On the Road: Mill Valley
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On the Road: Mill Valley, California
On the Road: Mill Valley, California
Labels: California, Google map, Jack Kerouac, map, Mill Valley, On the Road
posted by Michael L. Hess | 11:05 AM
3 Comments:
Mill City as described in On the Road (OTR) is undoubtedly Marin City (MC), the name being a typical Kerouac conflation of "Marin City" and "Mill Valley."
MC's population was nearly all African American until around the end of the 1980s, when real estate values got so high in Marin that developers started to put up houses on the hills above MC proper.
Many blacks moved from the South during WWII to work in Sausalito's shipyards and other war enterprises. Barracks-style housing was constructed during the war to accommodate them. Many stayed on after the war.
I don't believe Kerouac had met Snyder when he wrote OTR. If you want details of that meeting of the minds, read Dharma Bums.
I grew up across the street from the shack Snyder lived in. THAT was in Homestead Valley, an unincorporated area west of Mill Valley. Snyder's character is named Japhy Ryder.
Thanks for your comment and clearing up some mysteries.
Thank you. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where this was. Lived in the Bay Area my entire life. I used to live in Hunters Point but did t know if there were ever shacks there.
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