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.
