ID 1108785
Lot 56 | Kerouac, Jack | The Dharma Bums, inscribed to his mother and her two cats
The Dharma Bums. New York: The Viking Press, 1958
8vo. Light dampstaining to a few leaves, with associated light cockling to some sheets. Original black cloth; covers slightly bowed and soiled from dampstaining. Pictorial dust jacket; rubbed. In a quarter black morocco slipcase.
First edition. A remarkable presentation copy, inscribed not only to the author’s mother, Gabrielle “Gabe” Kerouac, but also to her two cats on the front free endpaper: “To Ma–& Timmy–& Tyke / A third adventure to pay for the house, the cat food, the brandy & the peaceful sleep / From Dharma Bum Jack / Ti Jean XXXX / Ma, you're on pages 132, 133, 148 / Little Paul on pages 140 / Big Paul 143-144.” The two Pauls referred to in the inscription are Paul Blake, husband of Kerouac's sister Caroline, and his son.
Kerouac’s inscription references his hopes that sales of The Dharma Bums would allow him to pay off the mortgage on his Northport home, “thinking this would make it easier for him and his mother to sell the Long Island house and move to Florida.” The novel was published on the 2nd of October, and by the end of the month he was disappointed that the novel had not made The New York Times best-seller list. He soon advised his agent Sterling Lord to make moves to place a forthcoming book for a large advance. At this same time, with his mother away visiting his sister Caroline, Kerouac wrote to Allen Ginsberg and described his “harried” existence at home without Mémêre (see Selected Letters 1957-1969, p. 181).
“Gabe had only a fifth-grade education but she had narrative and descriptive powers. Sometimes Jack even compared her storytelling to Dostoevsky’s. As she built up the picture of Jack’s selfless little mother valiantly holding down the fort at home, weaving a rag rug for his return like Penelope waiting for Odysseus, Gabe had an excellent instinct for when to bring in the pathos in case he was enjoying himself too much...” (Joyce Johnson, The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac, NY: Viking, 2012, p. 248). Gabrielle Kerouac’s Catholicism was central to Kerouac’s development, but so too were her flaws. And she often reminded him of the promise he had made to his father that he would care for her. It was a promise that he kept, despite his incessant travel, as he always returned home to memere. He and his wife Stella were living with her in St. Petersburg, Florida when he died in 1969. In the last letter included in his Selected Letters, sent to his nephew Paul (mentioned in the inscription here), Kerouac wrote: “This is Uncle Jack. I’ve turned over my entire estate, real, personal, and mixed, to Mémêre, and if she dies before me, it is then turned to you, and if I die thereafter, it all goes to you… Mémêre is saying: ‘The last letter I wrote you I asked you for a reply and you still haven’t replied. I’m very proud of you, my little blond boy, because of your work for your country… I love you, and I’m lonely. I’d like to see you because it makes me renew the instincts I had with your Ma.’ [Signed] Jack (& Mémêre).” In life, death, and all of his literary works, Jack Kerouac was indelibly tied to his mother and family.
One of Gabrielle’s letters to Jack illuminates the nature of their bond: “Honey, I'm still not able to realize that you have left me for good. I keep searching the Boulevard looking out the window for hours thinking I'll see you come walking and waving to me. I dare say I miss you a lot now and more so now that I know you don't belong to me anymore but that's life and sooner or later I'll get used to the idea. I hope you will be very happy, Honey, and that nothing will ever stop you from being a great Man. With the help of your new Mother and a good Wife you should become a great writer” (Women of the Beat Generation).
Very rare inscribed. No other inscribed copy of the first edition of The Dharma Bums has appeared at auction, according to records. A copy of the first English edition inscribed to Lucien Carr and his wife Cessa was sold in these rooms in 2003, and Christie’s New York sold a copy in 2005 signed (but not inscribed to an individual) by Kerouac and a cast of other Beat figures. These are the only loosely related comparables found in the auction records since the book’s publication.
A more biographically poignant association hardly can be imaged.
| Artist: | Jack Kerouac (1922 - 1969) |
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| Auction house category: | Prints, graphics, books |
| Artist: | Jack Kerouac (1922 - 1969) |
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| Auction house category: | Prints, graphics, books |
| Address of auction |
Sotheby´s 1334 York Avenue 10021 New York USA | ||||||||||||||
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| Auction date | 08.12.2023 |
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| Lot number | 56 |
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| Auction house | Sotheby´s |
| Auction date | 08.12.2023 |