Mexico City Blues

Mexico City Blues is a long poem by Jack Kerouac, composed of 242 "choruses" or stanzas, which was first published in 1959. Written between 1954 and 1957, the poem is the product of Kerouac's spontaneous prose technique, his Buddhist faith, emotional states, and disappointment with his own creativity—including his failure to publish a novel between 1950's The Town and the City and the more widely acclaimed On the Road (1957). Writing and publication Kerouac began writing the stanzas, or "choruses", that became Mexico City Blues while living in Mexico City with Bill Garver, a friend of William S. Burroughs. Largely written under the influence of cannabis and morphine, the choruses were defined only by the size of Kerouac's notebook page. The poem incorporates multiple textual sources, including direct quotations; three of the choruses (52, 53 and 54) are transcriptions of conversations Kerouac had with Garver, while others variously include onomatopoeia and scenic transcriptions of sounds. The choruses often include references to real figures including Burroughs and Gregory Corso, as well as religious figures and themes. After finishing Mexico City Blues, while still in Mexico City, Kerouac additionally wrote Tristessa. In October 1957, after Kerouac achieved fame with On the Road, he sent Mexico City Blues to City Lights Books in the hopes of publication in their Pocket Poets series. In 1958, after the publication of The Dharma Bums, Kerouac's friend Allen Ginsberg tried to sell the book to Grove Press and New Directions Press; it was eventually published by Grove in November 1959. Critical reception