Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame

Black Sparrow Press. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Association copy, not signed, but from the library of Edith (Edie) Kerouac-Parker, Jack Kerouac's first wife. Notably there is a green-ink handsome holograph of Bukowski's poem "These Things" on page 205, presumably in Edie's hand; the poem is written in its entirety, but without the title (it finishes: "and we see names that once meant / wisdom, like signs into ghost towns, / and only the graves are real.") Laid in are a bookmark from the Grosse Pointe Book Village with a penciled quote from Gregory Corso (Edie was raised in Grosse Pointe, MI, and returned to it); a slip with instructions about growing amaryllis; and an announcement for the publication of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's The Hopper House of Truro from Lospecchio Press. An invoice (not included, but a photocopy can be provided) shows that this book was sold in 1997 with other volumes from Parker's library by the bookseller and Beat archive consultant Bill Morgan in NYC. Edie appears as Judie Smith in Kerouac's novel The Town and the City, as Elly in Visions of Cody, as Edna "Johnnie" Palmer in Vanity of Duluoz, and as herself in "The Original Scroll"--the unedited edition of On the Road. Her memoir You'll Be Okay: My Life with Jack Kerouac was published posthumously in 2007 by City Lights. Very good plus because of sunning to spine and a few light stains to orange wraps. An interesting copy.