The Sea is my Brother | |
---|---|
Author(s) | Jack Kerouac |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Novel |
Publisher | Penguin |
Publication date | 2011 in literature |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Pages | 158 pages |
ISBN | 978-0141193335 |
Followed by | Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings (1936-1943) |
The Sea is my Brother is the lost novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in 1942, but not published until 2011. In 1942, Kerouac served just eight days in the US Merchant Marine, but his brief service nonetheless inspired him to write Sea.[1] The author, who was 20 years old when Sea was written, allegedly thought that the book was "a crock [of shit] as literature",[2] and apparently did not bother to shop it around to publishers. Dawn Ward, editor of the Penguin edition of The Sea is my Brother, holds that while the novel is not the same as the great work Kerouac produced later in his life, it illuminates Kerouac's early development as a writer. "It was referred to briefly in letters, but nothing that led anyone to believe that there was this really large volume ... This book is really quite important as it shows how Jack developed his writing process.".[3]