Kerouac and Cassady Estates In Conflcit
Jack Kerouac’s estate has claimed a share of the proceeds from the planned sale of a long-lost letter that is considered a central document in the history of the Beats—the renowned literary and cultural movement that sprung from San Francisco in the 1950s.
The letter from Beat exemplar Neal Cassady to author Jack Kerouac was showcased for one day at the Beat Museum in North Beach. The letter is currently in possession of Jean Spinosa, who found it in the effects of her late father, a San Francisco record producer. She has scheduled its auction for December 17th, however, the Kerouac estate says she has no right to do this.
“We want the return of the letter. The letter belongs to the estate,” explained John Sampas, brother of Kerouac’s third wife and literary executor of the estate.
Cassady’s heirs also claim ownership to the letter under copyright law. “The Cassady estate is in the process of stopping the auction until its authenticity and copyright have been verified by all parties . . . We never call it a ‘letter.’ It is a ‘manuscript’ always meant for publication. To call it a letter is like calling ‘Naked Lunch’ a lunch.”
There is a lot of money at stake, as the original scroll of Kerouac’s “On the Road” sold for $2.4 million in 2001, and now comes the letter that inspired the classic. “There is an enormous market for Cassady and Kerouac which goes beyond the normal market for signed first editions.”
See Sam Whiting, Beat Letter Triggers Cash Conflict With Kerouac, Cassady Estates, SF Gate, Dec. 4, 2014.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.