Photo by Marie-Andr�e Cossette

Courtesy of Brenda Knight
 

The only child of Beat icon Jack Kerouac, Janet Michelle was born in 1952 to Jack�s second wife, Joan, who married him after only a month�s acquaintance.  Joan separated from Jack when he suggested she abort her pregnancy and he, in turn, refused to acknowledge the baby as his.  A blood test when Jan was nine years old proved his paternity and he was ordered to pay $52 a week for his daughter�s upbringing (Cosmic Baseball Association).  The discussion about the blood test was Jan�s first of two life-time meetings with her father.

 Jan, whose resemblance to her father is remarkable, inherited more than just his looks.  She also acquired his wanderlust, although it set in much earlier � when she was 15 years old.  Like both of her parents, Jan made frequent use of intoxicants and was no stranger to trouble; her mother had her committed to a mental institution early in her teens.  Upon her release,

she delved deeper into the underworld of drugs that existed in New York in the 60s, before leaving for Mexico at the age of fifteen.

Her trip to Mexico included a detour to the home of her father, her second and last visit to him.  Over the years, she would travel across the country, �bounc[ing] around the states with a reckless abandon that Neal Cassidy would have been hard pressed to keep pace with� (Knight 310).  Along the way she wrote and published two autobiographical novels, Baby Driver (1981) and Trainsong (1988).  Both books were met with critical acclaim, as her writing has a slick, fast feel that mimics its subject matter.

While working on her third novel, the fiction piece Parrot Fever, in Puerto Rico, her kidneys failed, sending her back to the United States and ending her travels.  She died in 1996, after complications with her health.  At the time of her death, she was involved in legal battles with Stella Sampras, Jack�s last wife, over his estate and was trying to get his grave moved to the family plot in Lowell.

Her father may not have acknowledged her much during his life.  This did not keep Jan from loving him deeply and she lived her life in a similar manner to his.  His influence on her continued after his death, as she struggled to ensure that his legacy would not be destroyed or sold off, piecemeal by his third wife�s family, for the money they could make.  She was attempting to have his archives admitted to a museum so others could study his works and learn more about her father�s life and mind.

For more information on Jan Kerouac, check out the following source materials. 

Written by: 
Margaret Helwig

Last updated: 22 July 2005