Jan Kerouac

{{ infobox writer

| name = Jan Kerouac

| image = Jan Kerouac 1983.jpg

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| caption = Kerouac in 1983

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| birth_name = Janet Michelle Kerouac

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1952|02|16}}

| birth_place = Albany, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|06|05|1952|02|16}}

| death_place = Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.

| resting_place = Saint Louis De Gonzague Cemetery

| occupation = Writer

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| relatives = Jack Kerouac
Joan Haverty Kerouac

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Janet Michelle "Jan" Kerouac (February 16, 1952 – June 5, 1996) was an American writer and the only child of beat generation author Jack Kerouac and Joan Haverty Kerouac.

Early life and career

Janet Michelle Kerouac was born a few months after her parents separated. Jack Kerouac met his daughter for the first time when she was ten years old, when he took a blood test to prove or disprove his paternity. Jan only met him once more, when she visited him at his home in Lowell, Massachusetts.{{cite web |last1=Viren |first1=Sarah |title=Writing with Jack Kerouac, Ghost Father |url=https://lithub.com/writing-with-jack-kerouac-ghost-father/ |website=Lit Hub |date=20 March 2018 |access-date=16 March 2021}}

In 1964, Jan Kerouac was briefly in a girl group called The Whippets.{{cite web |title=Lost in the Grooves: The Secret History of the Whippets, a NYC girl group |url=https://lostinthegrooves.blogspot.com/2005/12/secret-history-of-whippets-nyc-girl.html |website=Lost in the Grooves |access-date=16 March 2021 |date=12 December 2005}} The group, which consisted of Kerouac, Charlotte Rosenthal, and Bibbe Hansen, released one single, "I Want to Talk to You," a song response to the song "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The B-side, "Go Go Go with Ringo," also reflected the Beatlemania of the time. The single did not chart or get much airplay, and the Whippets broke up.{{cite web |last=Bright |first=Kimberly J. |title=The Whippets: Beck's mother and Jack Kerouac's daughter were in a '60s girl group |url=https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_whippets_becks_mother_and_jack_kerouacs_daughter_were_in_a_60s_girl_gro |website=DangerousMinds.net |date=26 January 2013 |access-date=8 June 2024}}

Jan Kerouac lived much of her early life in poverty, sometimes turning to prostitution to survive.{{cite web |last1=Moore |first1=Judith |title=Anybody Who Saw Jan Kerouac Knew She Was Jack's Daughter {{!}} San Diego Reader |url=https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1997/jun/26/anybody-who-saw-jan-kerouac-knew-she-was-jacks-dau/ |website=San Diego Reader |date=26 June 1997 |access-date=16 March 2021 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126033402/https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1997/jun/26/anybody-who-saw-jan-kerouac-knew-she-was-jacks-dau/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 January 2019}} She traveled widely, living in South America, Europe, and many different cities in the United States.

Lawsuit

Encouraged by Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia, she entered into a lawsuit in the 1990s that proposed the will of Jack's mother, Gabrielle Kerouac, was a forgery, in the hope winning could expand her legal rights to her father's works and physical property. Eventually a court ruled that the will was a forgery, although in practical terms this ruling changed nothing concerning control of the Kerouac estate.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6396321/The-battle-for-Jack-Kerouacs-estate.html|title=The battle for Jack Kerouac's estate|last=Brown|first=Mick|date=2009-10-28|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2019-03-06|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}

Novels

Kerouac published three semi-autobiographical novels, Baby Driver: A Story About Myself in 1981,{{Cite book|title=The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry|last=Kaufman|first=Alan|publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press|year=1999|isbn=1560252278|pages=[https://archive.org/details/outlawbibleofame00alan/page/660 660]|quote=She is the author of two novels, Baby Driver and Trainsong, published before her death to wide critical praise.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/outlawbibleofame00alan/page/660}}Brenda Knight Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the 1998 1573241385 Two of her autobiographical novels, Baby Driver and Trainsong, are similar to the narrative style that her father employed, but Jan Kerouac seems to be able to detach herself from her circumstances more than her father was able to and writes ... Trainsong in 1988 and posthumously published Parrot Fever in 2005.{{Cite book |title=Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact |editor-last=Lawlor |editor-first=William |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |date=20 May 2005 |isbn=9781851094059 |page=185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6fOEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Jan+Kerouac%22+%22Parrot+Fever%22+%222000%22&pg=PA185 |access-date=8 June 2024}}

Death

On June 5, 1996, Kerouac died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a day after her spleen was removed. She had suffered kidney failure five years earlier and was on dialysis.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/08/arts/jan-kerouac-44-the-novelist-and-daughter-of-a-beat-icon.html?pagewanted=1|title=Jan Kerouac, 44, the Novelist And Daughter of a Beat Icon|date=June 8, 1996|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=April 2, 2010}}

Filmography

The Beat Generation: An American Dream (1988){{cite web |last1=Viren |first1=Sarah |title=Janet Forman & Regina Weinreich – Beat Generation: An American Dream (ASV #33) |url=https://allenginsberg.org/2012/04/janet-forman-regina-weinreich-beat-generationan-american-dream-asv-33/ |website=allenginsberg.org |date=21 April 2012 |access-date=8 June 2024}}
What Happened to Kerouac? (1986){{cite web |title=What Happened to Kerouac? |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/what_happened_to_kerouac |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=8 June 2024}}

Bibliography

= Books by Kerouac =

{{Cite book|title=Baby Driver: A Story About Myself|last=Kerouac|first=Jan|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1981|isbn=0030625386|edition=1st|location=New York City}}
{{Cite book|title=Baby Driver: A Story About Myself|last=Kerouac|first=Jan|date=June 22, 1998|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=1560251840|edition=Expanded|location=Boston, Massachusetts}}
{{Cite book|title=Trainsong|last=Kerouac|first=Jan|date=August 14, 1998|publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press|isbn=1560251654}}
{{Cite book|title=Trainsong|last=Kerouac|first=Jan|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|year=1988|edition=1|location=New York City}}
{{Cite book|title=Parrot Fever|last=Kerouac|first=Jan|publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press|year=2000|isbn=1560252081}} Written in 1992–1993, and published posthumously.

= Books about Kerouac =

{{Cite book|title=Jan Kerouac: A Life In Memory|last=Nicosia|first=Gerald|publisher=Noodlebrain Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0615245546}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.citylights.com/info/?fa=event&event_id=786|title=Jan Kerouac: A Life In Memory|date=October 7, 2009|website=City Lights Books|language=EN|access-date=2019-03-06}}