There’s a major museum exhibition in Paris about the Beat Generation writers this summer. Geoff Dyer, one of the best writers working today, has a piece about the show in The Spectator in England. He gives Jack Kerouac high marks for literary achievement but minces no words about the author as a flawed human being, which, of course, we all are in our own ways. This commentary by Dyer is just another piece of evidence about how big Kerouac remains as a cultural figure. His black speck of a coffin-car is way down the highway going towards the horizon, but his literary influence continues to shine on the road he traveled and the trails we pace today. Here’s the link to the Dyer article.

Lowell’s annual Kerouac festival is coming on Columbus Day Weekend this October. As part of the celebration, UMass Lowell will host an exhibition of photographs, artifacts, and documents related to the Beat writers on the West Coast in the 1950s. Watch for details in this space and on social media.

“Jack Kerouac Listening to Himself on the Radio.” Photograph by John Cohen (c) 1959

A print of this image is available for sale here.