by Jack Kerouac
66.32 shirttails!] “Shirttails” here translates the French patois kitchimise, meaning queue de chemise in standard French literally, tail of a shirt. In Visions of Gerard, Kerouac uses kitchimise without translating it. [Tr. note]
68.14–16 Ti-Michel . . . Ti-Choux] These terms of endearment have been left untranslated, as Kerouac often did in his published works, but in English this passage would be “Lil-Michael, Lil-Thumb, Tourlipi, Lil Fart, and my mother called me Lil-Cabbage.” [Tr. note]
68.40 Saroyan] Fiction writer and playwright William Saroyan (1908–1981).
69.3–19 Voilà: “It was like a stage . . . and said, A few.”] This passage appears in English in the original manuscript. [Tr. note]
70.40–71.1 Crazy as a Broom] This is a literal translation of the common French Canadian expression fou comme des balais, or, in Kerouac’s sound-spelling, balas. Kerouac translated it literally “crazy as brooms” but in singular form, on the bottom of the manuscript page as a footnote. [Tr. note]
71.25–37 Well, and where is G.J. . . . Where is that bed today?] This passage was translated by Kerouac. [Tr. note]
72.2 NYA program] National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency focusing on securing employment and educational opportunities for young Americans.
72.29 Louis Verneuil] French playwright, screenwriter, and actor (1893–1952) who had many of his works adapted for the Broadway stage from the 1920s to the 1950s. Kerouac likely wanted to change the name for publication and so wrote Son Nom (His Name) rather than Louis Verneuil; for lack of an alternative the real name has been retained here. [Tr. note]
72.31–32 Nancy Carroll] Movie star (1904–1965) whose films included Abie’s Irish Rose (1928), Devil’s Holiday (1930), and Laughter (1930).
73.7–22 “Buffalo . . . in my pipe.] This passage was translated by Kerouac. [Tr. note]
73.27–38 I had discovered . . . at his manner.] This passage was translated by Kerouac. [Tr. note]
76.5 TRAVAIL IN THE MIST] This phrase appears in English at the bottom of the corresponding page of the original manuscript, underneath a squiggly line that horizontally crosses the page. [Tr. note]
76.31 TRAVAIL IN THE MURK] See note 76.5.
78.18–19 “Thanatopsis” . . . Bryant] “Thanatopsis,” a poetic meditation on death, was written in his teens by William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878); it was published in The North American Review in 1817.
79.7–8 a circus like the one W. C. Fields ran] In You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939), directed by George Marshall.
79.26–27 “She was fourteen . . . at the village fair.”] In English in the original. [Tr. note]
79.36–80.15 “You boys want . . . circus life, boys,”] All dialogue spoken by the circus boss is in English in the original. [Tr. note]
81.8–24 “Stand still!” . . . damn boy go?”] The elephant rider’s lines are in English in the original. [Tr. note]
81.27–28 pale as a lenten fart] I follow Kerouac’s translation, in Visions of Gerard, of the French Canadian expression blême comme une vesse de carême. The colloquial English equivalent would be “white as a sheet.” [Tr. note]
82.7–12 “Were you stationed . . . wise guy punk,”] The dialogue between the narrator and the soldier is in English in the original. [Tr. note]
82.25 My old childhood chum Jack] In this section of the original manuscript, the narrator is often erroneously referred to as “Jack” rather than Michel by his friend “Mike.” In his final translated excerpt, Kerouac confirms that he intended to name the “Mike” character “Jack” (in effect flipping their two nicknames). In order to avoid confusion, the names have been adjusted accordingly in the translation; thus, Jack here is the narrator’s friend, and Mike/Michel is the narrator. [Tr. note]
83.31–32 “Daddy . . . the best of me.”] In English in the original. The lyrics are from “Daddy” (1941), composed by Bobby Troup, a number one hit for Sammy Kaye. [Tr. note]
83.34–36 “As I was walking . . . cold as the clay.”] In English in the original. The lyrics are from the traditional cowboy ballad known as “Streets of Laredo” or “The Cowboy’s Lament.” [Tr. note]
85.6 “W.P.A.,”] Song (1940) composed by Jesse Stone, recorded by Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers. W.P.A. is the New Deal employment program the Works Progress Administration.
85.31–34 “What the hell . . . those post holes.”] In English in the original. [Tr. note]
85.38 mautadit] A milder version of maudit, similar to saying darnit in place of dammit. [Tr. note]
86.30 Lana Turner] Movie star (1921–1995) known for such films as They Won’t Forget (1937) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
87.1 we moved to New Haven] The episode of the move to New Haven is also recounted, in a radically different tone, in Vanity of Duluoz (1968). [Tr. note]
88.6–11 We decided to eat . . . or harassing.] This passage was translated by Kerouac. [Tr. note]
88.31 noising day] Kerouac wrote this phrase in parentheses next to the French plein d’train (full of noise). [Tr. note]
89.2 “and I found her bitter.”] See Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell (1893): “One evening I seated Beauty on my knees. And I found her bitter. And I cursed her.”
89.26 brillianting] The French original here is brillante (glittering); I have adopted Kerouac’s translation of the word in Old Bull in the Bowery. [Tr. note]
90.36–37 “vieille gieppe chiène.”] In Kerouac’s manuscript, “old bitch bee” is followed by the French phrase; I have duplicated this in reverse here. The standard French form would be vieille guêpe chienne. [Tr. note]
92.3 The sea is my sister] In the French original, “the sea is my sister” a gendered switch from his 1944 novella The Sea Is My Brother (published 2011) is written La mère est ma soeur. In standard French this means “The mother is my sister”; since mère and mer are homonyms, and since Kerouac wrote French phonetically, this is an example of the kinds of resonances that are lost in translation. [Tr. note]
93.16–21 “Goin’ down . . . in the morning . . .”] In English in the original. [Tr. note]
94.3 Bull Run (Manassas?)] The Battle of Bull Run, fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia, was the first major battle of the Civil War and was a major Confederate victory.
95.20–97.5 One morning I got up . . . He had a job for me.] Translated by Kerouac. [Tr. note]
95.34 Magic Fire Music] Instrumental passage in Act 3 of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre (1870).
JOURNAL 1951
101.14 Victor Duchamp] There are multiple holograph fragments and notes in the Berg Collection for a version of On the Road featuring a protagonist named Victor Duchamp, such as “Home and the Road” (1950), featuring a chronology of Duchamp’s life.
101.25–27 Faulkner . . . Sanctuary] When Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary (1931) was reissued in The Modern Library in 1935, he stated in an introduction: “To me it is a cheap idea because it was deliberately conceived to make money.”
104.1–2 Pierre . . . Henry Murray] The ninety-page introduction by psychologist Murray (1893–1988) appeared in the 1949 Hendricks House edition of Melville’s Pierre, or The Ambiguities.
104.2 Under the Volcano] Novel (1947) by Malcolm Lowry (1909–1957).
105.2–3 my youthful works, including Orpheus and Vanity of Duluoz] Orpheus Emerged is Kerouac’s 1945 novella (published in 2002). Vanity of Duluoz here refers to the work of 1942, not to be confused with the 1968 novel of the same title.
105.28 J’ai mentri.] I lied. [Tr. note]
107.32 Marcus Goodrich] American writer (1897–1991) best known for the novel Delilah (1941), based on his experiences on a destroyer during World War I.
108.6–7 “I have decided to consider annihilation,”] While serving as American Consul in Liverpool, Nathaniel Hawthorne was briefly visited by Herman Melville in 1856. Hawthorne recorded some of the conversation in his journal:
“Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything that lies beyond human ken, and informed me that he had ‘pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated’; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation; and, I think, will never rest until he gets hold of a definite belief. . . . He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other.”
108.11 Pyotr Alexandrovich] Pyotr Alexandrovich Miusov, wealthy liberal in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.
108.26 Ripeness is all] King Lear, V.ii.11; spoken by Edgar.
109.11 Buechner] Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), American novelist whose early novels are A Long Day’s Dying (1950) and The Seasons’ Difference (1952).
110.23 Pic Jackson] Pictorial Review Jackson, the protagonist of Kerouac’s posthumously published novella Pic (1971). He also appears in Old Bull in the Bowery, included in this volume.
116.18 Frans Hals] Dutch portrait painter (c. 1582–1666).
117.15 Il faut vivre . . . en Francais.] You have to live in English, it’s impossible to live in French. [Tr. note]
117.32–33 “It is late afternoon; the grapes are turning brown!”] From Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo (1888, published 1908): “On this perfect day, when everything is ripening and not only the grapes are turning brown, a shaft of sunlight has just fallen on my life: I looked backwards, I looked ahead, I never saw so much and such good things all at once.”
117.39 Shelley Winters] Actress (1920–2006) who appeared in A Place in the Sun (1951) and many other films.
118.19 Hal Kemp] Instrumentalist and bandleader (1904–1940) whose hits included “The Music Goes ’Round and ’Round” (1936) and “Got a Date with an Angel” (1937).
118.22–23 “Barney Google,” “There’s a Rainbow on my Shoulder”] “Barney Google (With the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes)” (1923), song by Billy Rose and Con Conrad, popularized by Billy Jones and Ernest Hare (duo also known as the Happiness Boys); “There’s a Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder” (1928), song by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, and Dave Dreyer, performed by Jolson in the film The Singing Fool.
118.27–28 Harry Hopkins . . . C.I.O. . . . Walter Reuther] Hopkins (1890–1946), close advisor of Franklin D. Roosevelt who helped design New Deal programs; Congress of Industrial Organizations, trade union federation created in 1935; Reuther (1907–1970), labor union organizer who became president of United Auto Workers in 1936.
118.30 All Quiet on the Western Front . . . The Road Back] Novels by the German writer Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970), published in 1929 and 1931. American film versions were made in 1930 and 1937 respectively.
118.32–33 Jimmy Foxx] Or Jimmie Foxx (1907–1967), baseball player who played first base for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox.
118.37 Jelly Roll Morton] Professional name of early jazz pianist and composer Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (1890–1941).
119.8–9 Lomax’s “Mister Jelly Roll”] Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and “Inventor of Jazz” (1950), biography by Alan Lomax.
119.11 Mamie’s Blues] Recorded by Jelly Roll Morton in 1939.
120.17 Home Run Baker] Baseball player (1886–1963) for the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Yankees.
122.9 Comédie Humaine] La Comédie Humaine, general title for the interconnected multivolume fictional work by Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850).
122.27–28 à mon Ange Guardien] To my Guardian Angel. [Tr. note]
123.10 Hot Lips Page] Oran Thaddeus Page (1908–1954), jazz trumpeter.
126.39–127.1 to justify the ways of God to man] See Milton, Paradise Lost, book 1, line 26.
128.15 Jerry Newman’s record store] Newman (1918–1970), a Columbia student who was a close friend of Kerouac, used a portable recorder to record many early bebop sessions, operated the Greenwich Music Shop, and founded the recording labels Counterpoint and Esoteric.
129.25–26 Maxwell Bodenheim] Writer (1892–1954), poet and author of novels, including Replenishing Jessica (1925); he lived an increasingly derelict life and was murdered along with his wife Ruth in a Bowery flophouse by a resident in whose room they were staying.
129.35 My Turkish Adventure] Memoir (1951) by Pamela Burr, an American teacher in Istanbul.
130.28 Adam’s Rib] Film (1949) directed by George Cukor, starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.
130.32–33 Edith Piaf . . . Marlene Dietrich; Billy Holiday] Piaf (1915–1963), French chanteuse; Dietrich (1901–1992), German film actress and singer; Holiday (1915–1959), American jazz singer.
131.1 Freud’s notes on Dosty] Sigmund Freud published his essay “Dostoevsky and Parricide” in 1928.
131.2–3 Carson McCullers] American novelist (1917–1967) whose works include The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941).
132.31 Royal Roost] New York jazz club that in the late 1940s presented Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron, Dexter Gordon, and other innovative musicians.
133.18–20 Rudy Williams, Eddy Lockjaw Davis, Terry Gibbs, Don Elliott . . . Sonny Stitt] Williams (1909–1954), alto saxophonist; Davis (1922–1986), tenor saxophonist; Gibbs (b. 1924), vibraphonist; Elliott (1926–1984), trumpeter, vibraphonist, and vocalist; Stitt (1924–1982), saxophonist.
133.37 A day in baseball history] On October 3, 1951, the New York Giants won the National League pennant when Bobby Thomson hit a ninth-inning home run off of Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers. As it was the first ever nationally televised baseball game, and was also broadcast by radio to American troops in Korea, Thomson’s home run became known as “The Shot Heard ’Round the World.”
134.22 Maglie] Sal Maglie (1917–1992), major league baseball pitcher who started for the Giants on October 3, 1951.
135.7 Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs] Walt Disney’s animated feature was released in 1937.
137.16–18 Lee Konitz . . . “I Remember April”] Konitz (b. 1927), alto saxophonist and composer, associated with the cool jazz of the 1940s and 1950s; “I’ll Remember April” (1942), song by Gene de Paul with lyrics by Patricia Johnston and Don Raye, from the movie Ride ’Em Cowboy.
137.22–23 Buxtehudian] Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707), German composer and organist.
137.29 Cecil Payne] Bass saxophonist (1922–2007).
137.35 David Diamond] American classical composer (1915–2005).
138.11–12 Daphne du Maurier] English novelist (1907–1989), author of Jamaica Inn (1936) and Rebecca (1938).
138.13 VAUGHAN MONROE] Popular singer and bandleader (1911–1973) whose hit recordings included “Tangerine” (1942) and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (1945).
138.21 Tristano] Lennie Tristano (1919–1978), jazz pianist and composer; he had wide influence as a teacher of improvisation beginning in the 1940s.
139.5 Woody Herman] Bandleader, clarinetist, and vocalist (1913–1987).
141.33–34 Carl Sandburg] American poet and writer (1878–1967).
143.37 “Zadok the Priest” by Handel] Anthem composed in 1727 by Georg Frideric Handel for the coronation of George II, and sung subsequently at every royal coronation.
144.8–9 “Out of the murderous innocence] See W. B. Yeats, “A Prayer for My Daughter” (1919), line 16: “Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.”
144.9 that dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea] Final line of W. B. Yeats’s “Byzantium” (1930).
145.13 amante] Lover. [Tr. note]
145.29 George Arliss] English actor and playwright (1868–1946), noted for his portrayals of Disraeli, Voltaire, Cardinal Richelieu, and other historical figures.
147.9 Allen had visions in 1948] Ginsberg’s experience of hearing the voice of William Blake reading poems was described by him as a turning point in his identity as a poet.
147.24–25 “Love the art . . . your
selves in art.”] See Konstantin Stanislavski’s My Life in Art (1924).
148.31 Terry Gibbs] Jazz vibraphonist and bandleader (b. 1924).
149.6 Don Elliott] Jazz trumpeter and vocalist (1926–1984).
149.7 “Flying Home”] Jazz composition (1939) by Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton, with lyrics by Sid Robin.
149.12 Whitman’s Calamus] Group of poems published for the first time in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass.
149.19 Marshall Stearns Jr.] Jazz critic (1908–1966), frequent contributor to Down Beat, Record Changer, and other periodicals; founder of the Institute of Jazz Studies in 1952 and author of The Story of Jazz (1956).
151.14 Merle Miller] Novelist (1919–1986) whose books include Island 49 (1945) and That Winter (1948).
162.38 Serenade] Novel (1937) by James M. Cain.
165.3–4 that old Spanish Reichian eccentric] Jaime de Angulo (1887–1950), born in France of Spanish parents, settled in California in the early twentieth century and studied native tribes of California as a linguist and ethnomusicologist.
168.22–24 ASSEZ, maudit Christ . . . ou commence jamais!!] Enough, dammit Christ of the Baptism If you’re gonna be a writer start tonight or never start!! [Tr. note]
169.14 La Voix du Nord] The Voice of the North. [Tr. note]
OLD BULL IN THE BOWERY
175.26–27 California Four Star] In the original French, the brand is “Mission Bell.” In one of Kerouac’s earlier translations, he gives the brand as “Italian Swiss Colony.” [Tr. note]
176.22 Dakota] In the original text Pomeray asks if they are near Iowa. [Tr. note]
176.36–37 the Phantom of the Opera] Lon Chaney portrayed the title character of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 in his 1925 film (directed by Rupert Julian).
180.37–38 “Hyoo hyoo . . . I said that, damn!”] In English in the original. [Tr. note]
181.9 Baby Doe] Elizabeth Tabor (1854–1935), known as “Baby Doe,” whose marriage in 1883 to the Colorado copper magnate Horace Tabor after he divorced his first wife created a scandal. She lived lavishly until her husband lost his fortune in the Panic of 1893.