Jack Kerouac's 'The Sea Is My Brother' And Other Lost Novels

From Flavorwire:

This past week, Jack Kerouac’s first-ever novel, "The Sea is My Brother," was finally published 40 years after his death. The novel, long thought to be lost by experts, was unearthed in Kerouac’s personal archive by his brother-in-law. We are constantly inspired by the way that our over-processed world still hangs on to its secrets, and even more by the way that bits of history can hide in plain sight, so to celebrate this newest development in the literary canon, we decided to take a look at Kerouac’s newest/oldest book and other lost novels that were eventually found again. Click through to see our list of lost and found novels, and if you’ve ever had a literary relative, get ready to go hunting in your attics for your own treasure chests.

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Comments

[ColinStevens]

11:20 AM on 01/16/2012

This started to be written when he was a Merchant marine, yes - while he was on the boat, and then off and on. It was written BEFORE he started serious work on "The Town and the City", his first published novel. After "The Town and the City" came "On the Road", and then his others. Wonderful to see this first real effort at a novel published, although, as is usual with posthumously published works, it's most likely not finished and not in the form he wanted it to be in, which is a shame - but as a piece of literary history, it's invaluable. Can't wait to read it.

[LibrarianBarb]

05:29 PM on 12/01/2011

'The Watsons' is unfinished because Austen gave up on it and at the time she died she was working on another book 'Sanditon'. One 'resurfaced novel' of Austen is 'Lady Susan' that she wrote when she was 20. It is short and written in a series of letters. The main character is the scheming Lady Susan Vernon, a beautiful widow with several lovers who is trying to push her teenage daughter into a loveless marriage while sponging off her in-laws. Recently, it was adapted as a full length novel called 'Lady Vernon and Her Daughter' that was excellent and there was talk of a British television movie supposedly to be written by the playwright Lucy Preble.

[Noah Cross]

01:00 PM on 11/29/2011

"Lost" novels? Curses. I was hoping for the further adventures of Jack and Kate and Hurley.

[inabif]

08:14 AM on 11/29/2011

I just want to point out that THE SEA IS MY BROTHER was never lost. The novel was mentioned in every one of the biographies. It was listed in the sale of Kerouac's archives to the Berg Collections. As with previous, posthumous Kerouac publications, the notion that the book was "lost" at some point is a marketing device.

[ColinStevens]

11:21 AM on 01/16/2012

Exactly. He worked on it before "The Town and the City", and people have known about it for decades.

[Andythelawyer]

04:06 PM on 11/28/2011

How about "Moby Dick"? That was completely obscure for decades before its revival.

[biglog]

03:36 PM on 11/28/2011

"...and contains correspondence between he and his best friend of the time."

Wow. Just... wow. In the "Books" section, no less.