in July 1945 set the tone for much of their volatile relationship. "I am a Jew," he wrote. "I am an exile from myself." He described himself as "ugly and imperfect," lacking Kerouac's "natural grace," and he added, "You are an American more completely than I." (p.10) In this letter and many that followed, Ginsberg took on the persona of the awkward, self-loathing outsider who was "alien" to himself. From the start, he also made it clear that what he sought in life was "self-aggrandizement." (p.10) How Kerouac reacted to the specifics of this letter he didn't say, though he would often try to persuade Ginsberg that as a Catholic and a French-Canadian whose first language was French he wasn't as "American" as Ginsberg assumed.
from Swans Commentary: Kerouac And Ginsberg: Brothers in the Brotherhood of the Word
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