Letter to Alan Harrington (23 April 1949) published in Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 1 1940-1956 (1996)
Source: Selected Letters, 1940-1956
“Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Know what I mean?”
“And then a light winked like an eye.
. . . And very many miles away”
Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage
Context: p>Was it not better so to lie?
The fight was done. Even gods tire
Of fighting... My way was the wrong.
Now I should drift and drift along
To endless quiet, golden peace...
And let the tortured body cease.And then a light winked like an eye.
... And very many miles away
A girl stood at a warm, lit door,
Holding a lamp. Ray upon ray
It cloaked the snow with perfect light.
And where she was there was no night
Nor could be, ever. God is sure,
And in his hands are things secure.</p
“To follow foolish precedents, and wink with both eyes, is easier than to think.”
Source: Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988), Chapter 3, “Pseudoscience” (p. 67; quoting William Cowper)
“The eye in his hand winked at him dourly. Eye was a tough old gump, not given to easy enthusiasms.”
Comments on Roadstrum speaking to the pickled eye he carries in his pocket, in Ch. 8
Space Chantey (1968)
Context: The eye in his hand winked at him dourly. Eye was a tough old gump, not given to easy enthusiasms. Roadstrum put it back in his pocket and once more contemplated his good fortune.
“This will make widows wince. But fictive things
Wink as they will. Wink most when widows wince.”
"A High-Toned Old Christian Woman" (1922)
“Life passes by in a wink so try to never miss a moment of it.”
