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Imaginary Conversation with Jack Kerouac
- GenresPoetry
24 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1989
7 people want to read
About the author
Jack Micheline
61 books12 followersJack Micheline (November 6, 1929 – February 27, 1998), born Harold Martin Silver, was an American painter and poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. One of San Francisco's original Beat poets, he was an innovative artist who was active in the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance of the 1950s and 1960s.
Born in The Bronx, New York, of Russian and Romanian Jewish ancestry. Micheline took his pen name from writer Jack London and his mother's maiden name. He moved to Greenwich Village in the 1950s, where he became a street poet, drawing on Harlem blues and jazz rhythms and the cadence of word music. He lived on the fringe of poverty, writing about hookers, drug addicts, blue collar workers, and the dispossessed.
In 1957, Troubadour Press published his first book River of Red Wine. Jack Kerouac wrote the introduction, and it was reviewed by Dorothy Parker in Esquire magazine. Micheline relocated to San Francisco in the early 1960s, where he spent the rest of his life. He published over twenty books, some of them mimeographs and chapbooks.
Though a poet of the Beat generation, Micheline characterized the Beat movement as a product of media hustle, and hated being categorized as a Beat poet. He was also a painter, working primarily with gouache in a self-taught, primitive style he picked up in Mexico City.
In September 1968, a short story he wrote, "Skinny Dynamite", was published in Renaissance 2, the literary supplement of John Bryan Bryan's Los Angeles alternative newspaper Open City. Solicited from Micheline by guest editor Charles Bukowski, its subject was a promiscuous young woman. The story used the word "fuck" and Bryan was arrested for obscenity, but was not convicted.
Second Coming Press published a book of Micheline's stories, entitled Skinny Dynamite after his most notorious work, in 1980.
Born in The Bronx, New York, of Russian and Romanian Jewish ancestry. Micheline took his pen name from writer Jack London and his mother's maiden name. He moved to Greenwich Village in the 1950s, where he became a street poet, drawing on Harlem blues and jazz rhythms and the cadence of word music. He lived on the fringe of poverty, writing about hookers, drug addicts, blue collar workers, and the dispossessed.
In 1957, Troubadour Press published his first book River of Red Wine. Jack Kerouac wrote the introduction, and it was reviewed by Dorothy Parker in Esquire magazine. Micheline relocated to San Francisco in the early 1960s, where he spent the rest of his life. He published over twenty books, some of them mimeographs and chapbooks.
Though a poet of the Beat generation, Micheline characterized the Beat movement as a product of media hustle, and hated being categorized as a Beat poet. He was also a painter, working primarily with gouache in a self-taught, primitive style he picked up in Mexico City.
In September 1968, a short story he wrote, "Skinny Dynamite", was published in Renaissance 2, the literary supplement of John Bryan Bryan's Los Angeles alternative newspaper Open City. Solicited from Micheline by guest editor Charles Bukowski, its subject was a promiscuous young woman. The story used the word "fuck" and Bryan was arrested for obscenity, but was not convicted.
Second Coming Press published a book of Micheline's stories, entitled Skinny Dynamite after his most notorious work, in 1980.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 15, 2018
Another great chapbook by one of the very best of the beat poets, Jack Micheline.
While this book is not quite as powerful overall as some of his other books, it does feature a few 'knock-out' lines which are extremely quotable and memorable.
Here are a few...
"I seek the genuine leaf blowing in the wind
The real person tapping a song whose melody
flows through rivers and time"
(from Walking in Kerouac's Shadow)
"Money buys everybody, that is why the world is so fucked up"
(from Walking in Kerouac's Shadow)
"you had no more to give
and you gave everything you had
and that was all
everything and nothing
and you gave it all"
(from The Last Bench
Highly recommended and a quick read - I read this in one setting, as I was heading into work by train.
While this book is not quite as powerful overall as some of his other books, it does feature a few 'knock-out' lines which are extremely quotable and memorable.
Here are a few...
"I seek the genuine leaf blowing in the wind
The real person tapping a song whose melody
flows through rivers and time"
(from Walking in Kerouac's Shadow)
"Money buys everybody, that is why the world is so fucked up"
(from Walking in Kerouac's Shadow)
"you had no more to give
and you gave everything you had
and that was all
everything and nothing
and you gave it all"
(from The Last Bench
Highly recommended and a quick read - I read this in one setting, as I was heading into work by train.
Displaying 1 of 1 review