Pull My Daisy — Jack Kerouac, Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie — 1961 Grove Press Evergreen Original E-294 (First Printing)

Description

This is the first paperback edition of Pull My Daisy, published by Grove Press as an Evergreen Original (E-294) and based on the 1959 short film directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie. Kerouac’s text—improvised narration lifted straight from the recording session—became one of the defining artifacts of Beat cinema. The book reproduces Frank’s photographs from the film and captures the Lower East Side moment when Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, Larry Rivers, and David Amram turned a Bowery loft into holy ground. It’s a landmark document of the Beat Generation moving from page to film to the broader American imagination.

Kerouac’s involvement in the film is now legendary: a single take of voiceover that transformed the footage into a free-flowing, jazz-timed riff only he could deliver. Frank and Leslie’s film remains a pillar of American avant-garde cinema, and the Grove edition functions as its portable archive—complete with Roy Kuhlman’s unmistakable cover design and the visual language that shaped Grove’s iconic 1960s run. A cornerstone for Kerouac collectors, Frank devotees, and anyone charting the crosscurrents of postwar American art.

A fairly sharp first printing of a Beat Generation essential—perfect for any Kerouac, Robert Frank, or Grove Press collector.