This website sells back issues of Dharma Beat, a Kerouac-oriented newsletter which was published from 1993 to 1999. Ronnie is listed as a contributor to issues #1 and #4. Perhaps I’ll order them when time allows.
Bob Kealing has written the book about Kerouac in Florida that Ronnie never finished. Margo Hammond reviewed it in the St. Petersburg Times.
It’s available from Amazon: Kerouac In Florida: Where The Road Ends.
Picture and bio of Ronnie (spelled “Ronny” on this site, my guess is they are right and I’m wrong) and his band from the 60’s.
If you were or knew anyone who was part of the many circles of friends and others Ronnie Lowe was involved in, register and share your memories. We can handle pictures, sound files, even videos. It doesn’t have to be about Ron. Many of his acquaintances were remarkable people, and their histories should not be lost.
These are all the articles and reviews by Ronnie that I could find on the St. Petersburg Times website.
There are supposedly other materials elsewhere: manuscripts, pictures, recordings, things he wrote for other publications. If anyone has any of this as a link or in any digital format, feel free to register and publish it here.
These articles are copyrighted by the St. Petersburg Times. I believe Ronnie retained his publication rights to these articles, in part because he republished at least one in a different newspaper. But I do not know who his literary heirs are, and will not copy them until I can clearly get permission to do so.
SKEPTICAL ODYSSEYS: Personal Accounts by the World’s Leading Paranormal Inquirers
Edited by Paul Kurtz: October 28, 2001
AVA’S MAN
By Rick Bragg: September 2, 2001
AMERICAN TERRORIST:
Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma City Bombing
By Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck:
June 2, 2001
I MAY NOT GET THERE WITH YOU: THE TRUE MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
By Michael Eric Dyson:
Feb. 20, 2000
Writer Richard Hill remained cool to the end: Jan. 9, 2000
Jack Kerouac, Selected Letters: Nov. 14, 1999
Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings: Nov. 14, 1999
Why They Kill: Oct. 17, 1999
NO EQUAL JUSTICE
Race and Class in the American Justice System:
Feb. 28, 1999
SUBTERRANEAN KEROUAC
The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac and
JACK KEROUAC, KING OF THE BEATS:
Oct. 4, 1998
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER: Jan 11, 1998
SPEAKING FREELY By Nat Hentoff: Oct, 12, 1997
LIBERAL RACISM: Jul. 13, 1997
TRAIL FEVER By Michael Lewis Knopf: Jun 29, 1997
TAINTED TRUTH The Manipulation of Fact in America By Cynthia Crossen: May 29, 1994
SACRED HONOR, by David Roth and
COLIN POWELL: A Biography, by Howard Means:
Jan. 23, 1994
NEW STORIES FROM THE SOUTH Edited by Shannon Ravenel: Dec. 19, 1993
TELL THEM WHO I AM: THE LIVES OF HOMELESS WOMEN By Elliot Liebow: Sep. 12, 1993
RHYTHM AND THE BLUES A Life in American Music By Jerry Wexler: Aug. 15, 1993
Cruising the old haunts and hangouts: Mar 7, 1993
STROM THURMOND AND THE POLITICS OF SOUTHERN CHANGE By Nadine Cohodas: Feb. 21, 1993
PRESUMED GUILTY The Tragedy of the Rodney King Affair By Sgt. Stacey C. Koon: Nov 15, 1992
THE FORGOTTEN AMERICANS, by John E. Schwarz and Thomas J. Volgy: Nov 1, 1992
Jack Kerouac’s St. Petersburg sojourn: June 7, 1991
Chronicle of Demens’ effort is superb: June 10, 1988
Richard Arvedon kindly sent some scans of Ronnie’s writing in the old Community Liberator. I’ve reduced the size, so most people should be able to download and read them.
Here is Richard’s remembrance of this event. It’s a Word document, perhaps Richard will register and paste it into a post.
This is a site dedicated to the life of writer, musician, and activist Ronald David Lowe, d. Dec. 27, 2001.
I met Ronnie when I was fresh out of high school. He was the unelected leader of our little band of activists, the Liberator collective of 1970-71 or thereabouts.
For the next five years, off and on, we published underground newspapers, organized demonstrations, and generally messed around. We fought against war, racism, capitalism, and among ourselves.
The for a quarter century I had no contact with him.
Then he died.
The Ronnie I knew was the kind of person who would do anything for a friend – lend a car, a gun, all his money, go out in the middle of the night, talk someone down from a high or up from a hangover. He was no saint. His advice could be the the smartest hipster wisdom or the most arrant nonsense. He had a voice you could listen to all night and the stories to make it worthwhile. He was a lot of fun to be around, a lot of the time.
But I only know a small part of what really went on. For the last two years I’ve hosted a small, sad website with a few pages of links. All its content is now in posts on this page. That site was never intended to be. It was a stand-in for what was really supposed to happen- manuscripts, pictures, narratives, other things that people were going to send me, but almost none of that ever happened.
Only one of Ronnie’s friends ever sent me any material, and I haven’t had the time or heart to do anything with it until now.
I hope that is going to change now. If you want to contribute your memories or other things about Ronnie’s life and times, or about the other people who were around St. Petersburg in those days, all you have to do is register and post.
