It exists! The long-lost letter from Neal Cassady that inspired Jack Kerouac to write On the Road will be auctioned next month at Christies, ending an 18-month-long battle over its ownership and another 60-year-long battle over its existence. As Kerouac said, “It was the greatest piece of writing I ever saw, better’n anybody in America, or at least enough to make Melville, Twain, Dreiser, Wolfe, I dunno who, spin in their graves.”
On the Auction Block
Junot Díaz Cover Art
Junot Díaz’s forthcoming collection This is How You Lose Her now has cover art. It appears to be video game inspired.
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Chapter One: Open a Savings Account
Tom Jenks, co-founder of Narrative Magazine (which charges writers $23 to submit), is releasing a 400-page, six-chapter craft book on the art of imaginative fiction titled A Poetics of Fiction. The information inside the book is billed as “more than useful—it’s essential and not readily available anywhere else”—maybe that’s why it retails for $225.
I Do Not Like My Tinder Date
I didn’t know I wanted a Dr. Seuss-style poem about Tinder until McSweeney’s kindly provided it. You could also consider Horton Hears a Who! as political theater.
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On the Most External of Hard Drives
Scared of relying on the cloud? Worried your book-in-progress might disappear into cyberspace? How would you feel if you could save your files on — wait for it — the Moon?
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Preview Michelle Tea
At McSweeney’s, preview Michelle Tea’s Castle on the River Vistula, the final installment of her Chelsea trilogy. You could also check out our piece on contemporary YA fiction and talk therapy.
They’re Watching
Collusion, a new add-in for Firefox browsers, “allows you to see all the third parties that are tracking your movements across the Web.” Of course, who’s tracking you online is one thing, but who’s tracking you in retail stores is quite another.
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