Product Description A deluxe edition of Kerouacs masterpiece on the 50th anniversary of its first publication
First published in 1958, a year after On the Road had put the Beat generation on the map, The Dharma Bums stands as one of Jack Kerouacs most powerful, influential, and bestselling novels. The story focuses on two untrammeled young Americansmountaineer, poet, and Zen Buddhist Japhy Ryder and Ray Smith, a zestful, innocent writerwhose quest for Truth leads them on a heroic odyssey, from marathon parties and poetry jam sessions in San Franciscos Bohemia to solitude and mountain climbing in the High Sierras to Rays sixty-day vigil by himself atop Desolation Peak in Washington State. Primary to this evocative and soulful novel is an honest, exuberant search for an affirmative way of life in the midst of the atomic age. In many ways, The Dharma Bums also presaged the environmental, back-to-the-land, and American Buddhist movements of the 1960s and beyond.
Customer Reviews:
paperback quality for hardcover priceOctober 28, 2008 My review is not focused on the content of The Dharma Bums as much as the production of the book itself. Let it be known this is one of my favorite books of all time and I consider it Kerouac's best. My issue is with the publisher, Penguin, who has simply revamped its "Penguin Classic" edition with Ann Douglas's intro to make a Hardcover. Yes, Douglas's intro is excellent, but the only difference with this new Hardcover 50th Anniversary Edition is that is has 2 or 3 pages of a letter in which Henry Miller writes about The Dharma Bums. For me who is a bibliofile. I don't want a cheap quality cardboard book. I used to work for an Univ. Press and know about production options. Penquin basically chose the cheapest. Every single copy in 3 bookstores were banged up. You might say this isn't the publisher's fault, but it is because they didn't make a quality product that could stand even being stacked on a shelf, imagine opening it and reading it. People who want a 50th Anniversary edition want something special because it has a special meaning to them, if not buy the paperback. So I guess that's what I suggest. The Penguin Classic edition has new artwork, quality paper and the same intro, without the high price. I wish Penguin would follow Knopf's example and do beautiful books like those in their Everyman's Library Series.
terrific bookOctober 9, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I already owned this book in paperback and loved it ... treated myself to a special hardback version.
