KEROUAC'S UNINTENDED LEGACY? A LEGAL LIMBO

Toward the end of writer Jack Kerouac's life, the so-called King of
the Beats was having trouble paying his mortgage. Upon his death in
1969, his estate was valued at $91- compared with around $20 million today.

If the soft-spoken, hard-drinking author were still alive, he surely
would be shaking his head, but not only because of the value of his
estate. For 15 years, a bitter legal battle over who controls
Kerouac's legacy has pitted his in-laws against a destitute nephew
and deceased daughter.

The drama peaked in late July, when a Florida judge ruled that the
will controlling the Kerouac estate was forged. The court decision
raises questions about who controls the rights to Kerouac's works and
future royalties.

The lawsuit is winding and complex, but the basic facts are: When
Jack Kerouac died, he left everything to his mother, Gabrielle. When
she died, she left everything, including Jack's literary estate, to
Stella Sampas, Jack's third wife, who then left it to her six
siblings. In 1994, Kerouac's only daughter, Jan Kerouac, asserted
that her grandmother Gabrielle's will was forged, and filed a
lawsuit. She died two years later, but Paul Blake Jr., the writer's
nephew, continued the litigation.

In his July 24 ruling, Florida Judge George Greer concluded:
"Gabrielle Kerouac was not a well woman when her purported will was
signed. Clearly, Gabrielle Kerouac was physically unable to sign the
document dated February 13, 1973, and, more importantly, that which
appears on the Will is not her signature. Her last will and testament
is a forgery."

"Justice has finally been done," cheered Kerouac biographer Gerry
Nicosia of Corte Madera, who supported Kerouac's daughter and nephew
in their lawsuit against the in-laws and was present at the trial.
"Jack had a strong feeling for justice, including economic justice.
He came from a poor family and he understood that poor people are
often exploited."

A statement from the Sampas family after the ruling downplays the
decision and hints at an appeal.

"The practical effect of this ruling appears to be none," said John
Sampas, executor of Kerouac's estate. "At her death, our sister
bequeathed to us Jack Kerouac's works and legacy, and we will
continue to protect and promote them as Stella's rightful heirs and
loving brothers and sisters."

After Stella died in 1990, her estate included the original Teletype
scroll of "On the Road," and Kerouac's paintings, journals, letters,
and unpublished novels and stories. The scroll was sold for $2.43
million to the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, and actor Johnny Depp
bought Kerouac's raincoat and miscellany for $50,640.

Bill Wagner, the attorney for Paul Blake Jr. - who has been homeless
and now lives in a trailer home - said it is unlikely that anything
already sold by the Sampas family can be reclaimed.

"If you don't contest a will over a certain period of time, it's
considered to be valid," said Wagner, referring to Stella Sampas'
will. "So more likely than not, Kerouac's raincoat will stay with
Johnny Depp and the money he paid for it will stay with the Sampases."

Wagner said he will pursue book royalties for his client. In
addition, he plans to ask the Sampases for a detailed list of what
remains of the Kerouac archive. Wagner says that until such a list is
produced, there is no way of knowing what has not been sold off.

Kerouac's "On the Road," published in 1957, continues to sell about
100,000 copies a year in the United States and Canada alone.
Publication of the book, along with Allen Ginsberg's release of his
poem "Howl" at a Fillmore Street performance gallery, marked the
beginning of the Beat generation and turned San Francisco into the
Beat capital.

Bay Area writers who have followed the case said they wished Jan
Kerouac were alive today. Jan Kerouac met her father only twice. For
many years, he denied her existence - a relationship eventually
confirmed by blood tests.

Brenda Knight, author of a book about women of the Beat generation,
met Jan Kerouac in 1995.

"What Jan wanted was what her father wanted," Knight said. "She
wanted for all of his archives, books and belongings to be in a
university library. Remember, at the beginning of Kerouac's career,
he was a formalist writer. He accidentally became king of the Beats.
He wanted academic credibility. Jan was really upset seeing
everything being sold piece by piece, especially when her dad's old
overcoat was sold to the actor."

Knight said that Jan frequently referenced a famous letter her father
had reportedly written the day before he died of cirrhosis of the
liver. (In the months leading to his death, Kerouac was drinking a
quart of Johnnie Walker Red a day, and washing it down with a couple
of dozen beers.) Dated Oct. 20, 1969, the letter was to Paul Blake:
"This is Uncle Jack," Kerouac wrote. "I've turned over my entire
estate, real, personal and mixed, to Memere (mom) and if she dies
before me, it will be turned to you. I wanted to leave my estate to
someone directly connected with the last remaining drop of my direct
blood line, and not to leave a dingblasted f-g- thing to my wife's
one hundred Greek relatives." The Sampas family has claimed that the
Kerouac letter is a fake.

Gerry Nicosia edited and shepherded the new book "Jan Kerouac: A Life
in Memory," to publication because he felt Jan was a creative force
in her own right. She had written two novels, and the third one,
"Parrot Fever," was nearly complete when she died June 5, 1996, at
age 44 from kidney failure. Her early years were spent in and out of
poverty and trouble - drugs, alcohol and prostitution.

But Nicosia said that in addition to inheriting her father's good
looks and love of words, she too was a fighter. She was fighting to
the end to protect her father's legacy.

"Jack was about fighting for justice," Nicosia said. "He had a strong
feeling against 'rich fat cats,' especially those who got it by
exploiting the poor. One of Jack's favorite quotes in 'On the Road'
was, 'The earth belongs to me because I am poor.' "

An interview with Jack Kerouac by Steve Allen, done in 1959, is
available on YouTube, at www.youtube.com. In the interview, Kerouac
talks about writing "On the Road," and the meaning of the word Beat.
He also reads from "On the Road," which had become an immediate
best-seller and had Kerouac labeled the voice of his generation.

[sidebars]

READING BEYOND 'ON THE ROAD'

Jack Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia says there are four Kerouac
novels you must read, besides "On the Road," for a full appreciation
of the writer's genius.

The Dharma Bums, the book he wrote as a sequel to "On the Road,"
which many people think is actually more interesting and less dated
than its predecessor. It made a national hero of poet and ecologist
Gary Snyder, portrayed as Japhy Ryder in the novel, and introduced
Buddhism to tens of thousands of Westerners who knew nothing about it before.

Visions of Cody, the Neal Cassady and Jack "on the road" story told
in a nonlinear fashion, with the timeline completely exploded and
incredibly long, sometimes 10,000-word riffs on seemingly
insignificant events, like sitting in a cafeteria over a cup of
coffee or kneeling to say a prayer in a dark church - as if Kerouac
were writing high as a kite on tetrahydrocannabinol, which much of
the time he was.

Doctor Sax, a perfect mixture of fantasy and reality, written in
1952, long before postmodernism became the vogue and writers like Tom
Robbins discovered the power unleashed by letting real and fantasy
characters interact on the printed page. The novel tells the story of
12-year-old Jackie Duluoz's adventures helping a slightly sinister
superhero fight evildoers, based on the '30s radio show character "The Shadow."

Desolation Angels, a hip travelogue of America written long before
latter-day imitations - which often sold far more copies - like "Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas." No novel you might read will contain a
broader swath of the American fabric, from fire lookout stations in
the Cascade Range to Seattle burlesque houses to North Beach jazz
clubs to big-city skid rows to the parlors of the New York literati
to sweltering Florida tract homes.

[sidebar]

SIX FACTS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW

1. Kerouac believed that his older brother Gerard, who died of
rheumatic fever at age 10, was an actual saint, and in later life he
often felt that Gerard was speaking directly to him from heaven.

2. Kerouac had the highest IQ in the history of Newport Naval Base at
the time he was stationed there (1942), and because of it he was
suspected of being a German spy. He was later discharged from the
Navy for "angel tendencies," an early term for schizophrenia.

3. While docked in Greenland in the Merchant Marine, Kerouac traded
his Horace Mann football sweater to an Eskimo for the Eskimo's
handmade harpoon, which he saved all his life.

4. Later during World War II, Kerouac served on the S.S. Dorchester,
on the voyage before it was sunk by German torpedoes with the loss of
about 800 lives, including the famed Four Chaplains who gave their
life jackets to others, as well as Kerouac's close friend, a black
cook called Old Glory. Kerouac's life was saved by a telegram from
Coach Lou Little calling him back to Columbia University to play
football just before the Dorchester sailed again.

5. Kerouac loved to listen to, and would often scat-sing along with,
Gregorian chants, which he called a "jazz Mass."

6. Contrary to the belief of '60s radicals like Abbie Hoffman and
Jerry Rubin, who thought him a hopeless redneck, Kerouac actually
opposed the Vietnam War. But his reason for opposing it was unique -
he claimed it was "a conspiracy between the North and South
Vietnamese to get American jeeps."

Source: "Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac," by
Gerald Nicosia ( www.geraldnicosia.com)