On poor book sales, Babe Rawlins, and Neal Cassady - photo 1
On poor book sales, Babe Rawlins, and Neal Cassady - photo 2

On poor book sales, Babe Rawlins, and Neal Cassady

Lot 216
07.12.2022 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 5 500
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 859735
Lot 216 | On poor book sales, Babe Rawlins, and Neal Cassady
Estimate value
$ 7 000 – 10 000
KEROUAC, Jack (1922-1969). Autograph letter signed (“J”) to Ed White, 3 November [1950]. Unpublished.

Octavo. Single leaf; both sides; pencil. With envelope addressed in type, postmarked Jamaica, New York. [Together with:] KEROUAC, Jack (1922-1969), LIVORNESE, Tom (1925-1990) and BURFORD, Beverly (1926-1968). Autograph postcard signed (“Jack, ton frère qui t’aime,” “Tom,” and “Bev”) to Ed White, postmarked September 1950, Jamaica, New York; with autograph messages from Tom Livornese and Beverly Burford, above Kerouac’s one-line note.

"My book is $665 in the red at Harcourt and I have $2.57 in the bank. [...] From now on, I’m on my own.”

Kerouac and Tom Livornese joined Beverly Burford, who was en route to an assignment in Germany, to send White this brief joint message from New York. Jack’s contribution is simply: “La vie en rose aujourd’hui est la vie en douleur demain.” Bev reports that their trip to Elitch was “slow and soft” and Tom asks, “Must she go to Germany, Ed?!?!” Burford would be the model for Babe Rawlins in On the Road.

In his letter, Jack reports that his book is not doing well, and notes that Neal “will be streaming back through Denver around Xmas, bound for N.Y. and his new infant, carrying his new tape recorder. Hope you make records with him; how about a passage from Sam. J?” (Cassady's recordings would become well-known.) Following Burford's departure from New York, Jack writes, “Last week I had a dream that Beverly sent me a long letter from somewhere. Upon waking up, I felt another conscious desire to hear from you.” Jack had missed Bev’s departure when she sailed, and explained this neglect: “I had no money, and was currently and am still currently engaged in furious work to finish my book by Christmas.” Ginsberg, however, had been there to “see her off."

Auction house category:Letters, documents and manuscripts
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