# Jack Kerouac — a declared absence: Belief & Technique for Modern Prose and Essentials of Spontaneous Prose, with the novels and Mexico City Blues

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) is entered as wanted, at the operator's ruling of 2026-10-28 on the proposals of Belief & Technique for Telepathic Prose: A Critical Edition (§11). His two statements of method are the model the Footnote to Pearl names (Dead Letters, #1099, post #4, 10 May 2014): "Belief & Technique for Modern Prose", thirty items, written in a letter to Donald Allen in 1958 and printed in Evergreen Review in 1959, and "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose", printed in the Black Mountain Review in 1957 and in Evergreen Review in 1958, whose word for what spontaneous prose does to its reader, "telepathic", the Footnote takes into its title. His works are in copyright: those published before 1964 needed renewal, which is to be checked work by work; the later works run ninety-five years from publication.

Rights: The Estate of Jack Kerouac; the first publishers named.

| Author | Work | First publisher | Year | Opens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Kerouac | The Town and the City | Harcourt, Brace | 1950 | 2046-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Essentials of Spontaneous Prose, in Black Mountain Review 7 | Black Mountain College | 1957 | 2053-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | On the Road | Viking Press | 1957 | 2053-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | The Subterraneans | Grove Press | 1958 | 2054-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | The Dharma Bums | Viking Press | 1958 | 2054-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Essentials of Spontaneous Prose, in Evergreen Review 2.5 | Grove Press | 1958 | 2054-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Belief & Technique for Modern Prose: List of Essentials, in Evergreen Review 2.8 | Grove Press | 1959 | 2055-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Doctor Sax | Grove Press | 1959 | 2055-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Mexico City Blues | Grove Press | 1959 | 2055-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Book of Dreams | City Lights | 1961 | 2057-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Big Sur | Farrar, Straus and Cudahy | 1962 | 2058-01-01 if its copyright was renewed (a United States work published before 1964 needed renewal; the renewal is to be checked) |
| Jack Kerouac | Visions of Cody | McGraw-Hill | 1972 | 2068-01-01 |
| Jack Kerouac | Selected Letters, 1957–1969, ed. Ann Charters (the letter of 1958 to Donald Allen) | Viking | 1999 | 2040-01-01, seventy years after the author's death, for matter first published after 1977; the editor's apparatus under its own terms |
| Jack Kerouac | On the Road: The Original Scroll, ed. Howard Cunnell | Viking | 2007 | 2040-01-01, seventy years after the author's death; the editors' apparatus under its own terms |

Wanted: the two statements of method first, in their first printings (Black Mountain Review 7, 1957; Evergreen Review 2.5, 1958, and 2.8, 1959), and the 1958 letter to Donald Allen in which the list was written; the renewal record of each work published before 1964, which decides when it opens. Until then the shelf describes the list and cites it by item number (Belief & Technique for Telepathic Prose: A Critical Edition, §7).

Beside Allen Ginsberg's declared absence (28/03), whose Howl and Other Poems is dedicated to him; Whitman (03/01); and Pearl and Other Poems (03/02), whose Footnote takes his title and whose Jack Feist stands in his place.

This seat holds no text of the works it names. The dates follow the terms stated; they are not legal advice.