Thursday, August 15, 2019

The Typewriter Is Holy.


It was Allen Ginsberg who said in his footnote to Howl, ‘The typewriter is holy the poem is holy, the voice is holy, the hearers are holy, the ecstasy is holy!’

I was looking through my stuff today, searching for something else and I came across an envelope. It contained a letter from an internet friend called Shannon Vale from 2007. Shannon had been in Lowell, Massachusetts where there had been a summer program of events about Jack Kerouac. As you probably know, Lowell was Jack’s hometown. Jack’s actual typewriter that he wrote On The Road was on display and Shannon wrote a note on it and sent it to me which was very thoughtful and kind of her. It is quite amazing to have something that was typed on the same machine which was used by one of the great literary figures of the 20th century.

I have something else in common with Shannon. We are both Van Morrison fans. Shannon wrote an excellent book called Astral Weeks Live, A Fans Notes in 2011. I think it might  still be available from Shannon’s website  http://followshannon.com/about/ if you want to read it.

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