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BookTalk at BSC concludes March 1 with ‘On the Road' | Bismarck State College

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BookTalk at BSC concludes March 1 with ‘On the Road'

Published: Feb 23 2015
On The Road
The last discussion in the "Road Trip" BookTalk series at Bismarck State College takes place Sunday, March 1, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the BSC Library.

"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac has become an American classic and one the most important novels of the 20th century. First published in 1957, it became widely known as the bible of the Beat Generation, the prose accompaniment to the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and others.

Brian Palecek, humanities instructor at United Tribes Technical College, leads the discussion of Kerouac's thinly fictionalized autobiography.

Poetic, open and raw, Kerouac's prose lays out a cross-country bohemian adventure as experienced by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos. A writer holed up in a room at his aunt's house in New York, Paradise is inspired by Dean Moriarty to hit the road and see America. The novel takes place between 1947 and 1950 and marks a specific era in jazz history.

Kerouac's writing of "On the Road" in 1951 is the stuff of legend. He wrote the entire  manuscript during a three-week bender of frenzied composition on a single role of paper that was 120 feet long.

Jack Kerouac was born in Massachusetts in 1922. He received a football scholarship to Columbia University, where he met Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and William Burroughs. Kerouac quit his sophomore year and joined the Merchant Marine, starting the travels of his youth, which became the basis of "On the Road," his second and most acclaimed novel. Other works include "The Town and the City," "The Dharma Bums, "The Subterraneans," "Big Sur," "Visions of Cody," "Visions of Gerard," poetry and spoken word recordings.

BookTalk discussions are open to all and include refreshments. The program is funded by the BSC Library and a grant from the BSC Foundation.
 

About Bismarck State College
Bismarck State College, an innovative community college in Bismarck, N.D., offers high quality education, workforce training, and enrichment programs reaching local and global communities.