Beschreibung:

KEROUAC, Jean-Louis Lebris de ("Jack"), (1922-1969)]. -- DOSTOEVSKY, Feydor (1821-1881). Dream of a Ridiculous Man. Another Man's Wife. A Meek Young Girl . Translated from the Russian into English by Beatrice Scott. London: Lindsay Drummond, 1945. 8 o (183 x 120 mm). Illustrated by Donia Nachsen. Original red cloth gilt (lightly faded). Provenance : Jack Kerouac (signature "John Kerouac" in pencil dated 1948 on front free endpaper). KEROUAC'S ANNOTATED DOSTOEVSKY. Kerouac has underlined Dostoevsky's line on p.7: "Why then did I suddenly feel that I was not indifferent and that I pitied the little girl?" He has starred that line and added a note in the bottom margin: "Because of Mahayana & the Buddhas & the Sila Paramita" (Kerouac had become a Buddhist in 1953). On p.8, he stars a line in which Dostoevsky's narrator imagines himself a former resident of Mars or of the moon where he has performed a shameful act. The narrator wonders if later, standing on earth and looking up into the heavens, he would feel indifferent to his act or not. Kerouac notes in the lower margin: "Karma, the leftover cause of regret." In the margin of the illustration facing p.15, Kerouac comments: "Only a woman would have thought of drawing their toes." [ With :] DOSTOEVSKY, Feydor. Short Stories . New York and Boston: Books, Inc., n.d. 8 o (188 x 125 mm). Original brown cloth (slightly faded and rubbed). Provenance : Jack Kerouac (signature "John Kerouac" dated 1949 on front pastedown) SEVERAL PAGES HEAVILY ANNOTATED BY KEROUAC. Kerouac has made six separate annotations on the first two pages of the story "An Unpleasant Predicament." He underlines the phrase "The fact" and writes in the margin: "Truly 'the fact.' Always fluffs the rest, & gets to the 'fact'"; he underlines the word "fond" and writes: "'fond' gives a batty tone -- just right"; underlining the phrase, "he was a bachelor because he was an egoist," Kerouac remarks, "A family man's reflection." Dostoevsky was a powerful influence on Kerouac; his Subterraneans , was consciously modelled on Notes from Underground , one of his favorite books. Praising Neal Cassady's unaffected letters, Kerouac likened his prose to that of Dostoevsky. In 1948-49, he was finishing work on his first novel The Town and the City , published in 1950. The books in this and the following two lots were evidently part of what was once an extensive library which Kerouac had carefully maintained at his mother's different residences, then at his sister's home in North Carolina and later at his home in Orlando, Florida. These were acquired (and evidently read) at different dates ranging from 1940-41 to the mid-fifties, and span the period of his studies at Columbia, his extensive travels and the writing of many of his books. All the books in these three lots were given to the present owner by an Orlando woman (Stella Sampas Kerouac?) after 1969. THIS AND THE FOLLOWING TWO LOTS COMPRISE AN IMPORTANT GROUP OF INFLUENTIAL BOOKS FROM KEROUAC'S LIBRARY, SOME WITH HIS ANNOTATIONS. (2)