CARR, Lucien [Helen Weaver] [Jack Kerouac].
Lucien Carr Autograph Letter Signed to Helen Weaver.
Rare Original Autograph Letter Signed by Lucien Carr to Jack Kerouac’s Girlfriend Helen Weaver
$1,250.00
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Item Number: RRB-149953
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Autograph letter signed by American journalist and editor Lucien Carr. One page, handwritten to Jack Kerouac’s former girlfriend Helen Weaver on a yellow legal pad page and dated "Sept. 04", regarding the signing of Kerouac books. The letter reads in full, "Dear Slugger: Enjoyed your book. First half made me weepy. Second half beyond my stage of development. Perhaps later in life. After all, I'm only pushing 80. Signing the books seemed a bit odd to me too. Particularly the obviously valuable first edition of "On the Road" which obviously began its journey in life in the library of Kennett Love, my oldest, best and only living friend from the old St. Louis days. In the sixties, as you probably know, the druggies made a practice of swiping books from the shelves of pretty girls. The late Gregory Corso was adept at this to my sorrow. Anyhow, I decided not to look into this as it is all probably a half century old and who knows, maybe Kenny sold the book. Not my business, but suggest you wait a year or two and get another dog. Lucien." The recipient, Helen Weaver, was Kerouac’s girlfriend from 1956 to 1957, and was given the nickname “Slugger” by Carr after a scuffle between her and Kerouac at her apartment. In fine condition. The piece measures 8.5 inches by 13 inches.
Lucien Carr (1925–2005) occupies a pivotal, if often oblique, position in Beat studies as a social catalyst and archival presence rather than a major published author. At Columbia University in the mid-1940s, Carr helped consolidate what became the core New York Beat circle by introducing Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to one another and connecting them to William S. Burroughs, a formative act of networking that shaped subsequent collaborations and literary mythmaking. Although Carr published little and later pursued a career in journalism, his influence persisted through his presence in fictionalized accounts by Beat writers and in memoirs by contemporaries, marking him as a central interpersonal catalyst in the movement’s formation rather than a peripheral figure. Carr appears in Jack Kerouac’s The Town and the City (1950) in a thinly fictionalized form, reflecting Kerouac’s early practice of transforming members of his social circle into novelistic figures.
Lucien Carr Autograph Letter Signed to Helen Weaver.
$1,250.00
In Stock
