Jack Kerouac

What an amazing coincidence. Not one but two ‘lost’ works by revered writers have been relaunched this week. Alison Flood reports in the Guardian that Jack Kerouac’s first novel, The Sea is My Brother, written when he was in the merchant navy, is to be published in full for the first time. The honour falls to Harper in the US; the UK is lagging behind, with no word yet on who will buy it. Penguin has mooted an interest and it’s difficult to believe that others will be far behind: at a time when publishers are chasing established authors whilst trying to maintain the illusion of daring, whose work could be more suitable?

Did you know that Ted Hughes wrote a play in free verse called The Story of Vasco? No? Nor did anyone else. The play, which is based on a 1957 play by Georges Schehade, was commissioned by someone at Sadlers Wells in the early 70s: it was supposed to be made into an opera but only half of Hughes’s work was used. After it was staged in 1974, the play languished in obscurity, where it would have remained if it hadn’t been for the tenacity of theatre director Adrian Barnes. (He’s British, of course.) According to this BBC story, Barnes found evidence in the British Library that the opera was based on Hughes’ full text. He tracked down the composer, Gordon Crosse, who confirmed his theory. Crosse must have been unaware of the poet’s luminous status, because he threw the manuscript away when he had finished with it. Undaunted, Barnes approached the librarians at Emory University, where Hughes’ archive is kept. There, he struck gold. The Story of Vasco opens at the Richmond Theatre on March 25th. (Note to people who don’t know London that well: Richmond is a posh suburb, nowhere near the West End but very nice for a stroll.)