Jack Kerouac

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Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and one of the most prominent members of the Beat Generation. His writings, most of which were autobiographical, revolved most of the time around his own adventures throughout the world, and also around some of his own ponderings and reflections that ensued during the course of his life.

Most of his life was spent in the vast landscapes of America and with the people that live among them. Faced with a fast-changing America, Kerouac sought to find his place in this climate and tried to effect a change, bringing him to reject the values of the fifties that celebrated growing consumerism and the new suburban lifestyle, among many other things. His writings actually often reflect a profound desire to break free from society’s mold and to try to find a deeper meaning to life, which eventually led him to start experimenting with different drugs (he once tried psilocybin with Timothy Leary), to study spiritual teachings such as those offered by Buddhism, and to embark on numerous trips throughout the world. His books are also sometimes credited as having contributed in sparking the counterculture of the 1960s.

Jack Kerouac – Biography


Early years
Born Jean-Louis Lebris Kerouac, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to a family of Franco-Americans. His parents, Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, were natives of The Province of Quebec in Canada. Like many other Quebecers of their generation, the Lévesques and Kerouacs emigrated to New England to find employment. Jack didn’t start to learn English until the age of six. At home, he and his family spoke Quebec French. At an early age, he was profoundly marked by the death of his elder brother Gérard, later prompting him to write the book Visions of Gerard.
Later, his athletic prowess led him to become a star on his local football team, and this achievement earned him a scholarship to Columbia University in New York. It was in New York that Kerouac met the people whom he was to journey around the world with, and return to write about: the so-called Beat Generation, which included people like Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs. After breaking his leg and arguing with his coach, the football scholarship did not pan out, so Kerouac left to join the Merchant Marine in 1942. In 1943, he joined the United States Navy but discharged during World War II on psychiatric grounds.

Later years
In between his sea voyages, Kerouac stayed in New York with his friends from Columbia. He started writing his first novel, called The Town and the City, which was published in 1950 and earned him some respect as a writer.
Kerouac wrote constantly, despite not publishing another novel until 1957 when On the Road, published by Viking Press, finally appeared in print. From the point of view of the character Sal Paradise, this mostly autobiographical book dealt with his roadtrip adventures across the United States and into Mexico with Neal Cassady (represented as Dean Moriarty). The novel is often described as the defining work of the post-war jazz-, poetry-, and drug-affected Beat Generation. He wrote it in an extended session of „spontaneous prose”, or stream of consciousness, which created a style of writing entirely of Kerouac’s own making. He was hailed in some circles as a major American writer, and reluctantly as the spokesman for the Beat Generation.
His friendship with Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and George Whitman, among others, defined a generation. Kerouac also wrote and narrated a „Beat” movie titled „Pull My Daisy” in 1958.
In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard’s „A Buddhist Bible” at the San Jose Library, which then marked the beginning of his studies of Buddhism and his own personal quest for enlightenment. He chronicled parts of this, as well as some of his adventures with Gary Snyder, in the book „The Dharma Bums”, published in 1958. Kerouac developed something of a friendship with the scholar Alan Watts (cryptically named Arthur Wayne in Kerouac’s novel Big Sur, and Alex Aums in Desolation Angels). He also met and had discussions with the famous Japanese Zen Buddhist authority D.T. Suzuki. At some point in his life Kerouac wrote „Wake Up”, a biography of Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha) that remains unpublished.
Kerouac died prior to finishing his „Duluoz Legend” project, which exists only as an incomplete autobiographical manuscript.

Death and afterwards
He died on October 21, 1969 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida from an internal hemorrhage at the age of 47, the unfortunate result of a life of heavy drinking, seen by some as a way to overcome his shyness. He was living at the time with his third wife Stella, and his mother Gabrielle. He is buried in his home town of Lowell.
A DVD titled „Kerouac: King of the Beats” features several minutes of his appearance on Firing Line, William F. Buckley’s television show, during Kerouac’s later years when alcoholism had taken control. He is seen often incoherent and very drunk.
Books also continue to be published that were written by Kerouac, many unfinished by him. A book of his haikus and dreams also were published, giving interesting insight into how his mind worked.
In August 2001, most of his letters, journals, notebooks and manuscripts were sold to the New York Public Library for an undisclosed sum. Douglas Brinkley also has a deal at the moment allowing him exclusive access to parts of this archive until 2005. The first collection of edited journals, Wind Blown World, was published in 2004.


Jack Kerouack – Published works
Kerouac’s most familiar work is On the Road. During his years of rejection by publishers, he wrote a number of mostly autobiographical books, some of which he carried around in manuscript form in his rucksack. His body of work includes:

Book of Haikus
Good Blonde and Others
Some of the Dharma
Old Angel Midnight
Heaven and Other Poems
Scattered Poems
Book of Blues
Mexico City Blues
Pomes All Sizes
Safe In Heaven Dead
Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from Sf to Ny
Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940-1956
Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1957-1969
The Town and the City
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
Departed Angels: The Lost Paintings
Atop An Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings
Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac
On The Road (ISBN 0140042598)
The Subterraneans (ISBN 0802131867)
Tristessa (ISBN 0140168117)
Visions of Gerard (ISBN 0140144528)
Doctor Sax (ISBN 0802130496)
Maggie Cassidy (ISBN 0140179062)
Visions of Cody (ISBN 0140179070)
The Dharma Bums (ISBN 0140042520)
Desolation Angels (ISBN 1573225053)
Big Sur (ISBN 0140168125)
Satori in Paris & Pic (ISBN 0802130615)
Vanity of Duluoz (ISBN 0140236392)
Orpheus Emerged (ISBN 0743475143)
The Jack Kerouac Collection [Box](Audio CD Collection)
Reads On The Road (Audio CD)
Dr Sax & Great World Snake (Play Adaptation with Audio CD)
Kerouac’s writings maintain a sense of urgency while embarking on a journey during which he explores the society surrounding him by mystifying those experiences. Kerouac’s writings contained a social and sexual recklessness (and descriptions of quasi-criminal activities) that surprised and upset readers of the time they were published.
There is a book featuring much of Jack’s early writings when he was literally first beginning as a writer, entitled Atop an Underwood. A journal of some his dreams was also published after his death, in a book called Book of Dreams.

His Influence on the World
He is considered by some as the „Father of the Hippies”.
The progressive rock group King Crimson paid tribute to Jack Kerouac and his works with their album „Beat”, which contained songs „Neal and Jack and me” and „Satori in Tangier”. A couple of other musicians also have songs talking about Kerouac, such as 10,000 Maniacs with „Hey Jack Kerouac”, Allan Taylor with „Kerouac’s Dream”, Subincision with „(I Want to Be Jack) Kerouac”, as well as Hot Sauce Johnson and Rusted Root with „Jack Kerouac”. His book On the Road is also referenced in a song by the rock group Our Lady Peace, a song called „All for You”.
Kicks Joy Darkness, a tribute album to Kerouac, features performances by several well-known artists, such as Johnny Depp, Hunter S. Thompson, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, Michael Stipe from R.E.M., Joe Strummer from The Clash and Jeff Buckley.
The book On The Road can be seen laying on the dashboard of the car at the beginning of the music video for „Youth of the Nation”, by P.O.D., and can also be seen on Lisa’s bookshelf in an episode of The Simpsons. (Episode 7F07 – Bart vs. Thanksgiving In an episode of the TV show 3rd Rock From the Sun, now that high school’s over for him, Tommy wants to follow the lead of Jack Kerouac and hit the road. Later, he actually decides he’s ready to go to college, and Harry suggests maybe he can study Kerouac.
In episode 040 „Rebel Without a Clue” of the TV show Quantum Leap, Sam visits Kerouac in Big Sur during his time travels, in order to prevent a motorcycle gang leader’s girlfriend from being killed.
In one episode of the short-lived televison show Freaks and Geeks, Lindsay’s class has to write an essay on „On the Road”, and Lindsay disagrees with the teacher about the best interpretation of the work.
Actor Johnny Depp supposedly paid US$15,000 for a raincoat that Kerouac owned.
A street is named after him in San Francisco. (Jack Kerouac Alley at Columbus Avenue between City Lights Bookstore and Vesuvio Café.

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