Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels

R. J. Ellis (University of Birmingham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1965

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Desolation Angels consists of a series of trips. First, its narrator, Jack Duluoz, journeys to Seattle, San Francisco, Mexico City and New York (from where he visits Washington, his mother and sister in North Carolina, and William Carlos Williams in Paterson). Next he moves on to Tangiers (to visit Bull Hubbard), Paris and London. He then returns to America – first to New York, and then to Florida, where his mother has moved. Next he travels with his mother to California and back to Florida, before revisiting Mexico and finally New York. On these journeys Duluoz recurrently links up with three poets, Irwin Garden, Raphael Urso and Simon Darlovsky. He finally christens these three his “Desolation Angels” (366).

On …

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656 words

Citation: Ellis, R. J.. "Desolation Angels". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5630, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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