Happy Heavenly Birthday to Helen Weaver

                                                 

Today -- June 18 -- is Helen Weaver's birthday. Weaver, one of Jack Kerouac's paramours, appeared in two of Jack's works: as Ruth Heaper in Desolation Angels and as Eileen Farrier in Book of Dreams (expanded edition).Weaver granted me an interview in 2009 that you can read HERE.

There are two letters from Jack to Helen in Jack Kerouac Selected Letters 1957-1969 (Penguin Books, 1999). In that same volume, in a long letter to bestie John Clellon Holmes, Jack writes the following about Helen:

Yes, I'll bring my mother [to Holmes's house in Old Saybrook], we'll come over en route to Lowell on the NYNHH [railroad] or whatever they call it, or else a nutty weekend with my favorite doll Helen Weaver who isnt mad at me no mo . . . . sends me cigars . . . .beautiful girl, but Lucien doesnt like her . . . . I think because he can't snowjob her and also she doesnt like to get drunk ... but is mad. (p. 92)

Happy Heavenly Birthday, Ms. Weaver.