Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Alan Harrington; "I start to work.. on my 2nd novel this week. 'On the Road.' I think" - photo 1
Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Alan Harrington; "I start to work.. on my 2nd novel this week. 'On the Road.' I think" - photo 2

Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Alan Harrington; "I start to work.. on my 2nd novel this week. 'On the Road.' I think"

Lot 44
08.12.2023 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 11 430
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1108763
Lot 44 | Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Alan Harrington; "I start to work.. on my 2nd novel this week. 'On the Road.' I think"
Estimate value
$ 10 000 – 12 000
Kerouac, Jack
Autograph letter signed ("Jack") to Alan Harrington, writing after The Town and the City was accepted for publication, and just as he began to draft On the Road

2 pages (306 x 208 mm) densely written on a single leaf of tan paper, [Ozone Park, New York], 23 April 1949; somewhat browned, edges chipped in a few places, not affecting text. Housed in a black cloth clamshell case.

"...I start to work in earnest on my 2nd novel this week. "On the Road." I think.

Kerouac writes during the period shortly after Harcourt, Brace accepted The Town and the City for publication, and just as he is beginning work on On the Road. Harrington was part of Kerouac's literary circle in New York, where he worked as a writer, journalist, and editor. He would appear in On the Road "Hal Hingham," a friend of Sal's [Kerouac's] who moves to Arizona to focus on writing.

In this wide-ranging letter, Kerouac reflects on the bitter-sweetness that accompanies the sale of his first novel, and worries that it has cost him a degree of authenticity: "Work saves all. Work is perhaps more important, the work we do as writers, than what we actually say. Who knows? I'm reminded of this tonight due to the fact that so many of my friends + acquaintances are suddenly in jail, which is not much of a contribution to one's soul... (sometimes.) The total effect of my selling the novel, and many misfortunes befalling these friends, + all the misfortunes of the world, has been to make me go home and sulk over my gold, and make maxims about "work" and the "soul ... I am no longer "beat," I have money, a career. I am more alone than when I 'lurked' on Times Square at 4. A.M., or hitch-hiked penniless down the highways of the night. It's strange. And yet I was never a "rebel," only a happy, sheepish imbecile, open-hearted + silly with joys."

The letter also contains what is, in retrospect, a remarkable irony. On the precipice of writing the novel that would define his career, Kerouac writes to Harrington: "I've nothing to "say" anymore. All I've left is...lies."
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