Kerouac and coffee?

[laughingwillow]

So, the original 119' manuscript of "On the Road," by J Kerouac is currently passing through the area on tour. Our local newspaper wrote up a nice story, including the ascertion that kerouac wrote the manuscript on a 21 day jag fueled by caffeine. Then I visited the author's official web site and found a similar account. I seem to remember something about benzedrine, maybe? Or something similar beung consumed on that writing jag. I'm tempted to write an editorial to the paper concerning their apparent rewriting/whitewashing of american history, but would rather hear other's opinions here first.

Thanks.

lw

[JRL]

Definitly whitwash. The drug choice was coffee but with bezedrine inhalers.

[Indra]

the cotton tubes from benzedrine inhalers soaked in a cup of coffee (or simply chewed).

i think the notion that it was written in such a binge is as likely myth as anything else.  though how apropos!

[cenacle]

the bennies kept him awake, drove his body, but the book itself came from his heart & soul, and nobody can take it away from him...some drugs, like alcohol and cigarettes, while romantically associated with artistic endevour, have little to do with the depths of the creative being, and their detrimental affects are well-known and undeniable...other substances, such as entheogens, can play a more positive role in the soul growth of the artist, the freeing open of the doors within to find the deepest creativity...but the substances are not the soul, the tinder is not the fire...kerouac no doubt fueled his writing hours when writing other books, often with booze, but rarely did he ciome up with the sustained vision of 'on the road'--and eventually it was the booze, and the long-term depression it caused in him, that killed him before he was 50...

society seems to like its artists to live on the edge, do the things others only dream about...sex, drugs, etc...sometimes this is cool, but often it ends up with someone wonderful dead young...hendrix, keats, fitzgerald, kerouac, garcia, the list is long and sad...

kerouac did everything that artists are supposed to have tried...every drug, every sex act, traveled to many places, put himself out there...but i wish as he got older, someone could have gotten through to him and helped him dry out, and deal better with his demons...his friend allen ginsberg survived his youth, it's good some do...