Editing When I Was Cool (section)

{{Short description|2004 book by Sam Kashner}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title      = <!--(see above)-->
| name              = When I Was Cool
| image             = 
| image_size        = 
| border            = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = 
| author            = Sam Kashner
| audio_read_by     = 
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = 
| series            = 
| release_number    = 
| subject           = 
| genre             = [[Autobiography]]
| set_in            = 
| publisher         = [[HarperCollins]]
| publisher2        = 
| pub_date          = 2004
| english_pub_date  = 
| published         = 
| media_type        = 
| pages             = 
| awards            = 
| isbn              = 
| isbn_note         = 
| oclc              = 
| dewey             = 811.54
| congress          = PS3561.A697
| native_wikisource = 
| wikisource        = 
| notes             = 
| exclude_cover     = 
| website           = 
}}
'''''When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School''''' is [[Sam Kashner]]'s autobiographical account of his experience as the first student at the [[Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics]][http://www.naropa.edu/w&p/], which was founded by [[Allen Ginsberg]] and Anne Waldman in honor of their late friend, [[Jack Kerouac]]. As he describes in his book, Kashner was a disgruntled [[Long Island]] teenager in the 1970s who was obsessed with the poetry and prose of the [[Beat generation]] of the 1950s.

Kashner's book provides a glimpse into the lives and creative processes of his teachers at the Jack Kerouac School, including [[Anne Waldman]], [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[William S. Burroughs]] and [[Gregory Corso]]. Among the various and curious details of life with the Beats, Kashner describes several of Ginsberg's unfinished poems that he asks Kashner to complete. He also recalls the lively conversations at his teachers' dinner parties, which touched on their methodologies as well as [[American Literature]] in general. Kashner also chronicles the lingering effects of [[heroin]] and other drugs on Burroughs and Corso, as well as [[William S. Burroughs, Jr.]]'s alcoholism.

Kashner's book was published by [[HarperCollins]] in 2004 and was reviewed favorably by ''[[The New York Times]]'' the same year.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E7D7133BF936A25751C0A9629C8B63 | work=The New York Times | first=Paul | last=Tough | title=This You Call a College? | date=February 15, 2004}}</ref>