Item #70 in my Kerouac bookshelf curation project is this 1994 copyright 24-page handstitched chapbook containing excerpts from Jan Kerouac's third and final book, Parrot Fever. Less than 175 copies were printed and 135 were numbered and signed in ink by Jan. This copy is 83 of 135 as shown below. It's in very good condition.
If you've been following along with this curation project, you know that the last two items I curated were Jan's other two books, Baby Driver and Train Song. Parrot Fever is her third, unpublished novel about two half sisters, Claire Luna and Maxine LaCrosse. As Gerald Nicosia writes in the introduction: "Jan Kerouac has written an exquisite allegory about the undiminished power of love in our crumbling world. Are there really two sisters, or are they both halves of Jan's own fragmented psyche?" Jan certainly drew on her own life experiences in writing Parrot Fever (e.g., both have had absent fathers and entered relationships with abusive men). It's a shame the whole manuscript has never seen publication.
Get your own copy of Excerpts from Parrot Fever here.
Below is a picture of Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf showing the placement of this book (20th item from the left) on the day I started curating my collection. Next up: Jack Kerouac Selected Letters 1940-1956 edited by Ann Charters.
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Shelf #2 of my Kerouac bookshelf
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