Alene Lee (1931–1991) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

member of the Beat generation in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

whose romantic relationship with Jack Kerouac was the central theme in his novel ''

The Subterraneans ''The Subterraneans'' is a 1958 novella by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. It is a semi-fictional account of his short romance with Alene Lee (1931–1991), an African-American woman, in Greenwich Village, New York. It was the first wor ...

''. Kerouac used the pseudonym Mardou Fox for Lee. Lee was also the model for the character of Irene May in '' Book of Dreams'' and '' Big Sur.'' Lee shunned publicity, but her daughter has written about her life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Alene 1931 births 1991 deaths Beat Generation writers