Dharma Bums Typescript at Sottebys auction as part of “Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker”
Any speculation who;s stash is up for auction? Loads from Kerouac but also James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Wm S Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Allen Ginsberg, John Cheever, TS Eliot, Wm Faulkner, Ian Fleming, E. Hemingway, A. Huxley, G.G. Marquez, H. Miller, V. Nabakov, E. O’Neil, J. O’Hara, J.D. Salinger (1st edition of Catcher in the Rye… what is this the same edition i have? wtf?), ok i gotta check this out.
Anyone in New York City able to go catch the auction? Lots close on Dec. 8th as i understand… Would make a heck of a Christmas present ?
Anyhow, Dharma Bums has a $240K USD opening bid with $300-500K estimate {my guess is $650K+ USD}
Including: “a green quarter morocco slipcase and chemise.” {best feature!}
Any of you in the area to go document the proceedings? (and say “hallo” to the new custodian)
Kerouac Big Sur Postcard
There are a whole bunch of other Kerouac artifacts up on this auction block including many typed letters including to Allen Ginsberg and other notable characters.
While most items, starting obviously with the original rolled typescript of “Dharma Bums” are a couple $,000 beyond me, can’t help but notice this original Kerouac Postcard from Big Sur which seems like it should *really be* in my kura studio – I mean it hits all of my marks right?
The price is not as eye-watering and the postmark is lovely.
Estimate 1,000 – 2,000 USD
Starting Bid 600 USD
{Sent during his ill-fated trip to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s cabin in Big Sur in which he attempted to “dry out” but instead really went off the deep end, the resultant book has some lovely prose but my gosh, you can see a man collapse into his demons from which he never recovered}
Original Dharma
I’ve got dishes to wash and laundry to fold so I won’t belauger the point but, like Kerouac’s other sc/roll-like typescripts, this iteration (he later re-typed in 8-1/2 x 11″ format) changed very much before the original publication and, hopefully, like On the Road, the original unedited text will come to a publication sometime. {more about On the Road typescript exhibit Japan in video with Matt Theado}.
Also, I must mention that Sotheby’s auction house really did a fantastic job of sharing the backstory of the creation of this type script, his style in general and the conundrums he faced in, working with editors and publishers. Really worth reading the auction lot whole blurb.
The “On the Road” manuscript is owned by the Irsay foundation and care-taked by Jim Canary. It’s sold for well over over $1 million USD, (Brian Hassett does a great recap of the auction , plus a video storytime), and is carefully taken care of, and exhibited widely. Maybe they will also pick up this one?
Me & Dharma
The thing I love about Dharma bums so much is it what started the Gary Snyder, freighters to Japan and Zen part of the whole “movement”/literary renaissance. Mountain climbing and free love with San Francisco/Berkeley girls. I read that and my life was planned out.
And to think Gary Snyder it’s the “last one standing” of that whole universe. Living well into his 90s, his hybrid kids, basically our age, giving a preview of what Stanley will look like in several decades. The whole thing swells me with emotion.
Sotheby’s Blurb:
Typescript scroll of the The Dharma Bums: the first draft of Kerouac’s sequel to On the Road. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958
A roll of wove (probably Teletype) paper created by Kerouac by joining 10 separate strips of paper with tape into a long scroll, permitting uninterrupted feeding through his typewriter, 61 ft. 3/8 in. in length x 8 1/2 inches wide. The text single-spaced, without paragraph or sectional breaks.
With occasional manuscript revisions in Kerouac’s hand: a few lines or phrases crossed out, a dozen or so words and some paragraph marks added, 12-15 names or words crossed out with a substitute written above, overall a remarkably clean typescript, illustrating Kerouac’s powers of spontaneous composition with almost no hesitancy or reconsideration.
Kerouac boldly wrote the title The Dharma Bums in red watercolor at the head of the scroll. Condition: The paper lightly yellowed, cellophane tape used by Kerouac for section joins and for a few early marginal repairs now yellowed, two later tape repairs from the back, upper right corner renewed at beginning, sheet edges in first two inches with discreet reinforcements.
In a green quarter morocco slipcase and chemise.
Sotheby’s / Kerouac, Jack | Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums
Provence and whatnot:
The provence is quite mysterious as well is that the seller is an anonymous American filmmaker selling entire collection/library of all kinds of interest in items. Any speculations?
Ergo, from Sotheby’s:
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) — Gabrielle Kerouac, his mother (d.1973) and Stella Sampas Kerouac, his wife — Stella Sampas Kerouac (d.1990) — Anthony G. Sampatacacus, brother of the preceding (d.1999) — Christie’s New York, 8 April 2003, lot 166 (undesignated consignor)
More about history via beat researcher Dave Moore:
“The Dharma Bums” scroll was first put up for auction at Christie’s in October 2001. The highest bid was $190K, which failed to meet the reserve price of $300K, so it was withdrawn.
It was auctioned again in April 2003. This time the reserve price was lowered to $80K, and the scroll was sold, to an unknown telephone bidder, for $110K, $80K lower than the highest bid 18 months previously.
