dimensions

Item Length
9 in
Item Height
1.1 in
Item Width
6 in
Item Weight
20.8 Oz

Additional Product Features

Lc Classification Number
Ps3561.A697z468 2003
Reviews
[Kashner's] memoir is about enlightenment, the kind that comes from looking back with compassion but with eyes wide open
Copyright Date
2003
Target Audience
Trade
Lccn
2003-047822
Dewey Decimal
811/.54 B
Dewey Edition
21

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When I Was Cool : My Life at the Jack Kerouac School by Sam Kashner (2004, Hardcover)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Books

Atomic Habits: the life-changing million-copy #1 bestseller by James Clear (Paperback, 2018)

The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery by Brianna Wiest (Paperback, 2020)

The Concise 48 Laws Of Power by Robert Greene (Paperback, 2002)

Boy's Club by Matt Furie (Paperback, 2016)

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey (Paperback, 2002)

The Arrangement by Sylvia Day, Minerva Spencer (Paperback, 2021)

Save on Books

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KJV Holy Bible, Standard Size, Burgundy Faux Leather w/Thumb Index and Ribbon ma

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