Janet Michelle "Jan" Kerouac (February 16, 1952 – June 5, 1996) was an American writer and the only child of

beat generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...

author

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

and Joan Haverty Kerouac.

Early life and career

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 Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, it is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in ...

. In 1964, Jan Kerouac was briefly in a

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

called The Whippets. The group, which consisted of Kerouac, Charlotte Rosenthal, and

Bibbe Hansen Bibbe Hansen is an American performance artist, musician and actress. Family Hansen's parents were Bohemian Jewish poet Audrey Ostlin Hansen and Fluxus artist Al Hansen, a participant in the Andy Warhol Factory. Her stepfather was Jimmy Shapiro ...

, released one single, "I Want to Talk to You," a song response to the song "

I Want to Hold Your Hand "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock music, rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Recorded on 17 October 1963 and released on 29 November 1963 in the United Kingdom, it was the first Beatles recor ...

." The B-side, "Go Go Go with Ringo," also reflected the

Beatlemania Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles from 1963 to 1966. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom in late 1963, propelled by the singles " Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and " She Loves Yo ...

of the time. The single did not chart or get much airplay, and the Whippets broke up. Jan Kerouac lived much of her early life in poverty, sometimes turning to

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

to survive. She traveled widely, living in South America, Europe, and many different cities in the United States.

Lawsuit

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.

Novels

Kerouac published three semi-autobiographical novels, ''Baby Driver: A Story About Myself'' in 1981, ''Trainsong'' in 1988 and posthumously published ''Parrot Fever'' in 2005.

Death

On June 5, 1996, Kerouac died in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

, a day after her

spleen The spleen (, from Ancient Greek '' σπλήν'', splḗn) is an organ (biology), organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The spleen plays important roles in reg ...

was removed. She had suffered

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

five years earlier and was on dialysis.

Filmography

*''The Beat Generation: An American Dream'' (1988) *''What Happened to Kerouac?'' (1986)

Bibliography

Books by Kerouac

* * * * * Written in 1992–1993, and published posthumously.

Books about Kerouac

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerouac, Jan 1952 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers American women novelists Beat Generation writers Jack Kerouac Novelists from New York (state) Writers from Albany, New York