406. JACK KEROUAC Exceptional A.Ms.S. "Jack Kerouac" signed twice at top, again at conclusion, with initialed note on verso, 2pp. 4to., [Albany?], Nov. 22, 1965. Kerouac pens a genealogical essay, apparently a draft, originally titled "Comments on War on Poverty" but with that title stricken-out by the author. In part: "...My people were so poor they didn't know what silverware meant. They were impoverished potato farmers in Quebec...The mother made potato soup [with the] potato peels. They then emigrated to New England, the cradle of liberty. Carpenter, build his own house, his own hands. Jean-Baptiste Kerouack. They were grateful to America for giving them succor and allegiance...They knew how to make whiskey blanc - potato peels (known in Russia as Vodka). One of the sisters was sent to a nunnery, one got mad & threw knives at everybody. One of the sisters was enamored of male companionship & never harmed a hair on anybody's head...The brothers went to parochial school. One started a butcher shop & grocery. One became a printer, my father...Leo, Jean, Joseph, Ernest, Clara, Louise, Caroline. They cooperated and did not shirk the social sense. Poverty is a state of discomforted intractability..." He adds in a postscript: "In other words, don't hang around yelling 'where's my relief?' Make an effort with heaven. J.K." Rough margins with some chipping affecting a few letters of text, signature very slightly affected, else quite good. This essay was published with essentially the same wording in the poetry journal The Albany Mirror on November 27, 1965. An interesting philosophy not exactly in keeping with the public's impression of Kerouac's liberal philosophy. $2,500-3,500