"Till I see you”: Jack Kerouac and Edward D. White Jr.

Kerouac, Jack, American novelist and poet (1922-1969). Typed postcard with autograph postscript signed ("Jack").

€ 3.800,00

Informing his friend Edward D. White Jr. of his new address in Queens, 94-21 134th Street, Richmond Hill, and scolding him for not visiting during a trip to New York: "I thought you were coming back from Baltimore before leaving for Denver. I called you that Monday afternoon you left, apparently just after you took off. On top of that you never did stay at my shack. This is by way of being a command for the next time". Kerouac asks White to give his new address to their mutual friend Beverly Burford, relates a story about the author and art critic Eric Protter going to Kerouac's publisher Harcourt Brace "with his novel", claiming that Kerouac "had sent him", and adds multiple queries: "Where are you going to work? When are you returning to school? Do you know what Eric Protter did? He went to my company with his novel and said I had sent him. Where's Livornese, is he with you? I haven't seen him. What's going on around here? How's Justin? Where's Hal? What's the meaning of all this? Did you look up Emma Straj yet? I'm writing to Burford. I'm seeing Reva this week. Great! Till I see you".

Justin and Hal can be identified with some certainty as the archaeologist Haldon Chase (1923-2006) and the teacher and lawyer Justin W. Brierly (1905-85), who is best known for discovering and supporting the young Neal Cassady. Tom Livornese was a lawyer and amateur jazz musician who had introduced Kerouac and White to the New York jazz scene. Burford was Beverly's older brother Bob (1924-2004) who, together with Eric Protter and Robert Lax, was an editor of the New Story magazine. His sister Beverly had briefly dated Edward D. White Jr. and would be involved with Jack Kerouac in the spring of 1950. She served as the model for the character Babe Rawlins in "On the Road", while his lifelong friend White inspired characters such as Tim Gray (On the Road), Ed Gray (Visions of Cody), and Al Green (Book of Cody).

1949 was an important year for Jack Kerouac as he finally found a publisher for "The Town and the City" and even received an advance while already working on "On the Road". In August 1949, Kerouac and his beloved mother moved from their famous apartment in Ozone Park to a nearby house in Richmond Hill. When in New York, Kerouac would stay at the house, where he had many important guests and wrote "Maggie Cassidy" and "The Subterraneans" (both in 1953), until the family gave it up in 1955.

Autograph postscript marking the new address.