Paul's Memories of "The Letter"

Paul Blake has never seen a dime of Jack's estate. As a child, Jack had invented a tabletop baseball game which he and Paul played together on many occasions. Jack had always promised Paul that it would one day be his, but that day has never come.

I met Paul through Gerry Nicosia, who had located him at the time he was researching "Memory Babe", his biography of Jack Kerouac. Paul had fallen on hard times and was living homeless in northern California. The day before Jack died he wrote and sent a letter to Paul, who at the time was in the Air Force, stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. In the letter Jack said he was divorcing Stella Sampas and that he was leaving his entire estate to his mother Gabrielle, or if she died first, to Paul, "Because we're old buddies".

Article on Paul in THE INDEPENDENT

Another article in the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES.

Paul Blake, Jr. is Jack Kerouac's nephew, and the last surviving member of the direct Kerouac bloodline. He is the son of Jack's sister Caroline, "Nin" as she was called by the family.

"Little Paul" is mentioned in a number of Jack's books and Jack developed a close relationship with Paul that lasted throughout his life. From all accounts, Paul was like a son to Jack.

Jack Kerouac denied Jan was his daughter but many people recall him taking a picture of Jan on a tricycle out of his wallet and saying "This is my daughter. She looks a lot like me, don't you think?" Paul remembers Jack showing him this photo and saying "This is my daughter. This is your cousin Jan".

The day before he died, Jack Kerouac wrote a letter to his nephew, Paul Blake Jr. This is some of the text of that letter....

                  October 20, 1969.  
My Dear Little Paul:
This is Uncle Jack.  I've turned over my entire estate, real, personal, and mixed, to Mémère, and if she dies before me, it is then turned to you, and if I die thereafter, it all goes to you.... I just wanted to leave my “estate” (which is what it really is) to someone directly connected with the last remaining drop of my direct blood line, which is, me sister Carolyn, your Mom, and not to leave a dingblasted fucking goddamn thing to my wife's one hundred Greek relatives.  I also plan to divorce, or have her marriage to me, annulled.  Just telling you the facts of how it is....