''Lonesome Traveler'' is a non-fiction collection of short essays and sketches by American novelist and poet
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
, published in 1960. It is a compilation of Kerouac's journal entries about traveling the United States, Mexico, Morocco, the United Kingdom and France, and covers similar issues to
his novels, such as relationships, various jobs, and the nature of his life on the road. Some of the stories originally appeared as magazine articles.
Details
The collection is Kerouac's first undisguisedly autobiographical work written in his
spontaneous prose style.
"Mexico
Fellaheen
A fellah ( ar, فَلَّاح ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a peasant, usually a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller". ...
" and "The Railroad Earth" (also known as "October in the Railroad Earth"), together with his travel journal entries, produce a loose but effective collection.
"Alone on a Mountaintop" recounts Kerouac's three-month stay on
Desolation Peak as a lone
fire lookout
A fire lookout (partly also called a fire watcher) is a person assigned the duty to look for fire from atop a building known as a fire lookout tower. These towers are used in remote areas, normally on mountain tops with high elevation and a ...
, which is also described (although somewhat differently) in ''
The Dharma Bums
''The Dharma Bums'' is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of ''On the Road''. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on ...
'' and ''
Desolation Angels''.
The book begins with Kerouac's answers to a publisher's
questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, ...
, about his life and work.
Stories included
* "Piers of a Homeless Night"
Full-text at publishers website
* "Mexico Fellaheen"
* "The Railroad Earth"
* "Slobs of the Kitchen Sea"
* "New York Scenes"
* "Alone on a Mountaintop"
* "Big Trip to Europe"
* "The Vanishing American Hobo"
Sources
*
References
1960 American novels
Novels by Jack Kerouac
American travel books
Travel novels
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