John Sampas, Kerouac estate guardian, dies at 84

John Sampas (left), with brother-in-law Jack Kerouac in 1968, was keeper of the writer’s work. John Sampas (left), with brother-in-law Jack Kerouac in 1968, was keeper of the writer’s work. Photo: Stella Kerouac, Photo Courtesy Of John Sampas Photo: Stella Kerouac, Photo Courtesy Of John Sampas Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close John Sampas, Kerouac estate guardian, dies at 84 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

John Sampas, Jack Kerouac’s brother-in-law who ended up controlling the late author’s literary assets and getting many of them published, has died at his home in Greenwich, Conn.

A polarizing figure in the small but passionate world of Beat literature disciples, Mr. Sampas fought long legal wars over the legitimacy of the will of Kerouac’s mother, Gabrielle, who outlived her son by four years. That will was judged a forgery, but the estate of Kerouac’s late wife, Stella Sampas Kerouac, was validated by 2004 court order.

This solidified Mr. Sampas’ authority over the works of Kerouac and freed him to publish and republish his books. These range from his breakthrough, “On the Road,” first published in 1957, to “The Unknown Kerouac,” released in September 2016.

“John’s mission in life was to develop everything that Jack had written,” said his niece, Mary-Claire Paicopolis, a New Hampshire cardiologist who confirmed his death. No cause of death was given.

Mr. Sampas died last Thursday, just one day after conclusion of his last battle, the auction of the long-lost “Joan Anderson Letter,” written by Neal Cassady to his buddy Kerouac and credited with inspiring the spontaneous writing style Kerouac would adopt for “On the Road.”

Mr. Sampas was 84 and had lived most of his life at 2 Stevens St., in Lowell, Mass., the house in which he grew up as the youngest of 10 children.

Kerouac had been the childhood friend of Mr. Sampas’ older brother, Sebastian, a poet and writer who died while serving in World War II. Kerouac stayed close to the family and ended up taking his friend’s sister, Stella, as his third wife, in 1966.

The couple was living with Kerouac’s mother in Florida when Kerouac died in 1969 at age 47.

Books and lawsuits have debated the subsequent events. The Sampas version is that Stella Kerouac became Gabrielle’s caretaker, and when Gabrielle died in 1973, a combination of her estate and rulings by a Florida judge left Kerouac’s literary estate to Stella Kerouac. When Stella Kerouac died at 71, in 1990, her will left the Kerouac properties to her siblings, who appointed John Sampas as their trustee.

“John was very smart, and very interested in preserving the legacy of Jack Kerouac,” said George Tobia, Mr. Sampas’ longtime attorney.

Challenges to Mr. Sampas’ authority over the estates came from representatives of Kerouac’s blood descendants, namely a daughter from an earlier marriage, Jan Kerouac, who died in 1996, and a nephew, Paul Blake. Various courts in various states have issued rulings but through it all, Mr. Sampas stood firm.

“Jack’s interests descended to Stella and her siblings,” Mr. Sampas, then 80, told The Chronicle in 2014. “I control his name, likeness and titles.”

It had been 15 years since anything by Kerouac had been published when Mr. Sampas allowed for City Lights to release “Pomes All Sizes” in 1992.

It was the first of 26 Kerouac volumes, including poetry, prose, letters and journals, authorized for publication by Mr. Sampas. He also sold some Kerouac papers and artifacts, both privately and to institutions. The New York Public Library has Kerouac’s letters, journals and original manuscripts.

One of the most valuable manuscripts in American letters was the original scroll of “On the Road,” which Kerouac typed on a single sheet of teletype paper, 120 feet long.

The scroll had been left by Stella Kerouac to her younger brother Tony Sampas. He left it to his heirs with his nephew, also Tony Sampas, as executor. The younger Tony Sampas then brought it to auction in 2001. It sold for $2.4 million to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.

This seemingly raised interest in the “Joan Anderson Letter,” an 18-page, single-spaced manuscript that Cassady wrote to Kerouac, dated Dec. 17, 1950.

It disappeared for 64 years only to surface in 2014. There was speculation at the time that if this was the source for “On the Road,” then its value could approach or even surpass that of the original scroll.

But Mr. Sampas’ legal team blocked the auction. Sampas claimed ownership of the document itself while the Cassady heirs claimed ownership of the words. After three years of lawsuits and rancor, the letter brought $206,250, according to Eric Bradley of Heritage Auctions in Dallas.

“John never cared that much about the letter,” said Tobia. If so, that’s because it wasn’t written by Kerouac, who would have been 95 this week.

Mr. Sampas never married, and he is survived by an adopted son, John Shen Sampas of Greenwich, Conn.; his twin sister, Helen Surprenant of Dracut, Mass.; and more than a dozen nieces and nephews. Services are pending.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_art