LOWELL – UMass Lowell, through its Center for Lowell History and the Jack and Stella Kerouac Center for the Public Humanities, is proud to announce the acquisition of the Curt Worden and Gloria Bailen-Worden “Kerouac’s Big Sur” Documentary Archive.
This significant gift strengthens UMass Lowell’s leadership in Kerouac studies and highlights Jack Kerouac’s enduring influence on American literature, music and popular culture.
The new archive stems from the making of “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur” (2008), an acclaimed documentary film chronicling Kerouac’s reckoning with fame through the lens of his searing novel “Big Sur” (1962), which he wrote in the wake of the fantastic success of “On the Road” (1957).
UMass Lowell will host a free screening of the documentary, to be followed by a discussion led by the filmmakers, at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 8. The event will be held at O’Leary Library, 61 Wilder St., Lowell, on the university’s South Campus. Free parking will be available in the Wilder Faculty/Staff lot across the street.
“This film is arguably the best Jack Kerouac documentary to date,” said Jim Sampas, literary executor of the Estate of Jack Kerouac and a producer on the film. “‘Big Sur’ is Kerouac’s bravest work – a poetic yet unflinching account of an artist baring his soul, revealing the extreme price he paid for fame and offering his experience as a cautionary tale. For this reason, it has resonated with generations of poets, writers and musicians, enabling us to put together an extraordinary array of artists testifying to its depth and influence.”
The collection features approximately 30 long-form, filmed interviews with Beat luminaries such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and Carolyn Cassady; major American authors including Sam Shepard and S. E. Hinton; iconic musicians Tom Waits and Patti Smith; as well as members of a younger generation of performers, Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard. In addition to these and other interviews, the archive contains production outtakes, photographs, business records, original music recordings, promotional posters and other rare materials, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the documentary and its deep engagement with Kerouac’s legacy.
Curt Worden, director of “One Fast Move or I’m Gone,” and producer Gloria Bailen-Worden created and curated the materials and have now entrusted them to the university’s permanent Jack Kerouac Archive, housed at the Center for Lowell History and open to the public.
“This film is a testament to the work of a great artist, but also a testament to his long and broad legacy through American writing, music and popular culture,” said English and American Studies Associate Professor Michael Millner, director of the Jack and Stella Kerouac Center for the Public Humanities at UMass Lowell.
Paul Marion, editor of “Atop an Underwood,” a collection of Kerouac’s early writings, and a contributor to the film, added, “As much as the documentary aspect of the film is outstanding, the original music composed and performed takes this project to a high cultural orbit. The chorus of significant figures from the immediate and after-effect Beat worlds gives the audience a rounded understanding of Jack Kerouac in the West – San Francisco, Big Sur and the wider region.”
The Curt Worden and Gloria Bailen-Worden “Kerouac’s Big Sur” Documentary Archive now joins the larger Jack Kerouac Archive at UMass Lowell. Comprising 16 distinct collections, the Kerouac Archive includes literary manuscripts, personal correspondence, sound recordings, interviews, photographs, publishing records and cultural artifacts illuminating Kerouac’s life, his roots in Lowell’s French-Canadian community and his profound impact on American culture.
“We are thrilled to have the University of Massachusetts Lowell as stewards of this trove of materials honoring Kerouac’s literary legacy,” said Worden and Bailen-Worden. “This permanent home provides an important resource for research, education, appreciation and preservation of the Kerouac ethos benefiting scholars, students and the public from around the world.”
For more information, visit the Jack Kerouac Archive at UMass Lowell.
