[mkovach]

Ah, how wonderful, to stumble upon lost Kerouac like this, tucked away not in some Yale archive but in the collection of Paul Castellano of all people, as if the road had detoured briefly through the Five Families. That it reads like a missing chapter from On the Road makes the find all the more mythic, like a Polaroid from a dream you forgot you had.

But this, for some reason, reminds me that Kerouac was also a devoted baseball mind. Not just a fan, but a proto-fantasy league commissioner before the term existed, meticulously tracking invented teams and players in private box scores. Kerouac, a fantasy baseball writer.

And he wasn't alone: Corso batted lines like fastballs, Ferlinghetti cheered from the dugout of City Lights, and Ginsberg, ever the cosmic catcher, enjoyed the sport. Baseball wasn't a pastime but a parallel Beat narrative, complete with innings, errors, and the occasional poetic balk and haiku.

[eth0up]

I lived right down the street from the bar where he died, in Saint Pete FL.

I don't remember what or if the property is / still is.

Perforated ulcer hit critical mass after the daily round of whiskey. I wonder if hpylori made it worse or it was just the suds.

Edit: found this while searching for the bar

https://stpetekerouachouse.com/

[mkovach]

Very cool! You lived down the street! And yes, Kerouac's turn toward health mainly counteracted the booze.

Oh, and another fun fact:

Kerouac once befriended a former minor league baseball player who'd also played college football. He encouraged the guy to try acting. In a roundabout way, we have Jack Kerouac to thank for Paul Gleason, one of the '80s movies' most memorable villains. (An interesting man in his own right.)

(There are enough quotes and parentheses in this reply to resemble a LISP program, sorry about that.)

[sillyfluke]

movie pitch: Kerouac has some debt that falls on Castellono's people to collect. Kerouac tries to get out of it by convincing them to take a story instead of cash. They lock him up in a room somewhere until he writes the story. Movie is basically two or more people talking in a room, or just Kerouac seen talking with whoever is in the room, off screen.

[mkovach]

I really enjoyed this take. Awesome!

[pessimizer]

Not far beyond. I'm old, so second-hand it seems that the entire reason he toured to do readings (at least in the 80s and 90s) was to stay with locals who had young male children. I know two horror stories myself.

It was sort of a hippie/counterculture/futurist/Berkeley thing to let pedophiles openly operate and attack anyone as nosy lame perverts who would accuse them of being a problem, even after multiple arrests. See the Breendoggle.

[dyauspitr]

16 is the age of consent in most parts of Europe. I refuse to vilify someone for doing something completely legal.

[zoklet-enjoyer]

Finding out about that whole NAMBLA thing was very disappointing

[cm2012]

Beat culture seems riddled with abusers and sociopaths.