The Dharma Bums
| The Dharma Bums cover | |
| Author | Jack Kerouac |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace |
Publication date | 1958 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | Approx. 256 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-14-004252-0 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | The Subterraneans (1958) |
| Followed by | Doctor Sax (1959) |
- This is an article about the novel by Jack Kerouac. For the band, see Dharma Bums.
The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi-fictional accounts in the novel are based upon events that occurred years after On the Road. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on Kerouac, and Japhy Ryder, based on the poet, essayist and Buddhist Gary Snyder. The book largely concerns duality in Kerouac's life and ideals, examining the relationship that the outdoors, mountaineering, hiking and hitchhiking through the West have with his "city life" of jazz clubs, poetry readings, and drunken parties.
One of the most important episodes in the book is of Smith, Ryder and Henry Morley (based on real-life friend John Montgomery) climbing Matterhorn Peak in California. The real-life episode was Kerouac's first introduction to this type of mountaineering and would serve as inspiration for him to spend the following summer as a fire lookout for the United States Forest Service on Desolation Peak in Washington state. Highlighting the aforementioned duality of the novel, one of the other most important episodes in the novel is an account of the legendary 1955 Six Gallery reading, where Allen Ginsberg gave a debut presentation of his poem "Howl" (changed to "Wail" in the book) and other authors such as Snyder himself, Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure, and Philip Whalen performed. A key to Kerouac's aliases for his friends is helpful in deciphering the rest of the characters.
Ray Smith's story is driven by Japhy, whose penchant for the simple life and Zen Buddhism greatly influenced Kerouac as he began to mature on the eve of the wild and unpredicted success of On the Road. The action shifts between the wild, such as three-day parties and enactments of the Buddhist sexual rite of "Yab-Yum" ceremony to the sublime and peaceful imagery where Kerouac seeks a type of transcendence. The novel concludes with a change in narrative style, with Kerouac working alone as a fire lookout on Hozomeen Mountain's Desolation Peak, in what would soon be declared North Cascades National Park (see also Desolation Angels). These elements place The Dharma Bums at a critical junction foreshadowing the consciousness-probing works of several authors in the 1960s such as Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey.
Character Key [1]
"Because of the objections of my early publishers I was not allowed to use the same personae names in each work." [2]
| Real-life person | Character name |
|---|---|
| Jack Kerouac | Ray Smith |
| Caroline Kerouac | Nin |
| Carolyn Cassady | Evelyn |
| Neal Cassady | Cody Pomeray |
| Claude Dahlenburg | Bud Diefendorf |
| Allen Ginsberg | Alvah Goldbrook |
| Natalie Jackson | Rosie Buchanan |
| Philip Lamantia | Francis DaPavia |
| Michael McClure | Ike O'Shay |
| Locke McCorkle | Sean Monahan |
| John Montgomery | Henry Morley |
| Peter Orlovsky | George |
| Kenneth Rexroth | Rheinhold Cacoethes |
| Gary Snyder | Japhy Ryder |
| Philip Whalen | Warren Coughlin |
See also
References
- 1958. The Dharma Bums, ISBN 0-14-004252-0