Jan Kerouac: A Life in Memory

JAN A LIFE IN MEMORY is an unconventional biography of the novelist and poet Jan Kerouac, who was the only child of author Jack Kerouac. It is also the first, and so far the only, biography of Jan Kerouac, whose own books include BABY DRIVER, TRAINSONG, and the still unpublished PARROT FEVER. Assembled and edited by writer Gerald Nicosia, who was a friend of Jan Kerouac for most of her adult life, JAN A LIFE IN MEMORY includes memoirs of Jan by 16 people who knew her, including Nicosia, a lengthy interview with Jan when she was 27 years old, conducted by Nicosia, and over 40 photos of her. Many of the friends who recall Jan, and who comment on her work, are noted authors, Beat scholars, or countercultural figures themselves, such as Aram Saroyan, Phil Cousineau, Brad Parker, Brenda Knight, and John Allen Cassady, Neal Cassady's son. Altogether they provide a startlingly intimate and loving portrait of this thoughtful, compassionate, and creative woman, too often simply caricatured as the troubled and self-centered "Beat princess."