Par temps de crise et
de doute : identité littéraire. Lettre
à John MacDonald, début avril 43 : « The
pathos in this hospital has convinced me, as it did Hemingway in Italy, that “the
defeated are strongest.” Every one here is defeated, even this “broth of a
Breton.” I have been defeated by the world, with considerable help from my
greatest enemy, myself, and now I am ready to work. I realize the limitations
of my knowledge, and the irregularity of my intellect. Knowledge and
intellection serve a Tolstoi—but a Tolstoi must be older, must see more as well—and
I am not going to be a Tolstoi. Surely, I will be a Kerouac, whatever that
suggests. Knowledge comes with time… »
(Kerouac, Selected Letters, p. 56).
