Jack Kerouac

Personal check, 6 x 2.5, filled out and signed by Kerouac, payable to himself for $100.00, January 16, 1959. Kerouac has also endorsed in full on the reverse. Slight loss to left edge (well away from signatures), and Usual punch cancellations and bank stamps, otherwise fine, clean condition.

The check is drawn on Security National Bank in Northport, New York. Kerouac once owned a house in Northport, where he lived with his mother for many years. Eager to protect his privacy, Kerouac once instructed an interviewer, “I do not want mention of Northport. I still live there. I do not want carloads of Zen beatnik hipsters scouting my yard and house.”

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist from Lowell, Massachusetts. Along with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is amongst the best known of the writers (and friends) that comprised the Beat Generation, a term he coined for the disillusioned young intellectuals who thought that the American Dream had gone sour.

Kerouac’s work was very popular, but received little critical acclaim during his lifetime. Today, he is considered an important and influential writer who inspired others, including Tom Robbins, Lester Bangs, Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, and writers of the New Journalism. Kerouac also influenced musicians such as The Beatles, Ben Gibbard, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Simon & Garfunkel, and Jim Morrison. Kerouac’s best-known books are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.

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