Le Vagabond solitaire
One of 26 copies on vélin pur fil (no. 8), the only deluxe paper.
The smallest print run among the deluxe-paper issues of Kerouac in French translation.
The ascent of Matterhorn Peak, rising to 4,000 meters in the Sierra Nevada, remained the tour de force of The Dharma Bums. Deeply affected by this experience, Kerouac obtained, the following year, through his Buddhist friend Philip Whalen, a post as fire lookout at Desolation Peak.
The collection also includes the famous “Big Trip to Europe,” which opens aboard a cargo ship crossing the Atlantic and takes Kerouac to Tangier, where he spends time with William Burroughs as the latter writes Naked Lunch. Kerouac also recounts his crossing to France and his discovery of Paris, “the most beautiful city in the world,” followed by England.
From his experience as a fire lookout atop Desolation Peak, in a national park in Washington State, Kerouac wrote “Alone on a Mountaintop,” the narrative that sets the tone of Lonesome Traveler, a collection of eight pieces forming a novel of initiation on the theme of wandering.