Summary Information
Abstract
Novelist and member of the Beat Generation. The collection includes a small
amount of correspondence, manuscript material and ephemera by and relating to Jack
Kerouac.
At a Glance
| Call No.: | MS#0708 |
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| Bib ID: | 4078982 View CLIO record |
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| Creator(s): | Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969. |
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| Title: | Jack Kerouac
Papers
1945-1971.
|
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| Physical description: | .5 linear ft. (1 document box)
|
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| Language(s): | Material is in English.
|
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| Access: |
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
More information » |
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Arrangement
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in II series:
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Description
Scope and Content
This is a collection of material related to Jack Kerouac pulled together from various
sources and donors. It includes correspondence and ephemera as well as manuscripts of
small poems and prose fragments and proofs of
Desolation
Angels
and
Tristessa.
Series I: Correspondence, 1945-1971
This series consists of letters sent to Kerouac by friends and associates, as well as letters sent by Kerouac to fans and admirers. This series also consists of a few letters about the author sent to and from Kerouac’s family and acquaintances. These include 35 letters of William Burroughs to Jack Kerouac which deal with his daily life and thoughts in Louisiana, Mexico, and Morocco, with his writings and those of Kerouac, and with their mutual friends including Allen Ginsberg. Several examples of Burroughs' experimental prose are included.
Series II: Manuscripts and Miscellaneous, 1960-1965 and undated
This series consists of a small number of manuscripts of Kerouac’s poetry and prose fragments as well as proofs of two of Kerouac's novels,
Desolation Angels
and
Tristessa.
This series also includes clippings and reviews and some of Kerouac's published work. It includes
Big Table
1 which contains the first installment of Kerouac's "Old Angel Midnight" as well as
Evergreen Review
no.33 which contains the second installment. There is also a memorial portrait of Kerouac by Robert LaVigne
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Using the Collection
RBML
Access Restrictions
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material
from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University
Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to
publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission
rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Jack Kerouac Papers; Box and Folder;
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Related Material-- At Columbia
William S.
Burroughs Papers
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia
University
Related Material-- Other Repositories
Jack
Kerouac Papers, 1920-1977, bulk (1935-1969).
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg
Collection of English and American Literature New York Public Library
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About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries. Rare Book and
Manuscript Library; machine readable finding aid created by Columbia University
Libraries Digital Library Program Division
Processing Information
Cataloged 07/--/89 Christina Hilton Fenn
Processed 03/--/2010 Carrie Hintz
Finding aid written 03/--/2010 Carrie Hintz
Machine readable finding aid generated from MARC-AMC source via XSLT conversion
March 11, 2010
Finding aid written in English.
2010-03-11
xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz
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Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.
Additional Creators
| Heading | CUL Archives:
Portal | CUL Collections:
CLIO | Nat'l / Int'l Archives:
ArchiveGRID |
|---|
| Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
Genre/Form
Subjects
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History / Biographical Note
Biographical Note
Jack Kerouac, born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, was born in
1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts to French Canadian parents. Kerouac spent much of his
youth engaged in sports and other physical activities. His athletic prowess earned him a
football scholarship to Columbia University where he matriculated in 1940, but he left
Columbia in the Fall of 1941 after sustaining an injury that left him unable to play
football.
Upon leaving the University Kerouac joined the Merchant Marine
and later the US Navy, but retained close ties to members of the Columbia community. He
lived on Manhattan's Upper West Side with his girlfriend, later first wife, Barnard
student Edie Parker and her friend Joan Vollmer. It was through Parker that Kerouac met
Columbia students Allen Ginsberg and Lucien Carr and their friends William Burroughs and
Herbert Huncke. This group of friends and writers which would later form the nucleus of
the Beat Generation, was the inspiration for much of Kerouac's work.
Kerouac married Edie Parker in 1944 and moved with her to her
home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, but their marriage lasted less than a year. Upon the
annulment of the marriage, Kerouac returned to New York and his bohemian friends and
began to write the novel which would become
The Town and the
City
-- this novel, Kerouac's first, was published in 1950 to mild acclaim.
Kerouac's next novel,
On the
Road
proved to be much more commercially and critically successful. This
novel, published in 1957 documents a trip Kerouac took across the US and Northern Mexico
with Neal Cassady. This fictionalized account of Kerouac and his friends introduced the
beats to America solidified the image of the beatnik with his interest in sexual
freedom, jazz, and drug use in the popular imagination.
Though Kerouac's goal had long been to be a writer, the
success of
On the Road
never sat entirely well with its
author. Kerouac continued to write his thinly veiled autobiographical novels chronicling
his bohemian, literary circle of friends, but in his personal life he began to pull away
from the public eye and distance himself from his Beat Generation associated. He moved
to Northport, Long Island to care for his aging parents and growing more personally and
politically conservative.
Kerouac died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1969.
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