Review by Arthur S. Nusbaum
Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums was first published in the immediate wake of the sensation of On the Road the previous year. It is based on Kerouac & canonical Beat poet Gary Snyder’s real-life quests & adventures, more focused & reflective (& literally uphill) under Snyder’s influence than the frantic chases back & forth across the continent with Neal Cassady that inspired & were recounted in OtR. The duo of Ray Smith & Japhy Ryder, immediately preceded by Sal Paradise & Dean Moriarty, is acknowledged & honored here by the Beat Icon on whom half of it was based. Snyder, now eighty years old, continues to write & read his poetry, Not long ago, I was privileged to attend a reading here in Ann Arbor. Third Mind Books, of which I am the Impassioned Curator, is proud to offer a most special specimen of this Beat classic. A hardcover First Edition, in dust jacket, both in fine condition, signed by Gary Snyder as his character, Japhy Ryder, with quotation brackets. This is indeed a most remarkable rarity for Beat collectors & devotees.
**
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