Jack Kerouac's Baptism Document, With Estate Provenance

Single page manuscript document as a notarized record of Jack Kerouac's baptism. 8.5" x 6". This was created later in 1986 perhaps reconfirming that Kerouac was baptized at that Church 64 years earlier in 1922. Provenance: The piece will be accompanied by an estate certification signed by John Shen-Sampas, executor of the Kerouac Estate. John Shen-Sampas is the son of John Sampas, who was the brother-in-law of Jack Kerouac, and the brother of Stella Kerouac, Jack's wife. This official notarized document is written in French, with the translation as shown below:

“St. Louis of France Parish

Lowell, Massachusetts

I, undersigned, certify that Jean Louis Kirouac Child of Leo Kirouac and of Gabrielle Levesque born the 12th day of the month of March 1922 at 9 Lupine Rd, Lowell Mass. was baptized the 19th day of the month of March 1922 in the Church of St. Louis of France According to the Rite of the Roman Catholic Church by Rev Father U.U. Boisvert.

Godfather: Jean Baptiste Kirouac
Godmother: Rosanna Kirouac

Such as it appears in the Baptismal Register of the said church on December 5, 1986.
Rev. Robert P. Saucy, Curate”

Jack Kerouac was baptized as a Catholic, with Canadian, French-speaking parents. He spoke French until he learned English at age six. While he was alive, masses were celebrated in French. The Kerouacs had descended from Baron François Louis Alexandre Lebris de Kerouac. Kerouac's baptism certificate lists his name simply as Jean Louis Kirouac, and this is the most common spelling of the name in Quebec. Research has shown that Kerouac's roots were indeed in Brittany (France), and he was descended from a middle-class merchant colonist, Urbain-François Le Bihan, Sieur de Kervoac, whose sons married French Canadians.

Kerouac was greatly influenced by Catholicism and religion which shows both in his life and in his writing. This important piece is therefore extremely significant in its relevance to Kerouac's life. Kerouac was raised as a Catholic by devout parents who had come to New England from French-Canada. the pre-Vatican II Catholicism that saturated Lowell’s tight-knit French Canadian community. Gabrielle Kerouac—Jack’s mother—matched Leo’s (father) civic pride with a fervent religious faith, which if anything intensified after the death of Jack’s older brother Gerard, whom Jack would later eulogize as an unheralded saint in the novel "Visions of Gerard". To New England’s mostly impoverished French Canadians, the Catholic Church served as de facto government, educator, extended family, and cultural arbitrator. Perhaps as a result of this spiritual immersion, and the death of his brother, both Gabrielle, and Jack saw signs of God and angels everywhere.

“The Catholic Church is a weird church,” Jack later wrote to his friend and muse Neal Cassady. “Much mysticism is sown broad spread from its ritual mysteries till it extends into the very lives of its constituents and parishioners.” It is impossible to overstate the influence of Catholicism on all of Kerouac’s work, save perhaps those books written during his Buddhist period in the mid-to-late 1950s. The influence is so obvious and so pervasive, in fact, that Kerouac became justifiably incensed when Ted Berrigan of the Paris Review asked during a 1968 interview, “How come you never write about Jesus?” Kerouac’s reply: “I’ve never written about Jesus?…You’re an insane phony…All I write about is Jesus.”

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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