Kerouac script revived as play

Jack Kerouac, who fathered the Beat Generation with the novel “On the Road,” wrote only one fantasy novel, “Doctor Sax: Faust Part Three,” a metaphysical ode to pulp characters of the 1930s. Doctor Sax, the dark protector of children, was inspired by the Shadow and horror movies of the time -- so much so that Kerouac wrote a screenplay adapting the book, long thought lost until his nephew Jim Sampas uncovered it a couple of years ago.

Sampas, who produced the tribute album “Kerouac -- Kicks Joy Darkness,” discovered the manuscript while examining the author’s archives. He has also assembled a cast of poets and musical artists including Robert Hunter, Jim Carroll, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Graham Parker to perform the script as a radio play, now featured on two CDs accompanying the manuscript called “Doctor Sax and the Great World Snake” (Galley Six, $24.95). The collection features 72 illustrations from artist Richard Sala (“Evil Eye”), whose style echoes ‘30s pulp magazines.

“I didn’t really have to adapt anything at all,” Sala says. “A lot of it had to do with that pulp style, when horror movies were discovering German expressionism. There was this embracing of nonlinear stories ... a lot of Dutch angles, and shadows.”

Now that the project is finished, Sampas says he’d like to shop the script in Hollywood. “I definitely want to get it made into a film, but I see it as an animated film,” he says.