tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3762638636774570304.post7717826342466115138..comments2023-07-19T07:59:19.354-04:00Comments on A Reading Odyssey: The Sunday QuestionThe Odyssey Bookshophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02069437996395186455noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3762638636774570304.post-57961037468175881382010-05-16T15:45:37.868-04:002010-05-16T15:45:37.868-04:00Ernest Hemingway, Key West. Homestead to countles...Ernest Hemingway, Key West. Homestead to countless felines and a studio office kept precisely the way it was left.<br />http://www.hemingwayhome.com/seekswhitelighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16253094614270625908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3762638636774570304.post-73282422573138264862010-05-16T11:48:54.471-04:002010-05-16T11:48:54.471-04:00My most memorable literary pilgrimage was in 1995 ...My most memorable literary pilgrimage was in 1995 to the Jack Kerouac Commemorative in Lowell, Ma. As a single parent, I often had second jobs to make ends meet and that year I had a part-time job as an inspector of apartments that were subsidized by the state. I loved the freedom to explore obscure communities and to schedule my own time. This job took me to Lowell, the birthplace of the author who egged on my rebellious spirit well past my teens. I was determined to fit in a visit to his memorial. <br />I had two apartment buildings to inspect that day located on opposite ends of the city. Luckily they were owned by the same partnership and the two principles, both businessmen in their 40’s, were inexplicably excited about meeting me at one building and taking me to the other. They were equally (and almost as bafflingly) excited about showing me Lowell. <br />When I told them that I was most interested in seeing the Jack Kerouac Commemorative I really didn’t expect them to know what I was talking about. But they enthusiastically brought me downtown to Kearney Square and the three of us stood, finally in silence, in awe before eight triangular marble columns inscribed with the poetry that is Kerouac’s prose. <br />Allen Ginsberg once said that the commemorative "would remind everybody that there once was a soul." My two escorts seemed as transfixed as I was before the evidence of this unique soul, standing in the heart of this Massachusetts mill town.Elaine Vegahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17338412023610331968noreply@blogger.com