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Jack Kerouac

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
Jack Kerouac

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Auction Date:2018 May 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS signed “Jack,” one page, 8.25 x 10.75, December 18, 1961. Letter to Lois Sorrells, in part (spelling and grammar retained): “Me’s weary, it's now 4 in the mawnin and I've been typing up to 35 pages of manuscript of Big Sur novel…Drop me one of yr sweet poetic notes soon, I'm lonely… I’ll be back in NY i expect in Janurary or February…when I’m going to show that bitch up for what she is. Ingrate indeed. I only hope her Puerto Rican fuckass aint got the same type blood I have. There are 6 kinds: A, B, D, O, negative B, negative D, see?…The reason why I haven’t asked you to marry me, honey sweet, is because I’m well apprised of what legal marriages end up with…I’ve had two of them…My first wife was a doll…Even you could turn against me in legal marriage…I think that way…K’s been fucked up…Fucking aside, I like you for you tho…But you should never again run down the street to yr therapist knocking down innocent women’s bags and papers and bump into handsome polite Negro students, hear me?…Like you done on my campus. Even Lucien and I were kinder than that…If you’re so allfired het up about getting rid of guilt first get RID of guilt by not sinning against the innocents…And if you think I’m wrong, read THE POSSESSED Again…by Dostoevsky.” He adds several notes in the margins in both ballpoint and pencil, including: “I can do anything I want in chalk—But oil? Argh!”; “Just a note, like a Kissiboo—forget it”; “(Be my friend)”; and, referring to The Possessed, “Sometime translated as ‘The Devils.’” In fine condition, with intersecting folds and light soiling.

In this rambling letter Kerouac touches upon several significant events in his life and career, most notably the writing of Big Sur. Based largely on his own life and experiences, the novel would be released the following September. He also launches into a tirade about his ex-wife, Joan Haverty, who had been pregnant at the time of their divorce and insisted the child was Kerouac’s, despite his fervent claims otherwise. The issue was not resolved until around the time of a paternity test—thus the mention of all the blood types—that proved Kerouac was the father and resulted in a weekly support payment. He finally concludes with a reference to Dostoyevsky, one of his favorite authors and most important influences—Kerouac’s novella The Subterraneans was consciously modeled after Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. Excellent overall content in a letter representative of Kerouac’s stream-of-consciousness writing style.