June 5th, last Saturday, marked the 25th anniversary of the passing of Jan Kerouac (1952-1996), Jack Kerouac’s daughter. David Barnett writes about her in The Guardian, “The Beat Went On – What happened to Jan Kerouac, Jack’s Forgotten Daughter” (& see also here)
Gerald Nicosia, a long-time friend and champion of Jan, editor of Jan Kerouac – A Life In Memory, and author of The Last Days of Jan Kerouac (both titles from Noodlebrain Press) is interviewed here about Jan by Beat scholar, Oliver Harris
More Jan Kerouac on The Allen Ginsberg Project – here
Hot news on the Kerouac front – Holly George-Warren has been chosen to write the officially-sanctioned Kerouac biography for the Kerouac Estate (it’ll be the Kerouac Centennial next year, don’t forget!) – Jack Kerouac – A Writers Life – The book will, we are told, “examine the evolution of Jack’s writing process and style, and face head-on the difficult aspects of his story, including how his ideas about race, sexual identity, and gender changed throughout his life”.
and speaking of Jack, Kevin Ring’s Beat Scene has another (the 72nd!) of its excellent Beat Scene chapbooks – Kerouac’s Miles – Jack Kerouac and the Music of Miles Davis just out. Contact kevbeatscene@gmail.com for more information.
Beat generation – Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs is a documentary, a European, French and Finnish production, written by Emilie Barbier and directed by Xavier Villetard, which premiered in Italy on NEXO+, the new streaming service, June 3rd, on the occasion of Allen’s birthday.
Buddha Died – Masood Hussain‘s video-poem on Allen’ haiku (translated into Gaelic by Gabriel Rosenstock and into Greek by Sarah Thilykou) may be viewed here
Ginsberg’s Karma, as we mentioned last week, is now available on You Tube
Ben Jonson, English playwright and poet was born on this day. Here‘s Allen on Ben Jonson – (and here – and here and here)
Concluding as we have done these past weeks, with a cut from Marianne Faithfull & Warren Ellis’ hommage to the Romantic poets – Percy Bysshe Shelley‘s “To The Moon” – “”Art thou pale for weariness/ Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth..”?