John Suiter

This is a fantastic book, I am very glad I found a copy. Much of the material will be familiar to readers of Snyder and Kerouac, but Suiter adds his first hand experiences in the same locations. The photographs really add to the history. It is heartbreaking, in retrospect, to read Kerouac in his (last) sober reflections, as he came down from the Desolation fire lookout to fame, and his unwanted transition to icon or token.

This book captures something of the early beat generation experience. I found that it tied together much of the writing of people like snyder and Kerouac which I'd read and liked in past years.