Lot 209

Kerouac, Jack

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

ink and paper

Postcard TLS ("Jack Kerouac") with corrections in blue ink [Northport, New York, 24 December 1959], to Mr. Roberto Mliggiati [sic] . Toned at edges.

Literature

Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957 - 1969, ed., Ann Charters, 1999

Catalogue Note

If the criticism is "Where are you going?" the answer is "We will get there."

Sent on Christmas Eve, 1959 from Northport, New York, where Kerouac was in hiding from his new celebrity status, this postcard responds to fan Roberto Muggiati, who had had recently published an article about the beat generation in a local Brazilian newspaper. Claiming that his Spanish is much stronger than his Portuguese, Kerouac admits having understood about 50% of the article, but manages to express disappointment that Muggiati quoted "other writers with other interests," and insists "that the beat generation is an honest movement." Kerouac also mentions that his friends Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg might travel to Brazil after a planned visit to Chile, where the Communist Party was set to host a literary summit to discuss the revolution in Cuba that put Fidel Castro in power.

Kerouac, keeping up his hip profile, signs off: Salud, hombre.