Poets on the Peaks

I just finished book #15 of 2005, Poets on the Peaks by John Suiter. Poets is a historical account of Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac, focusing primarily on the summers of 1952-1956 when the poets were serving as fire watchers on mountains in the North Cascades (Desolation Peak, Crater Mountain, Sourdough Mountain, and Sauk Mountain). The book also focuses on the development of the beat poet community during this time and each man's fascination with Buddhism and the pursuit of Dharma.

The whole book is very interesting, but to me the most exciting parts were the sections dealing with Kerouac. In the summer of 1956 Kerouac spent 63 days in a 14' x 14' look out on Desolation Peak, mostly in complete isolation. His experiences later resulted in much of the work found in The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels.

Much of the action in the book takes place in Washington state, so if you're familiar at all with Washington's geography, you'll run into lots of familiar places. All of the mountains the men spent time on are located in Washington and each of the poets spent significant time in Seattle. Philip Whalen even lived on Roosevelt Way, just a few blocks from where I live now!