From the acclaimed Beat writer, Jack Kerouac’s unique collection of personal travel writing, now reissued following his centenary celebration In his first directly autobiographical book, Jack Kerouac relates the exhilarating stories of the years he spent restlessly traveling and writing his acclaimed novels. He journeys from the California deserts crisscrossed by train tracks to the bullfights of Mexico to the Beat nightlife of New York City, and across the Atlantic to Paris, Morocco, and London. With echoes of landscapes that appear in his other novels, including The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels, and featuring his distinctive exuberant style and “jazzy impressionistic prose” (New Yorker), Lonesome Traveler is a unique addition to Kerouac’s body of work. Show Additional Fields
A New York Times Notable Book: A woman’s suicide leads a man to a Nevada mining town—and a nest of poisonous secrets—in this “top-notch thriller” (Publishers Weekly). There is something about the sad woman eating alone night after night at the Harmony Café that intrigues San Francisco CPA Jim Messenger. Unfulfilled himself, Jim feels a kinship with her—and later, when she commits suicide, he resolves to find out why. His search leads him to Beulah, a middle-of-nowhere mining town in the Nevada desert, where hatreds run deep, where secrets are as venomous as a rattlesnake bite, and where a stranger asking too many questions might inexplicably disappear. Still, in this dusty, barren landscape, Jim feels completely alive. And he’s not going anywhere until he uncovers the truth, even if it rips the whole town apart. Richly atmospheric and peopled with achingly human characters, Blue Lonesome is a crime novel as tense and coiled as a rattler ready to strike and as dark and hypnotic as the lonesome desert night.
Bestselling winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize, Lonesome Dove is an American classic. First published in 1985, Larry McMurtry's epic novel combined flawless writing with a storyline and setting that gripped the popular imagination, and ultimately resulted in a series of four novels and an Emmy-winning television miniseries. Now, with an introduction by the author, Lonesome Dove is reprinted in an S&S Classic Edition. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry, the author of Terms of Endearment, is his long-awaited masterpiece, the major novel at last of the American West as it really was. A love story, an adventure, an American epic, Lonesome Dove embraces all the West -- legend and fact, heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settiers -- in a novel that recreates the central American experience, the most enduring of our national myths. Set in the late nineteenth century, Lonesome Dove is the story of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana -- and much more. It is a drive that represents for everybody involved not only a daring, even a foolhardy, adventure, but a part of the American Dream -- the attempt to carve out of the last remaining wilderness a new life. Augustus McCrae and W. F. Call are former Texas Rangers, partners and friends who have shared hardship and danger together without ever quite understanding (or wanting to understand) each other's deepest emotions. Gus is the romantic, a reluctant rancher who has a way with women and the sense to leave well enough alone. Call is a driven, demanding man, a natural authority figure with no patience for weaknesses, and not many of his own. He is obsessed with the dream of creating his own empire, and with the need to conceal a secret sorrow of his own. The two men could hardly be more different, but both are tough, redoubtable fighters who have learned to count on each other, if nothing else. Call's dream not only drags Gus along in its wake, but draws in a vast cast of characters: -- Lorena, the whore with the proverbial heart of gold, whom Gus (and almost everyone else) loves, and who survives one of the most terrifying experiences any woman could have... -- Elmira, the restless, reluctant wife of a small-time Arkansas sheriff, who runs away from the security of marriage to become part of the great Western adventure... -- Blue Duck, the sinister Indian renegade, one of the most frightening villains in American fiction, whose steely capacity for cruelty affects the lives of everyone in the book... -- Newt, the young cowboy for whom the long and dangerous journey from Texas to Montana is in fact a search for his own identity... -- Jake, the dashing, womanizing exRanger, a comrade-in-arms of Gus and Call, whose weakness leads him to an unexpected fate... -- July Johnson, husband of Elmira, whose love for her draws him out of his secure life into the wilderness, and turns him into a kind of hero... Lonesome Dove sweeps from the Rio Grande (where Gus and Call acquire the cattle for their long drive by raiding the Mexicans) to the Montana highlands (where they find themselves besieged by the last, defiant remnants of an older West). It is an epic of love, heroism, loyalty, honor, and betrayal -- faultlessly written, unfailingly dramatic. Lonesome Dove is the novel about the West that American literature -- and the American reader -- has long been waiting for.
The epic four-volume cycle that began with Larry McMurty's Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, Lonesome Dove, is completed with this brilliant and haunting novel—a capstone in a mighty tradition of storytelling. Texas Rangers August McCrae and Woodrow F. Call, now in their middle years, are just beginning to deal with the enigmas of the adult heart—Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe; and Call with Maggie Tilton, the young whore who loves him. Two proud but very different men, they enlist with a Ranger troop in pursuit of Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf, the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture. Comanche Moon joins the twenty-year time line between Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove, following beloved heroes Gus and Call and their comrades-in-arms—Deets, Jake Spoon, and Pea Eye Parker—in their bitter struggle to protect an advancing Western frontier against the defiant Comanches, courageously determined to defend their territory and their way of life. At once vividly imagined and unflinchingly realistic, Comanche Moon is a sweeping, heroic adventure full of tragedy, cruelty, courage, honor and betrayal, and the culmination of Larry McMurty's peerless vision of the American West.
An “indispensable” (Chicago Tribune) collection of more than sixty previously unpublished works from Jack Kerouac, ranging from stories and poems to plays and excerpts of novels “Fascinating . . . provides a poignant picture of a life brimming with promise.”—The Boston Globe Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his 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 works that Kerouac wrote before he was twenty-two years old, including an excerpt from 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, including the source of his spontaneous prose style. Uncovering a fascinating missing link in Kerouac’s development as a writer, Atop an Underwood is essential reading for Kerouac fans, scholars, and critics alike.
A close-up look at country music argues that it has become a national art form, reflecting the same themes that have characterized American art and literature over three centuries
'See my hand up-tipped, learn the secret of my human heart...' Soaring, freewheeling snapshots of life on the road across America, from the Beat writer who inspired a generation. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
This annual bestseller ranks the hottest, must-visit countries, regions, cities and best value destinations for 2020. Drawing on the knowledge and passion of Lonely Planet's staff, authors and online community, we present a year's worth of inspiration to take you out of the ordinary and into the unforgettable. As self-confessed travel geeks, we regularly ask ourselves: where are the best places in the world to visit right now? It's a very hotly contested topic at Lonely Planet and generates more discussion than any other. Best in Travel is our definitive answer. We also reveal how well-planned, sustainable travel can be a force for good: for the environment, for local people and for yourself - and include ways to help lower your carbon footprint and protect the areas you visit on your travels. Inside Best in Travel 2020, you'll discover: The top 10 countries, regions, cities and best value destinations The best new openings The best new places to stay The best new food experiences The best sustainable trips for families How to minimise your carbon footprint How to help local communities and businesses How to give back on your travels Hiking for meditation About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.
