Jan Kerouac

Jan Kerouac
Kerouac in 1983
Born	Janet Michelle Kerouac (1952-02-16)February 16, 1952 Albany, New York, U.S.
Died	June 5, 1996(1996-06-05) (aged 44) Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
Resting place	Saint Louis De Gonzague Cemetery
Occupation	Writer
Relatives	Jack Kerouac Joan Haverty Kerouac

Janet Michelle "Jan" Kerouac (February 16, 1952 – June 5, 1996) was an American writer and the only child of beat generation author Jack Kerouac and Joan Haverty Kerouac.

Janet Michelle Kerouac was born a few months after her parents separated. Jack Kerouac met his daughter for the first time when she was ten years old, when he took a blood test to prove or disprove his paternity. Jan only met him once more, when she visited him at his home in Lowell, Massachusetts.^[1]

In 1964, Jan Kerouac was briefly in a girl group called The Whippets.^[2] The group, which consisted of Kerouac, Charlotte Rosenthal, and Bibbe Hansen, released one single, "I Want to Talk to You," a song response to the song "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The B-side, "Go Go Go with Ringo," also reflected the Beatlemania of the time. The single did not chart or get much airplay, and the Whippets broke up.^[3]

Jan Kerouac lived much of her early life in poverty, sometimes turning to prostitution to survive.^[4] She traveled widely, living in South America, Europe, and many different cities in the United States.^[4]

Encouraged by Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia, she entered into a lawsuit in the 1990s that proposed the will of Jack's mother, Gabrielle Kerouac, was a forgery, in the hope winning could expand her legal rights to her father's works and physical property. Eventually a court ruled that the will was a forgery, although in practical terms this ruling changed nothing concerning control of the Kerouac estate.^[5]

Kerouac published three semi-autobiographical novels, Baby Driver: A Story About Myself in 1981,^[6][7] Trainsong in 1988^[8] and posthumously published Parrot Fever in 2005.^[9]

On June 5, 1996, Kerouac died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a day after her spleen was removed. She had suffered kidney failure five years earlier and was on dialysis.^[8]

• The Beat Generation: An American Dream (1988)^[10]
• What Happened to Kerouac? (1986)^[11]

• Kerouac, Jan (1981). Baby Driver: A Story About Myself (1st ed.). New York City: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0030625386.
• Kerouac, Jan (June 22, 1998). Baby Driver: A Story About Myself (Expanded ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 1560251840.
• Kerouac, Jan (August 14, 1998). Trainsong. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1560251654.
• Kerouac, Jan (1988). Trainsong (1 ed.). New York City: Henry Holt and Company.
• Kerouac, Jan (2000). Parrot Fever. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1560252081. Written in 1992–1993, and published posthumously.

• Nicosia, Gerald (2009). Jan Kerouac: A Life In Memory. Noodlebrain Press. ISBN 978-0615245546.^[12]

• Barnett, David (7 June 2021). "The beat went on: what happened to Jan Kerouac, Jack's forgotten daughter". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2021. An article published on the 25th anniversary of Jan Kerouac's death.