Unseen Kerouac play to be released this October

An unseen play by beatnik writer Jack Kerouac is due to be published in the US in October.

Written in 1957 - the same year as his classic novel On the Road - the play Beat Generation was found in a Jersey City warehouse six months ago.

It details a day in the drink and drug-fuelled life of Kerouac's alter ego, Jack Duluoz.

Excerpts will be published in US men's magazine Best Life in July before it is released in its entirety in October.

'Quite different'

The play was rediscovered by Kerouac's agent, Sterling Lord, who said Kerouac had sent it to several producers but without success.

Mr Lord said The Children's Hour screenwright Lillian Hellman and actor Marlon Brando had turned down the chance to help turn Beat Generation into a film.

He said Kerouac eventually asked him to shelve the play, so he filed it away in a warehouse where it remained for almost 50 years.

He told US newspaper the New York Post the play "conveys the mood of the time extraordinarily well", adding the characters were "authentically drawn".

It is due to be released as a book by US publisher Thunders Mouth Press.

Read in the online BBC News UK Edition.

Links
Thunders Mouth Press
BBC News UK Edition