First published in 1978, Jack's Book gives us an intimate look into the life and times of the 'King of the Beats.' Through the words of the close friends, lovers, artists, and drinking buddies who survived him, writers Barry Gifford and Lawrence Lee recount Jack Kerouac's story, from his childhood in Lowell, Massachusetts, to his tragic end in Florida at the age of forty-seven. Including anecdotes from an eclectic list of well-known figures such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Gore Vidal, as well as Kerouac's ordinary acquaintances, this groundbreaking oral biography—the first of its kind—presents us with a remarkably insightful portrait of an American legend and the spirit of a generation.

“I saw Sailor and Lula in love in the middle of a crazy, violent, wild world, and I wanted to go on that trip with them. . . . It’s like looking into the Garden of Eden before things went bad.”—David Lynch

“A dark and comic ride through a fantasy America that rings desperately true.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Gifford sketches marvelous characters as deftly as William Faulkner and animates them in scene after scene of hilarious dialogue. . . . Barry Gifford continues to be one of America’s most original writers.”—Playboy

On the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Barry Gifford’s international bestseller Wild at Heart, as well as on the anniversary of the Cannes Palme d’Or–winning film adaptation by director David Lynch, Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels presents all seven of the novels and novellas that comprise the saga of Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace Fortune, “the Romeo and Juliet of the South”: Wild at Heart, Perdita Durango (also made into a feature film), Sailor’s Holiday, Sultans of Africa, Consuelo’s Kiss, Bad Day for the Leopard Man, and The Imagination of the Heart.

The author of more than forty published works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that have been translated into twenty-eight languages, Barry Gifford is one of the few contemporary American writers whose characters are familiar to audiences around the world. Gifford lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Revolution is simmering in the heat of the battered Central American town Port Tropique, where protagonist Franz Hall is an “intellectual Meursault in a paranoid Hemingway landscape, a self-conscious Conradian adventurer, a Lord Jim in the earliest stages of self-willed failure” (The New York Times). The ineff ectual hero spends his days drinking and observing people in the zócalo and occasional nights involved in an ivory-smuggling operation threatened by impending government siege, yet always persistent are memories of Marie and what was lost. In this sinuous narrative of dislocation and remorse, Barry Gifford details Franz's mundanity and the bizarre cast of characters swirling around him.

The author of more than forty published works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, Barry Gifford is an American writer in the European tradition, and one of the few contemporary American writers whose characters are familiar to audiences around the world.

“DelRay and Ava can’t avoid the violence that surrounds them (nor do they always want to), but, in Gifford’s hands, their troubles are elevated to a gritty, visceral poetry of the marginalized.”—Publishers Weekly

“A palpable sense of toughened nostalgia wafts through the pages . . . The ghosts of Gifford’s muses, Sailor and Lula, and their fiery dialogue are everywhere . . . Gifford provides . . . ecstatic highs.”—Kirkus Reviews

The Sinaloa Story tells of DelRay Mudo and Ava Varazo, two down-and-outs looking for a reasonable life and maybe even a little redemption in a corrupt and violent world. Ava is a Mexican prostitute, beautiful and no victim of circumstance. When DelRay falls in love with her at the drive-in whorehouse where she is the prize, she seizes the chance to break free. They take off for Sinaloa, Texas, the lone-dog state where “nothin’ good ever happens.” The host of far-out border flunkies they meet—Thankful Priest, the one-eyed former football player; Indio Desacato, Ava’s pimp and a small-town racketeer; Arkadelphia Quantrill Smith, an octogenarian whose father marched with Shelby in the Iron Brigade; and many others—fill out the sinister and electrifying ride.

Barry Gifford is the author of over 40 published works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, including Wild at Heart, Wyoming, The Rooster Trapped in the Reptile Room: A Barry Gifford Reader and Do the Blind Dream?.