KEROUAC, Jack (1922-1969). Typed letter, signed in type (“Jack”), to Ed White [23 December 1947], postmarked New York, New York.. Unpublished.

Quarto. Single leaf; half-page only; double spaced; creased. With envelope addressed in type.

"[W]hatever you plan to do New Year’s Eve and other times in between, include me in.”

Here Jack relays his itinerary for spending the Christmas holiday with his mother, confessing, “I sure wish I could stay here but on the other hand Xmas in the country, in the South, is also appealing, and I don’t want to disappoint the Maw.” He also reveals his eagerness to make plans for New Year’s Eve, and the brief note is typical of his and White's haphazard means of communication; they had been together frequently in New York, often with their mutual friend Tom Livornese, so there was no need for written correspondence, only factual communication of the kind long-since superseded by telephone and email. Livornese was a pre-med student at Columbia and jazz connoisseur. Together they explored the post-war New York music scene and his apartment on 103rd Street was often home to visiting friends, including Neal Cassady. That New Year’s turned out to be a festive night-long party on Long Island at the Livornese house with Jack; White, his girlfriend Nicki and her model friend Stella, both from Dearborn; Tom’s teenage sister Maria; Jack Fitzgerald; and – somewhere in the background during the early hours – Tom’s parents, Mary and John Livornese. There was a grand piano in the living room and a pool table in the basement recreation room. When they arrived in the city the next day, the streets were closed by the deepest snowstorm in New York history. The city was at a beautiful standstill and 1948 was off to a memorable start.