Frankie Edith “Edie” Kerouac-Parker Collection

• Dates: 1943-1998
• Extent: 4 boxes, 1 oversized item
• Repository: Center for Lowell History, Kerouac Room, 1st Floor, Wall C
• Biographical Note: Frankie Edith “Edie” Kerouac-Parker (1922-1993) was a Beat author and Jack Kerouac’s first wife (m. 1944-1948). Edie is upon whom the characters “Judie Smith” in The Town and the City (1950), “Edna ‘Johnnie’ Palmer” in Vanity of Duluoz (1968), and “Elly” in Visions of Cody (1972) were based.
• Provenance: Donated by Frankie Edith “Edie” Kerouac-Parker.
Descriptive Summary
• Scope and Content: The Kerouac-Parker Collection includes correspondence, manuscripts and drafts, books, newspaper clippings, articles photographs, and a watercolor painting, “House” (1940), by Edgar Stareck (1917-1987), which hung in Kerouac’s Hartley Hall dormitory room and in an apartment Kerouac and Parker shared at Columbia, On the Road character key.
• Language: English