Journal rocks in centenary special
A handsome edition of the annual Lowell Review features Kerouac and music essay
THE 2022 edition of a journal celebrating the cultural life of a city always associated with Jack Kerouac, as his birthplace, boyhood home and burial spot, has just emerged.
The Lowell Review features articles, interviews and poetry with a local and regional connection, but its interest in matters Kerouac is emphasised here as the writer’s centenary is commemorated.
With that in mind, the latest version of the publication, only launched in 2021, features a section dedicated to the author and his very recent centennial.
And I am delighted to report that an essay that enjoyed an early life in the pages of Rock and the Beat Generation has found an American home within the pages of this impressively conceived platform.
‘Still rockin’ in the Beat world’, one of the most popular pieces to appear in our R&BG to date, now proudly finds a place in print within the Lowell Review.
The account considers how Jack Kerouac retains an influence on popular music singers, songwriters and bands despite the fact that he has been dead well over 50 years.
The essay draws on interviews with a number of established Beat experts, Holly George-Warren, Matt Theado, Ronna Johnson, Pat Thomas, Jonah Raskin among them, to explain the writer’s enduring legacy within the rock community.
The Lowell journal is co-edited by Richard P. Howe Jr., a familiar historian, cultural commentator and blogger on the local scene, and Paul Marion, not only attached to the city’s university but also editor of early Kerouac writings in the volume Atop an Underwood and a contributor himself to the ‘Still rockin’ in the Beat world’ article.
The co-editors provide a positive manifesto for their still young and developing concern. ‘In the spirit of The Dial magazine of Massachusetts, edited by Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1840s, the Lowell Review offers a space for creative and intellectual expression,’
They add: ‘In America, the name Lowell stands out, associated with industrial innovation, working people, cultural pluralism and some of the country’s literary greats.’
You can obtain copies from www.lulu.com or visit www.thelowellreview.com to read the edition online.