Door Wide Open
A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957-1958
A “wonderful” (The New York Times Book Review) and unique collection of love letters between Joyce Johnson and Jack Kerouac
“A touching commentary not only on the Beat Generation but on what it’s like to be a young woman who loves a gifted, troubled guy with other things—besides love—on his mind.”—Elle
On a blind date in Greenwich Village set up by Allen Ginsberg, Joyce Johnson (then Joyce Glassman) met Jack Kerouac in January 1957, nine months before he became famous overnight with the publication of On the Road. She was an adventurous, independent-minded twenty-one-year-old; Kerouac was already running on empty at thirty-five.
Door Wide Open, containing the many letters the two of them wrote to each other, reveals a surprisingly tender side…