' has brought to life what history may ultimately judge to have been minor characters, but who were to her own generation major enough to shape its consciousness.' -The New York Times 'A first-rate memoir, very beautiful, very sad.' -E.L. What Johnson and other Beat Generation women would discover were the risks, the heartache and the heady excitement of trying to live as freely as the rebels they loved. It was a woman's adventure and a fast education in life. Joyce had longed to go on the road with him instead she got a front seat at a cultural revolution under attack from all sides made new friends like Hettie and LeRoi Jones, and found herself fighting to keep the shy, charismatic, tormented Kerouac from destroying himself. She was 21 and had started her first novel when Allen Ginsberg introduced her to Jack Kerouac nine months later she was with Kerouac when the publication of On the Road made him famous overnight. As a teenager, Johnson stole down to Greenwich Village to sing folksongs in Washington Square. But secret rebels, like Joyce and her classmate Elise Cowen, refused to accept things as they were.

Attitudes like that were not at all unusual at a time when 'good' women didn't leave home or have sex before they married even those who broke the rules could merely expect to be minor characters in the dramas played by men. Johnson captures this period with deep clarity and moving insight.' - Dwight Garner, The New York Times In 1954, Joyce Johnson's Barnard professor told his class that most women could never have the kinds of experiences that would be worth writing about. Named one of the 50 best memoirs of the past 50 years by The New York Times Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award 'Among the great American literary memoirs of the past century.

Minor characters by joyce johnson