An Associated Press report has highlighted the auctioning of an unique literary document that allegedly jumpstarted the development of the U.S. Beat Generation and altered the course of American literature forever – “Neal Cassady’s infamous ‘Joan Anderson Letter,’ written to American literary revolutionary Jack Kerouac on December 17, 1950,” as the press release from auction house Profiles In History describes it.
The letter, as the release continues, “has always been shrouded by intense mystery and myth. Originally considered to be just 13,000 words in length, much of the letter was mysteriously lost, until now. On December 17, 2014, exactly sixty-four years from the date it was written, Profiles In History will offer for the first time the complete letter to the public … The extraordinary “Joan Anderson” typed letter with an autograph ending and autographed additions, corrections and deletions, in both pencil and pen, by Cassady himself, is comprised of a full 18 pages with approximately 16,000 words. Thought to be lost for over 56-years, the letter has never been published in its entirety.”
The letter is not only credited with confirming Cassady’s own value as a writer, but also catalysed a major rewrite of On The Road, already a work in process when Kerouac received the letter. As the catalog puts it, “Cassady’s letter embodies his much acclaimed quixotic, free-flowing conversational approach to story telling and writing, which brought first praise and then imitation by none other than Jack Kerouac. Indeed, not only is Neal Cassady immortalized as Dean Moriarty in Kerouac’s epic novel, On the Road, but Kerouac immortalizes Cassady’s writing style as well.”
The AP report singled out the letter from the huge auction of historical documents, literary correspondence, and other memorabilia formerly owned by Richard Wertz Emerson, head of 1950s publishing house the Golden Goose Press. “The contents of the archive include a vast amount of correspondence from 1954-1955, which was never opened prior to the actual cataloguing of the various materials in 2014,” continues the release. “Included are such literary gems as three poems from Jack Anderson, letters from Robert Creeley along with a group of his works personally inscribed to Emerson; a variety of postcards from Kenneth Rexroth in addition to a copy of his ‘Thou Shall Not Kill: A Memorial for Dylan Thomas’; and letters and poems from over seventy writers and poets.” The entire illustrated catalog is available online here for browsing.
Profiles In History styles this “the most significant literary discovery of the twenty-first century.” Well, the century is yet young – but this must count as one of the strongest contenders so far.
