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Write a<br />
Madder<br />
Letter<br />
if You Can<br />
by Kevin Ring<br />
This little essay is so late. It should have been<br />
written, done and dusted and featured in Beat Scene<br />
well before now. I’d heard through Beat Scene friend<br />
Richard Miller that the upmarket USA bookseller<br />
Glenn Horowitz Inc were handling the sale of sixty<br />
three letters and postcards from Jack Kerouac to his<br />
old Columbia University and Denver friend Ed<br />
White. The correspondence from Jack lasted from<br />
July 15, in 1947 through to May 12, 1969. They were<br />
a mixture of letters and postcards, the majority<br />
written in the later 1940s and early to mid 1950s.<br />
Keen observers will know that Ed White is<br />
something of an inspirational figure in the Jack<br />
Kerouac story, for it was White who suggested to Jack<br />
that he ‘sketch’ while writing. By that he meant, write<br />
spontaneously on the spot, as an artist might do<br />
preliminary sketches in preparation for a big<br />
painting. It would be no understatement to say that<br />
White’s suggestion, borne out of his artistic<br />
background, changed Jack Kerouac’s future. In a<br />
letter dated August 7, 1961 Kerouac reminded Ed<br />
White about his thoughtful comments, “Did you know<br />
you were the one who gave me the idea about my new<br />
prose? Just sketch, ‘from memory’ etc…’<br />
In fact Kerouac knew and fully realized<br />
White’s prophetic words even later on and had<br />
recalled the exact moment, as he was inclined to do,<br />
that’s the beauty of Jack Kerouac, when, in a March<br />
1, 1965 letter he again reminded White, “To think<br />
that all that crazy stuff I’ve written since 1951 in a way<br />
started when you casually suggested, in a Chinese<br />
restaurant on Amsterdam and 124 th , remember? To try<br />
“sketching,” which I did, and it led to discovery of<br />
modern spontaneous prose.”<br />
Kerouac took time - sat and typed Ed a letter<br />
explaining this and thanking him again for the<br />
direction White set him off on. To me, it seems that<br />
White never really got enough credit. Kerouac was<br />
struggling with his writing; he knew what he wanted<br />
to say, but how to say it? White was the catalyst for<br />
his new style. And, it must be noted, Kerouac seems<br />
fully aware that ‘the discovery of modern spontaneous<br />
prose,’ (as Jack framed it) - has a moment in history,<br />
it is something and Kerouac is proud of the fact. But<br />
he never forgets White’s place in the big scheme of<br />
his things.<br />
What I have here in front of me, on the<br />
desk, is a nicely done bookseller catalogue aimed at<br />
43
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