No Kerouac-related birth or death dates on Leap Day?

As regular readers know, we routinely celebrate birthdays and remember death dates of Kerouac's close family members, friends, and real-life characters from his books. It struck me today -- February 29  -- that I know of no Leap Day birthdays or death dates for any of those people. That doesn't mean there aren't any -- I couldn't find any birth dates or death dates for a number of people on my master list.

If you know of any Kerouac family members, friends, or real-life book characters who were born or died on February 29, leave us a comment about it.

Thanks.

Oh, and Happy Leap Day!

Remembering Beat poet Elise Cowen

Beat poet Elise Cowen died this date -- February 27 -- in 1962. She appeared as Barbara Lipp in Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels and was a close companion to Allen Ginsberg (indeed, it is reported that they were lovers for a brief time). The bulk of her work, tragically, was destroyed after her death by suicide, but some of it survives, including the two poems here (after the bio -- which starts with an enlightening quote from Gregory Corso about the lack of women representation in the Beat movement).

Click here to read an interesting article about Cowen and her connection to poetry giant Emily Dickinson.

RIP, Ms. Cowen.

Remembering Carl Solomon

Carl Solomon died on this date -- February 26 -- in 1993. He appeared in two of Jack Kerouac's works: as Carl Rappaport in Visions of Cody and as Carl Solobone in Book of Sketches.

Allen Ginsberg met Solomon in a psychiatric hospital and subsequently dedicated his famous poem, "Howl," to Solomon. Solomon worked as an editor for Ace Books, owned by his uncle A. A. Wyn. There are several letters from Kerouac to Solomon discussing Ace possibly publishing On The Road. The latter never happened, but Ace did publish William S. Burroughs' Junkie; Solomon wrote the Publisher's Note in one version and the Introduction in another.

Click here to read a 1973 interview with Solomon by John Tytell.

RIP, Mr. Solomon.

Jack Kerouac in AAA's Northern New England Journey

The above appeared on p. 30 in this month's Northern New England Journey published by AAA (sorry about the blurriness -- it's my technological inadequacy at play). I've sat in that car at The Beat Museum (click here for pictures). Very cool experience.

Remembering Alice Schenker and a great little story about Jack Kerouac

Alice Schenker in the New York years

I think I had run across Alice Schenker's name somewhere along the way, but I didn't know she once slept with Jack Kerouac.

Read this article for the details: Remembering Alice Schenker. The piece also mentions Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and even Rexroth, who it said was christened "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine. That one is news to me.

Here's to Alice, who I wouldn't have known about if a high school friend, Adrienne Kantz, hadn't message me a link to this Berkeleyside piece. Thanks, Adrienne.

Remembering Kerouac friend, artist Robert Lavigne UPDATED 2-21-20

On this date -- February 20 -- in 2014, artist and Kerouac friend Robert LaVigne died. LaVigne (I've seen it with the V capitalized and not capitalized) was Guy Levesque in Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels. That is it according to the Character Key to Kerouac's Duluoz Legend, yet Allen Ginsberg himself identifies LaVigne as Robert Browning in Big Sur (see Ginsberg link below). The Duluoz Key says Browning was William Morris. I asked Key curator Dave Moore about this discrepancy and will update this post with his response.

UPDATE: Dave Moore sent me the below scan from one of Kerouac's notebooks (titled "Duluoz Legend Personae Names"), where we can see in Jack's own handwriting that Robert Browning in Big Sur was William Morris, a painter friend of Philip Whalen. And so, we will defer to Jack and assume that Alan was wrong.

In a 1955 letter to Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac refers to Lavigne as a "canuck painter." There are no letters to or from LaVigne included in either of Ann Charters' compilations. Ginsberg referred to LaVigne as a "Painter friend of Poets." Natalie Jackson, who we remembered here, was a model of LaVigne's. A well-known story about LaVigne is that it was his portrait of Peter Orlovsky -- his model and lover -- that caused Allen Ginsberg to request an introduction to Orlovsky, beginning a life-long relationship between the two.

LaVigne has papers archived at Columbia University. See http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079553/ (this resource includes a concise biographical sketch).

LaVigne's drawing of Jack adorns the cover of one version of The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (see below).

RIP, Mr. LaVigne.

Gerald Nicosia interviews re: Kerouac: The Last Quarter Century

Front and back covers of Kerouac: The Last Quarter Century by Gerald Nicosia

We reviewed Gerald Nicosia's Kerouac: The Last Quarter Century on The Daily Beat on May 13, 2019 (click here). FYI, below are links to two interviews based around that book:

1. On Punkglobe.com with Zack Kopp

2 On Chicago's WGN radio "After Hours with Rick Kogan" (starts 1 hr. 2.5 minutes in)

To secure a copy you can either e-mail the author at gnicosia@earthlink.net, or else send a check or money order for $30 ($25 for book and $5 for postage and mailer) to Gerald Nicosia, PO Box 130, Corte Madera, CA 94976-0130. You can tell him how you would like the book inscribed, if you wish.