Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Ed White; "Well, boy, guess what? I sold my novel - photo 1
Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Ed White; "Well, boy, guess what? I sold my novel - photo 2
Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Ed White; "Well, boy, guess what? I sold my novel - photo 3

Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Ed White; "Well, boy, guess what? I sold my novel

Lot 43
08.12.2023 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 7 000
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1108762
Lot 43 | Kerouac, Jack | Autograph letter signed to Ed White; "Well, boy, guess what? I sold my novel
Estimate value
$ 7 000 – 10 000
Kerouac, Jack
Autograph letter signed ("Bet-a-thousand Kerouac") to Ed White in Paris, announcing the sale of his first novel, The Town and the City

2 pages (279 x 213 mm) on two leaves (three-hole punched), [Ozone Park], 29 March 1949, original typed envelope with three autograph emendations, postmarked Jamaica, NY; some light wear and separation along folds.

Kerouac gets published.

In March 1949, four years after starting to write The Town and the City, Kerouac succeeded in finding a publisher at Harcourt Brace. Robert Giroux liked the manuscript and gave Kerouac a $1,000 advance for the book (reacting to this in the letter, Kerouac exclaims "mad?—I tell you it's mad. mad?—me mad? Heh heh heh."). Kerouac and Giroux got on well initially, and Kerouac speaks highly of him in this letter—"a fine young man...who read my novel (it almost seems) with my eyes." He remarks upon the financial security and what it means for his family and future with glistening optimism. Unfortunately, having extensively revised the novel with Giroux until late 1949, and having published the novel following further delays in March 1950, it received bad reviews and sold poorly. Giroux rejected Kerouac's successive novels and their good relationship subsequently spoiled.

Kerouac goes on to ask after Ed in France and expresses a desire to visit. He imagines a perfect day with Ed in Paris: "That's for me—to sit in a Baroque park, at red dusk, in Paris, watching the amazingly charming children play, with you."

Kerouac signs off with a jovial flourish—

"I command you, as King of the Thousand Dollars, to write me a long and informative epistle, sirs. Bet-a-thousand Kerouac."
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