Kerouac, Jack

**Jack Kerouac**
	; Jack Kerouac by Tom Palumbo circa 1956
Born:	March 12 1922; Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died:	October 21 1969 (aged 47); St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.
Occupation(s):	Poet, novelist
Nationality:	American
Writing period:	1942–1969
Literary movement:	Beat, ; Franco American

Latest revision as of 21:03, 25 December 2022

Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), also known as "King of the Beatniks" and "Father of the Hippies," was an American writer, poet, artist, and novelist. He is most famous for his simple, confessional, and meandering writing style that describes his nomadic travel experiences captured throughout his novels, especially On the Road.

Early on in his college days, Kerouac embraced a bohemian lifestyle that lead him to take drug-fueled cross-country trips. He notes in his personal writings and in his novels that he rejected the values of the time and was seeking to break free from society's restraints. These practices led to his life-long addictions and habitual drug use, including psilocybin and LSD. He also rejected traditional ideas about spirituality, and devoted time to studying Buddhism.

Kerouac often wrote of every person and place he encountered as being holy. Yet while his writings were suffused with religious imagery, they were usually stained with decadence. Perhaps he was searching for God, but the holiness he sought for himself was not contingent on any kind of morality. He instead resonated with the moral vacuum of his times and became one with it. His flirtation with Buddhism was a superficial one; he required drugs to understand it. His friends Gary Snyder and Alan Watts, on the other hand, were serious students of Buddhism and their lives were positively affected by it.

Jack Kerouac's books and poems have often been referred to as the catalyst for the 1960 counterculture revolution. Tom Robbins, Richard Brautigan, Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and others, have publicly testified to Kerouac's influence on them.

His life story, as much as any figure from his time, is a testament to the results of a confused ideology that seeks spirituality with no moral boundaries to guide it.

Early Life

Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1922 with the given name of Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac. He was the third and final child of Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, working-class immigrants from Quebec, Canada. Jack's father ran a print shop and published the Spotlight magazine.^[1] This early exposure to publishing, printing, and the written word piqued Kerouac's already growing interest in the literary world. At the age of four, Kerouac's elder brother, Gérard, was stricken with rheumatic fever and died at the age of nine. The family, and especially Jack, was heartbroken. Jack believed that from that time on Gerard served as his guardian angel, and followed him throughout his life. This belief, along with his memories of his beloved brother, inspired him to write his book Visions of Gerard.

Nevertheless, his family's traditional Catholic values began to fall by the wayside. His brother's death seemed to make him and his father angry at God and religion. When the relationship between Jack and his father began to deteriorate, that anger in Jack turned into rage and rebellion. He went from a strong Catholic upbringing to a lifestyle of no moral boundaries.

Kerouac grew up speaking a dialect of French-Canadian known as joual. He spoke English as a second language and didn't begin learning it until he was almost six years old. Kerouac played sports extensively, liked to take long hikes, and wrote little diaries and short stories. He was a sociable child who made friends easily, but his main companion during his youth and adulthood was the constant notebook he would carry with him wherever he went. He loved to write letters that were peppered with details about thoughts he was having, current world situations, and the actions of his daily life. He says his early desires to write were inspired by the radio show "The Shadow" and the writings of Thomas Wolfe, whose style he modeled in his first novel.

Education was an important part of Kerouac's early life, but he soon lost interest in its formalities. He was a very bright student who skipped the sixth grade. He went to high school in Lowell, Massachusetts, the Horace Mann School for Boys, and then, in 1939 he attended Columbia University in New York City. Kerouac was a star athlete who earned a football scholarship from Columbia. By the time he finished high school he knew that he wanted to be a writer so he deliberately skipped classes at Columbia to stay in his room and write. His disenchantment with college increased when he broke his leg at the beginning of the football season during his freshman year and as he continually had disagreements with his coach about playing time.

Kerouac's Naval Reserve Enlistment photograph, 1943

When Kerouac left Columbia in 1941, his budding wanderlust led him to join the merchant marines in 1942, and in February 1943 he enlisted in the United States Navy Reserves. He was discharged from the Navy while still in boot camp on psychiatric grounds for "indifferent disposition."

He returned to New York after his discharge and sought refuge with his former girlfriend Edie Parker. They married in 1944 and while living in a small apartment he met and formed strong bonds with Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and William S. Burroughs. These three men, more than any other people in Kerouac's life, influenced him, inspired him, and were the subjects of many of his writings. Their influence included experimentation with religious practices, sexual preferences, and hallucinogenic drugs.

These men were to become his traveling partners as he roamed the United States. It was the experiences Kerouac had while living and traveling with these men that led him to describe his friends and his generation as the so-called Beat Generation. In a conversation with novelist John Clellon Holmes in 1948, Kerouac commented on his generation by saying, "Ah, this is nothing but a beat generation." Holmes wrote an article in The New York Times shortly thereafter entitled "This is the Beat Generation," and the name stuck.

While he was still working on his breakthrough novel On the Road his marriage to Edie Parker was annulled and he remarried in 1950, this time to Joan Haverty. Not long after Kerouac finished his manuscript in 1951, Haverty threw him out and filed for divorce, despite being pregnant with Kerouac's daughter.

Later Life

Just as Burroughs and Cassady were Kerouac's mentors in his young adulthood, Gary Snyder took this role later in Kerouac's life. The Dharma Bums details Kerouac's newfound devotion to Buddhism and his traveling adventures with Snyder. The main character in the novel is based on Gary Snyder's personality and his ideas. Snyder's influence went beyond Jack Kerouac's writings and into his personal life when he took a job as a fire lookout for several months because Snyder recommended taking time to be with nature. Kerouac gives an account of that summer, which was a difficult one for him, in his novel, Desolation Angels. Snyder spent more than a decade studying Zen Buddhism in Japan and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his poetry collection "Turtle Island." Kerouac's novel Big Sur is based on the time spent with the Episcopalian priest turned Zen Buddhist scholar Alan Watts. Big Sur is considered his last great novel.

With the acclaim of On the Road, Jack Kerouac soon became a household celebrity. Ironically, this rise to fame led to a rapid downward spiral in his personal life. Kerouac (the book character) and Kerouac (the conservative Catholic) came into severe conflict and his drinking and drug use intensified. He was uneasy and unhappy.

He moved in with his mother and she continued to live with him for the rest of his life. Just three years before he died he married Stella Sampas, the sister of his childhood friend Sebastian Sampas, who died fighting in Europe during World War II. They continued to live with his mother Gabrielle. He continued to write after Big Sur, but the writings were sad and slower and showed a very disconnected soul. As his depression and drunkenness worsened, Kerouac became reclusive, staying at home, playing with the same deck of cards, and giving up all of his Buddhist beliefs and replacing them with the devout Catholicism of his mother.

Kerouac was rushed to St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 20, 1969. He died the following day from an internal hemorrhage that was the result of cirrhosis of the liver. He had been experiencing severe abdominal pain in direct relation to a life of heavy alcoholism and drug use. He was buried in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts.

In 1985 John Antonelli made a documentary film called Kerouac, the Movie that shows rare footage of reading from On the Road and "Visions of Cody" from The Tonight Show with Steve Allen in 1957.

On May 22, 2001, Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts professional football team, bought the original "On the Road" manuscript for $2.2 million at Christies Auction House in New York City. In 2002 the New York Public Library acquired a major portion of the remaining Kerouac archives that included letters, journals, notebooks, and other manuscripts.

Career

Kerouac's first novel was The Town and the City, published in 1950. Kerouac's father died in his arms in 1946, and he began writing the book almost immediately after his death. The novel, like all of Kerouac's novels, was autobiographical, and told of the decline of his own family.

The whole family never really recovered from Gerard's death. His mother fell back on her Catholicism to deal with it while his father rejected it. He refused to attend mass, claiming the church was no more than a business organization out for a profit. His son's death, and the subsequent failure of his business and then Jack's departure from Columbia left Leo bitter. His relationship with Jack soured as he called him a "bum," and called his friends "dope fiends, crooks and "misfits." His life became chain smoking, drinking, and gambling.

Kerouac's parents had moved from Lowell, Massachusetts to Queens, New York when Kerouac enrolled in Columbia University. The novel dealt with Kerouac's mixed feelings about the decline of his parent's small town values and his own increasingly wild lifestyle in the city. It received brief critical acclaim, but Kerouac always thought of it as a failure. It was patterned after the style of his favorite author, Thomas Wolfe. It was not until Kerouac's second novel that he put his own revolutionary stamp on his writings.

In 1951 Kerouac took the ideas from various brief writings and decided to come at those ideas from another direction. He sat down to write and in just three weeks he created what would eventually be his biggest success, On the Road.^[2] He didn't sleep, he barely ate, and his main fuel was an amalgam of Benzedrine, a widely-abused commercial version of the stimulant amphetamine and coffee (caffeine). In this manic state Jack taped together long strips of Japanese drawing paper that formed a roll that could be fed continuously through his typewriter. The finished work was one paragraph with no punctuation marks. He said that he was writing the way that Neal Cassady spoke, "in a rush of madness with no mental hesitation."

While the scroll was real, Kerouac took much more than three weeks to write the version that was finally published. He heavily reworked the text in his journals between 1947 and 1949, and then again on his typewriter. In 1951 he wrote the complete text on the scroll. Kerouac's initial efforts to get it published were rejected because of the odd and unfamiliar writing style, as well as its favorable portrayal of minority and marginalized social groups. After six years of attempts, Viking Press finally purchased On the Road, but he had to agree to have the names of real people changed for fear of libel, as well as other modifications.^[3]

On the Road is an autobiographical account of Kerouac's road trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady. The main character, Sal Paradise, is modeled after Kerouac and the character of Dean Moriarty was created from the experiences and letters of Neal Cassady. Kerouac's novel is the defining work of the Beat Generation.

Jack Kerouac's House, College Park area of Orlando, Florida, where he wrote The Dharma Bums

Kerouac's friendship with Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Gregory Corso, among others, defined a generation. Kerouac also wrote and narrated a "Beat" movie entitled Pull My Daisy in 1958. He wrote many of his novels during the 1950s, yet none of them were published during that time. It was only when he and his friends began to get a group of followers in San Francisco that the publishers began to take any notice of Kerouac's writing. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder were underground celebrities because of their constant poetry readings. This led to the eventual publication of On the Road as well The Dharma Bums, which many have dubbed the sequel to On the Road.

In 2007, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of On the Road's publishing, Viking issued two new editions: On the Road: The Original Scroll^[4] and On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition.^[5] By far the more significant is Scroll, a transcription of Kerouac's original draft typed as one long paragraph on the scroll. The text is more sexually explicit than Viking allowed to be published in 1957, and also uses the real names of Kerouac's friends.

Style

One of the most famous sentences ever penned by Kerouac is "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." This quote from On the Road demonstrates what Kerouac called his original technique of "spontaneous prose."

His style is similar to the "stream of consciousness" technique. His motto was "First thought=best thought," and thus many of his books, including On the Road, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, Big Sur, and The Subterraneans, were written in a matter of weeks, instead of years like his some of his contemporaries. Kerouac claimed that this style was greatly influenced by the exploding jazz era of his time. More specifically, it was the effect of the bebop genre established by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and others that gave feeling and mood to much of Kerouac's writings.

Kerouac's writing centered around the idea of breath (borrowed from jazz and from Buddhist meditation). Connected to this idea also came a disdain for the full stop or period, instead he would much rather use a long dash that he felt gave his writings a sense of connectedness. This prolific use of dashes caused his works, when read aloud, to sound as if they had their own unique rhythm. Thus his works were compared to the lyrics and music of jazz.

Unlike many writers who liked to keep their methods and ideas secret, Kerouac never tired of talking about his inspiration and his style. Often influenced by drugs and alcohol, Kerouac could talk to anyone for hours about how he wrote and why he wrote. These indiscretions were frowned upon by Ginsberg, who felt that Kerouac's drunken openness would make it more difficult for him to sell his work to a publisher. Nevertheless, Kerouac decided to write down his method for anyone who wanted to know how write like him. The most specific directions he gave on his spontaneous prose can be found in his "Belief & Technique for Modern Prose."^[6]

Although Kerouac made a name for himself during his lifetime, he had many critics. Among them were Truman Capote, who described Kerouac's quick writing ability by saying, "That's not writing, it's typing."

It is a fact, however, that although his initial draft may have been spontaneous, he did spend days perfecting many of his writings. This is most likely attributed to the fact that Kerouac was constantly trying to get his work published during the 1950s and thus trying to adjust to various publishers' standards. Kerouac documented his struggles, his revisions, and his disappointments in a vast number of letters he wrote that were also written in his Spontaneous Prose style.

Major works

Prose

Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings. ISBN 0670888222
Visions of Gerard. ISBN 0140144528
Doctor Sax. ISBN 0802130496
The Town and the City. ISBN 0156907909
Maggie Cassady. ISBN 0140179062
Vanity of Duluoz. ISBN 0140236392
On the Road. ISBN 0140042598
Visions of Cody. ISBN 0140179070
The Subterraneans. ISBN 0802131867
Tristessa. ISBN 0140168117
The Dharma Bums. ISBN 0140042520
Lonesome Traveler. ISBN 0802130747
Desolation Angels. ISBN 1573225053
Big Sur. ISBN 0140168125
Satori in Paris. ISBN 0802130615
Pic. ISBN 0802130615
Old Angel Midnight. ISBN 0912516976
Book of Dreams. ISBN 0872860272
Good Blonde & Others. ISBN 0912516224
Orpheus Emerged. ISBN 0743475143
Book of Sketches. ISBN 0142002151
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. (Unpublished work, with William S. Burroughs)

Poetry, letters, audio recordings and other writings

Mexico City Blues. ISBN 0802130607
Scattered Poems. ISBN 0872860647
Heaven and Other Poems. ISBN 0912516313
Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from SF to NY (with Albert Saijo and Lew Welch). ISBN 0912516046
Pomes All Sizes
San Francisco Blues. ISBN 0146001184
Book of Blues. ISBN 0140587004
Book of Haikus. ISBN 0140587004
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (meditations, koans, poems). ISBN 0872862917
Wake Up (Kerouac)
Some of the Dharma. ISBN 0670848778
Beat Generation (a play written in 1957 but not found or published until 2005) [1]
Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940-1956. ISBN 0140234446
Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1957-1969. ISBN 0140296158
Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac. ISBN 0670033413
Safe In Heaven Dead (Interview fragments). ISBN 0937815446
Conversations with Jack Kerouac (Interviews). ISBN 1578067553
Empty Phantoms (Interviews). ISBN 1560256583
Departed Angels: The Lost Paintings. ISBN 1560256214
Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation 1959 (LP)
Poetry For The Beat Generation 1959 (LP)
Blues And Haikus 1960 (LP)
The Jack Kerouac Collection (1990) (Audio CD Collection of 3 LPs)
Reads On The Road (1999) (Audio CD)
Doctor Sax & Great World Snake (2003) (Play Adaptation with Audio CD)
Door Wide Open (2000) (Jack Kerouac and Joyce Johnson). ISBN 0141001879

Notes

↑ Douglas Brinkley, In the Kerouac Archive The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1998. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
↑ Ellis Amburn, Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac (St. Martin's Press, 1999, ISBN 0312206771).
↑ Andrea Shea, Jack Kerouac's Famous Scroll, 'On the Road' Again All Things Considered, NPR, July 5, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
↑ Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics, 2008, ISBN 978-0143105466)
↑ Jack Kerouac, On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition (Viking, 2007, ISBN 978-0670063260).
↑ Jack Kerouac, Belief and Technique for Modern Prose. Retrieved December 24, 2022.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Amburn, Ellis. Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac. St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0312206771
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition. Viking, 2007. ISBN 978-0670063260
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road: The Original Scroll. Penguin Classics, 2008. ISBN 978-0143105466
Nikolopoulos, Stephanie, and Paul Maher Jr. Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road". Lulu, 2015. ISBN 978-1329179059

External links

All links retrieved December 21, 2022.

Blyler, Kerouac, and Bohemian Roads Literary Kicks, March 12, 2003.
Dear Coach: Jack Kerouac to Timothy Leary
Essentials of Spontaneous Prose Language Is A Virus
The Kerouac Project of Orlando
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!

Credits

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Jack Kerouac ^history

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[1] Douglas Brinkley, In the Kerouac Archive The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1998. Retrieved December 23, 2022.

[2] Ellis Amburn, Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac (St. Martin's Press, 1999, ISBN 0312206771).

[3] Andrea Shea, Jack Kerouac's Famous Scroll, 'On the Road' Again All Things Considered, NPR, July 5, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2022.

[4] Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics, 2008, ISBN 978-0143105466)

[5] Jack Kerouac, On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition (Viking, 2007, ISBN 978-0670063260).

[6] Jack Kerouac, Belief and Technique for Modern Prose. Retrieved December 24, 2022.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Epname}}
+{{Ebcompleted}}{{2Copyedited}}{{Copyedited}}{{Paid}}{{Approved}}{{Images OK}}{{Submitted}}
-{{Infobox Writer +
+{{epname|Kerouac, Jack}}
-- | name = Jack Kerouac +
+{{Infobox Writer
-- | image = Jack-Kerouac.jpg +
+| name             = Jack Kerouac
-- | birth_date = [[March 12]], [[1922]] +
+| image           = Kerouac by Palumbo 2 (cropped).png
-- | birth_place = [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]], [[Massachusetts]] +
+| caption          = Jack Kerouac by [[Tom Palumbo]] circa 1956
-- | death_date = [[October 21]], [[1969]] +
+| birth_name      = Jean-Louis Kérouac
-- | death_place = [[St. Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]], [[Florida]] +
+| birth_date      = {{birth date|1922|3|12|mf=y}}
-- | occupation = [[Novelist]], [[Poet]] +
+| birth_place     = [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], U.S.
-- | nationality = [[United States]] +
+| death_date       = {{death date and age|1969|10|21|1922|3|12|mf=y}}
-- | genre = [[Beat generation|Beat Poets]] +
+| death_place     = [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], U.S.
-- | movement = [[Beat generation|Beat]] +
+| occupation       = Poet, novelist
-- | magnum_opus = [[On the Road]] +
+| period          = 1942–1969
-- | influences = [[Thomas Wolfe]], [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] +
+| alma_mater      = [[Columbia University]]
-- | influenced = [[Tom Robbins]], [[Richard Brautigan]], [[Hunter S. Thompson]], [[Ken Kesey]], [[Tom Waits]], [[Thomas Pynchon]] +
+| movement        = [[Beat Generation|Beat]], <br />[[Franco American literature|Franco American]]
-- | website = [http://www.jackkerouac.com/ www.jackkerouac.com]
+| notableworks    = ''[[On the Road]]''<br />''[[The Dharma Bums]]''<br />''[[Big Sur (novel)|Big Sur]]''<br /> ''[[Desolation Angels (novel)|Desolation Angels]]''
+| spouse          = {{marriage|[[Edie Parker]]|1944|1948|end=divorced}}<br />{{marriage|[[Joan Haverty Kerouac|Joan Haverty]]|1950|1951|end=divorced}}<br />{{marriage|Stella Sampas|1966}}
+| children        = [[Jan Kerouac]]
+| nationality      = American
+}}
+'''Jack Kerouac''' (March 12, 1922 &ndash; October 21, 1969), also known as "King of the Beatniks" and "Father of the Hippies," was an [[United States|American]] writer, poet, artist, and novelist. He is most famous for his simple, confessional, and meandering writing style that describes his nomadic travel experiences captured throughout his novels, especially ''[[On the Road]].''
+Early on in his college days, Kerouac embraced a bohemian lifestyle that lead him to take drug-fueled cross-country trips. He notes in his personal writings and in his novels that he rejected the values of the time and was seeking to break free from society's restraints. These practices led to his life-long [[addiction]]s and habitual drug use, including psilocybin and LSD. He also rejected traditional ideas about spirituality, and devoted time to studying [[Buddhism]].
-'''Jack Kerouac''' ([[March 12]], [[1922]] &ndash; [[October 21]], [[1969]]) was an [[United States|American]]  [[novelist]], [[writer]], [[poet]], [[artist]], and part of the [[Beat Generation]].  While enjoying popular but little critical success during his own lifetime, Kerouac is now considered one of America's most important authors.  The spontaneous, confessional prose style inspired other writers, including [[Tom Robbins]], [[Richard Brautigan]], [[Hunter S. Thompson]], [[Ken Kesey]], [[Tom Waits]] and [[Bob Dylan]].  Kerouac's best known works are ''[[On the Road]]'', ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'' and ''[[Big Sur (Novel)|Big Sur]]''.
+Kerouac often wrote of every person and place he encountered as being holy. Yet while his writings were suffused with religious imagery, they were usually stained with decadence. Perhaps he was searching for [[God]], but the holiness he sought for himself was not contingent on any kind of [[morality]]. He instead resonated with the moral vacuum of his times and became one with it. His flirtation with Buddhism was a superficial one; he required drugs to understand it. His friends [[Gary Snyder]] and [[Alan Watts]], on the other hand, were serious students of Buddhism and their lives were positively affected by it.
+{{toc}}
+Jack Kerouac's books and poems have often been referred to as the catalyst for the 1960 [[counterculture]] revolution. [[Tom Robbins]], [[Richard Brautigan]], [[Hunter S. Thompson]], [[Ken Kesey]], [[Tom Waits]], [[Bob Dylan]], and others, have publicly testified to Kerouac's influence on them.
-He divided most of his adult life between roaming the vast American landscape and living with his mother. Faced with a changing country, Kerouac sought to find his place, eventually bringing him to reject the values of the [[fifties]]. His writing often reflects a desire to break free from society's mold and to find meaning in life.  This search may have led him to experiment with drugs (he used [[alcohol]], [[psilocybin]], [[marijuana]], and [[benzedrine]], among others to study spiritual teachings such as [[Buddhism]]) and to embark on trips around the world.  His books are often credited as the [[catalyst]] for the [[1960s]] [[counterculture]].
+His life story, as much as any figure from his time, is a testament to the results of a confused ideology that seeks spirituality with no moral boundaries to guide it.
-Kerouac died in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]] at the age of forty-seven from an [[Hemorrhage|internal hemorrhage]] thought to have been caused by [[alcoholism]].
+==Early Life==
+Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1922 with the given name of '''Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac'''. He was the third and final child of Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, working-class immigrants from [[Quebec, Canada]]. Jack's father ran a print shop and published the ''Spotlight'' magazine.<ref> Douglas Brinkley, [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/11/in-the-kerouac-archive/306200/ In the Kerouac Archive] ''The Atlantic Monthly'', November, 1998. Retrieved December 23, 2022.</ref> This early exposure to publishing, printing, and the written word piqued Kerouac's already growing interest in the literary world. At the age of four, Kerouac's elder brother, Gérard, was stricken with rheumatic fever and died at the age of nine. The family, and especially Jack, was heartbroken. Jack believed that from that time on Gerard served as his guardian angel, and followed him throughout his life. This belief, along with his memories of his beloved brother, inspired him to write his book ''Visions of Gerard.''
-==Life==
+Nevertheless, his family's traditional Catholic values began to fall by the wayside. His brother's death seemed to make him and his father angry at God and religion. When the relationship between Jack and his father began to deteriorate, that anger in Jack turned into rage and rebellion. He went from a strong Catholic upbringing to a lifestyle of no moral boundaries.
-Kerouac was born '''Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac''', in [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], to a family of [[French American|French-Americans]]. His parents, Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, were natives of [[Quebec|the province of Quebec]] in [[Canada]]. Like many other [[Québécois]] of their generation, the Lévesques and Kerouacs were part of the [[Quebec emigration]] to [[New England]] to find employment. Jack didn't start to learn [[English language|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 scholarships to [[Boston College]] and [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City|New York]]. He entered [[Columbia University]] after spending the scholarship's required year at [[Horace Mann School]]. Kerouac broke his leg playing football during his freshman year, and he argued constantly with his coach who kept him benched; his football scholarship did not pan out. After this, he went to live with an old girlfriend, Edie Parker, in New York. It was in New York that Kerouac met the people with whom he was to journey around the world, and the subjects of many of his novels: the so-called [[Beat Generation]], which included people such as [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Neal Cassady]] and [[William S. Burroughs]].  He joined the [[Merchant Marine]] in [[1942]].  In [[1943]], he joined the [[United States Navy]], but was discharged during [[World War II]] on psychiatric grounds---he was of "indifferent disposition."
+Kerouac grew up speaking a dialect of French-Canadian known as ''joual.'' He spoke English as a second language and didn't begin learning it until he was almost six years old. Kerouac played sports extensively, liked to take long hikes, and wrote little diaries and short stories. He was a sociable child who made friends easily, but his main companion during his youth and adulthood was the constant notebook he would carry with him wherever he went. He loved to write letters that were peppered with details about thoughts he was having, current world situations, and the actions of his daily life. He says his early desires to write were inspired by the radio show "The Shadow" and the writings of [[Thomas Wolfe]], whose style he modeled in his first novel.
-During Kerouac's time at [[Columbia University]], Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a [[murder]]; this incident formed the basis of a mystery novel the two collaborated on in 1945 entitled ''[[And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks]]'' (the novel was never published, although an excerpt from the manuscript would be included in the Burroughs compilation ''[[Word Virus]]''). In between his sea voyages, Kerouac stayed in [[New York]] with friends from [[Fordham University]] in [[The Bronx]]. He started writing his first novel, called ''[[The Town and the City]].'' It was published in [[1950]] under the name "John Kerouac" and earned him some respect as a writer. Unlike Kerouac's later work, which established his Beat style, ''The Town and the City'' is heavily influenced by Kerouac's reading of [[Thomas Wolfe]].
+Education was an important part of Kerouac's early life, but he soon lost interest in its formalities. He was a very bright student who skipped the sixth grade. He went to high school in Lowell, Massachusetts, the Horace Mann School for Boys, and then, in 1939 he attended [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City]]. Kerouac was a star athlete who earned a football scholarship from Columbia. By the time he finished high school he knew that he wanted to be a writer so he deliberately skipped classes at Columbia to stay in his room and write. His disenchantment with college increased when he broke his leg at the beginning of the football season during his freshman year and as he continually had disagreements with his coach about playing time.
+[[File:Jack Kerouac Naval Reserve Enlistment, 1943.png|thumb|300px|Kerouac's Naval Reserve Enlistment photograph, 1943]]
+When Kerouac left Columbia in 1941, his budding wanderlust led him to join the [[merchant marine]]s in 1942, and in February 1943 he enlisted in the [[United States Navy Reserves]]. He was discharged from the Navy while still in boot camp on [[psychiatry|psychiatric grounds]] for "indifferent disposition."
-Kerouac wrote constantly but did not publish his next novel for six years.  Building upon previous drafts tentatively titled "The Beat Generation" and "Gone On The Road",  Kerouac wrote what is now known as ''[[On the Road]]'' in April, 1951.  <ref>Amburn, Ellis, ''Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac'', St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0312206771</ref>  Fueled by [[Benzedrine]] and [[coffee]], he completed the first version of the novel during a three week extended session of spontaneous confessional prose. This session produced the now famous scroll of ''On The Road''. His technique was heavily influenced by [[Jazz]], especially [[Bebop]] (and later [[Buddhism]]) as well as the famous ''[http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/5083/letter3.html Joan Anderson letter]'' authored by [[Neal Cassady]]. Publishers rejected the book due to its experimental writing style and its sympathetic tone towards minorities and marginalized social groups of the [[United States in the 1950s]].  In 1957, [[Viking Press]] purchased the novel, demanding major revisions. <ref>Jack Kerouac." ''American Decades''. Gale Research, 1998.  Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC</ref>
+He returned to New York after his discharge and sought refuge with his former girlfriend Edie Parker. They married in 1944 and while living in a small apartment he met and formed strong bonds with [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Neal Cassady]], and [[William S. Burroughs]]. These three men, more than any other people in Kerouac's life, influenced him, inspired him, and were the subjects of many of his writings. Their influence included experimentation with religious practices, sexual preferences, and [[hallucinogenics|hallucinogenic drugs]].
-In 2007, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of ''On The Road'''s publishing,  [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060726/ap_en_ot/books_on_the_road an uncensored version of ''On The Road''] will be released by Viking Press, containing text that was removed from the released version because it was deemed explicit for 1957 audiences. It will be drawn solely from the original scroll and the only things not included will be things that Kerouac himself crossed out.
+These men were to become his traveling partners as he roamed the United States. It was the experiences Kerouac had while living and traveling with these men that led him to describe his friends and his generation as the so-called [[Beat Generation]]. In a conversation with novelist John Clellon Holmes in 1948, Kerouac commented on his generation by saying, "Ah, this is nothing but a beat generation." Holmes wrote an article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' shortly thereafter entitled "This is the Beat Generation," and the name stuck.
-The book was largely autobiographical, narrated from the point of view of the character [[Sal Paradise]], describing  Kerouac's roadtrip adventures across the [[United States]] and [[Mexico]] with [[Neal Cassady]], the model for the character of [[Dean Moriarty]]. In a way, the story is a retelling of [[Mark Twain]]'s classic ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', though in ''On the Road'' the narrator (Sal Paradise) is twice Huck's age and Kerouac's story is set in an America a hundred years after Twain's story.  Kerouac's novel is often described as the defining work of the post-World War II [[Beat Generation]] and Kerouac came to be called "the king of the beat generation."
+While he was still working on his breakthrough novel ''On the Road'' his marriage to Edie Parker was annulled and he remarried in 1950, this time to Joan Haverty. Not long after Kerouac finished his manuscript in 1951, Haverty threw him out and filed for divorce, despite being pregnant with Kerouac's daughter.
-Kerouac's friendship with [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[William Burroughs]] and [[Gregory Corso]], among others, defined a generation. Kerouac also wrote and narrated a "Beat" movie entitled ''[[Pull My Daisy]]'' in [[1958]]. In [[1954]], Kerouac discovered [[Dwight Goddard]]'s ''[[A Buddhist Bible]]'' at the [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] Library, which marked the beginning of Kerouac's immersion into [[Buddhism]]. He chronicled parts of this, as well as some of his adventures with [[Gary Snyder]] and other [[San Francisco]]-area poets, in the book ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'', set in [[California]] and published in [[1958]]. ''The Dharma Bums'', which some have called the sequel to ''On the Road'', was written in [[Orlando, Florida]] during late [[1957]] through early [[1958]].
+==Later Life==
+Just as Burroughs and Cassady were Kerouac's mentors in his young adulthood, [[Gary Snyder]] took this role later in Kerouac's life. The ''Dharma Bums'' details Kerouac's newfound devotion to Buddhism and his traveling adventures with Snyder. The main character in the novel is based on Gary Snyder's personality and his ideas. Snyder's influence went beyond Jack Kerouac's writings and into his personal life when he took a job as a fire lookout for several months because Snyder recommended taking time to be with nature. Kerouac gives an account of that summer, which was a difficult one for him, in his novel, ''Desolation Angels.'' Snyder spent more than a decade studying [[Zen|Zen Buddhism]] in Japan and won a [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1975 for his poetry collection "Turtle Island." Kerouac's novel ''Big Sur'' is based on the time spent with the Episcopalian priest turned Zen Buddhist scholar [[Alan Watts]]. ''Big Sur'' is considered his last great novel.
-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 (Novel)|Desolation Angels]]''). He also met and had discussions with the famous [[Japan|Japanese]] [[Zen Buddhism|Zen Buddhist]] authority [[D.T. Suzuki]].
+With the acclaim of ''On the Road,'' Jack Kerouac soon became a household celebrity. Ironically, this rise to fame led to a rapid downward spiral in his personal life. Kerouac (the book character) and Kerouac (the conservative Catholic) came into severe conflict and his [[alcoholism|drinking]] and drug use intensified. He was uneasy and unhappy.
-[[Image:Jack Kerouac House - Winter Park Florida.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Jack Kerouac House, College Park section of [[Orlando, Florida]].]]
-In July 1957, Kerouac moved to a small house on Clouser Ave. in the College Park section of Orlando, Florida to await the release of ''On the Road''. A few weeks later, the review appears in the ''[[New York Times]]'' proclaiming Kerouac the voice of a new generation. Kerouac was hailed as a major American writer, and reluctantly as the voice of the Beat Generation. His fame would come as an unmanageable surge that would ultimately be his undoing.
+He moved in with his mother and she continued to live with him for the rest of his life. Just three years before he died he married Stella Sampas, the sister of his childhood friend Sebastian Sampas, who died fighting in Europe during [[World War II]]. They continued to live with his mother Gabrielle. He continued to write after ''Big Sur,'' but the writings were sad and slower and showed a very disconnected soul. As his [[depression]] and drunkenness worsened, Kerouac became reclusive, staying at home, playing with the same deck of cards, and giving up all of his Buddhist beliefs and replacing them with the devout Catholicism of his mother.
-John Antonelli's 1985 documentary ''Kerouac, the Movie'' begins and ends with footage of Kerouac reading from ''On the Road'' and "Visions of Cody" from ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' with [[Steve Allen]] in 1957.  Kerouac appears intelligent but shy. "Are you nervous?" asks Steve Allen. "Naw," says Kerouac.
+Kerouac was rushed to St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 20, 1969. He died the following day from an internal hemorrhage that was the result of [[cirrhosis]] of the liver. He had been experiencing severe abdominal pain in direct relation to a life of heavy [[alcoholism]] and drug use. He was buried in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts.
-In 1955 Kerouac wrote a biography of [[Siddhartha Gautama]], entitled ''Wake Up'', which was unpublished during his lifetime but eventually serialised in ''Tricycle'' magazine, 1993-95. Shortly before his death Kerouac told interviewer [[Joseph Lelyveld]] of the ''New York Times'', "I'm not a beatnik. I'm a Catholic."  After pointing to a painting of [[Pope Paul VI]], Kerouac noted, "You know who painted that? Me."[http://partners.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-obit.html]
+In 1985 John Antonelli made a documentary film called ''Kerouac, the Movie'' that shows rare footage of reading from ''On the Road'' and "Visions of Cody" from ''The Tonight Show'' with [[Steve Allen]] in 1957.
-He died on [[October 21]], [[1969]] at St. Anthony's Hospital in [[St. Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]], [[Florida]], one day after being rushed, in severe abdominal pain, from his St. Petersburg home by ambulance. His death, at the age of 47, resulted from an internal hemorrhage caused by [[cirrhosis]] of the liver, the unfortunate result of a life of heavy drinking. He was living at the time with his third wife Stella, and his mother Gabrielle.  He is buried in his home town of Lowell.
+On May 22, 2001, Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts professional football team, bought the original "On the Road" manuscript for $2.2 million at Christies Auction House in New York City. In 2002 the [[New York Public Library]] acquired a major portion of the remaining Kerouac archives that included letters, journals, notebooks, and other manuscripts.
 ==Career==
-Kerouac realized he wanted to be a writer before the age of ten; his father was a [[linotype|linotypist]] and ran a print shop, publishing the Lowell '''Spotlight'''. <ref>Douglas Brinkley, [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst;jsessionid=Gs1xpJcLY9hGvRFJ5vlT4T6khmC8pgww2kv2QTp7FblWHTVgrkx7!778665962!40798083?a=o&d=5002299584 In the (Jack) Kerouac Archive], '''The Atlantic Monthly''', November 1998. Accessed May 29, 2006</ref> He tended to write constantly, carrying a notebook with him everywhere. Letters to friends and family members tended to be long and rambling, including great detail about his daily life and thoughts.
+Kerouac's first novel was ''The Town and the City,'' published in 1950. Kerouac's father died in his arms in 1946, and he began writing the book almost immediately after his death. The novel, like all of Kerouac's novels, was autobiographical, and told of the decline of his own family.
-Prior to becoming a writer, he tried a varied list of careers. He was a sports reporter for the Lowell Sun, a temporary worker in construction and food service, a [[Merchant Marine]] and he joined the [[United States Navy]] twice. Throughout all of this he led a nomadic lifestyle, never having a home of his own. Alternatively, he lived with his mother, stayed with friends or camped out.
+The whole family never really recovered from Gerard's death. His mother fell back on her Catholicism to deal with it while his father rejected it. He refused to attend mass, claiming the church was no more than a business organization out for a profit. His son's death, and the subsequent failure of his business and then Jack's departure from Columbia left Leo bitter. His relationship with Jack soured as he called him a "bum," and called his friends "dope fiends, crooks and "misfits." His life became chain smoking, drinking, and gambling.
-==Style==
+Kerouac's parents had moved from Lowell, Massachusetts to [[Queens, New York]] when Kerouac enrolled in Columbia University. The novel dealt with Kerouac's mixed feelings about the decline of his parent's small town values and his own increasingly wild lifestyle in the city. It received brief critical acclaim, but Kerouac always thought of it as a failure. It was patterned after the style of his favorite author, Thomas Wolfe. It was not until Kerouac's second novel that he put his own revolutionary stamp on his writings.
-Kerouac is considered by some as the "King of the [[Beatniks]]" as well as the "Father of the [[Hippie]]s". Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of [[Jazz]], especially the [[Bebop]] genre established by [[Charlie Parker]], [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Thelonious Monk]], and others. Later, Kerouac would include ideas he developed in his [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] studies, beginning with [[Gary Snyder]]. He called this style [[Spontaneous Prose]], a literary technique akin to [[stream of consciousness]].  Kerouac's motto was "first-thought=best thought", and many of his books exemplified this approach including  ''On the Road'', ''Visions of Cody'', ''Visions of Gerard'', ''Big Sur'', and ''The Subterraneans''. The central features of this writing method was the idea of breath (borrowed from Jazz and from Buddhist meditation breathing), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and not editing a single word (much of his work was edited by Donald Merriam Allen, a major figure in Beat Generation poetry who also edited some of Ginsberg's work as well). Connected with his idea of breath was the elimination of the [[Full stop|period]], preferring to use a long, connecting dash instead.  As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble [[improvisation|improvisational jazz]] licks. When spoken, the words might take on a certain kind of rhythm, though none of it pre-meditated.
+In 1951 Kerouac took the ideas from various brief writings and decided to come at those ideas from another direction. He sat down to write and in just three weeks he created what would eventually be his biggest success, ''On the Road.''<ref>Ellis Amburn, ''Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac'' (St. Martin's Press, 1999, ISBN 0312206771).</ref> He didn't sleep, he barely ate, and his main fuel was an amalgam of Benzedrine, a widely-abused commercial version of the stimulant [[amphetamine]] and coffee ([[caffeine]]). In this manic state Jack taped together long strips of Japanese drawing paper that formed a roll that could be fed continuously through his typewriter. The finished work was one paragraph with no punctuation marks. He said that he was writing the way that Neal Cassady spoke, "in a rush of madness with no mental hesitation."
-Gary Snyder was greatly admired by Kerouac, and many of his ideas influenced Kerouac. ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'' contains accounts of a mountain climbing trip Kerouac took with Snyder. Kerouac took a job as a [[fire lookout]] one summer on Snyder's recommendation, which by many accounts was a difficult but ultimatley rewarding experience. Kerouac described the experience in his novel "Desolation Angels".
+While the scroll was real, Kerouac took much more than three weeks to write the version that was finally published. He heavily reworked the text in his journals between 1947 and 1949, and then again on his typewriter. In 1951 he wrote the complete text on the scroll. Kerouac's initial efforts to get it published were rejected because of the odd and unfamiliar writing style, as well as its favorable portrayal of minority and marginalized social groups. After six years of attempts, Viking Press finally purchased ''On the Road,'' but he had to agree to have the names of real people changed for fear of [[libel]], as well as other modifications.<ref>Andrea Shea, [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11709924 Jack Kerouac's Famous Scroll, 'On the Road' Again] ''All Things Considered'', NPR, July 5, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2022.</ref>
-He would go on for hours to friends and strangers about his method, often drunk, which at first wasn't well received by Ginsberg, who had an acute awareness of the need to sell literature (to publishers) as much as write it, though he'd later be one of its great proponents, indeed Ginsberg was apparently influenced by Kerouac's free flowing prose method of writing in the composition of his masterpiece "Howl". It was at about the time that Kerouac wrote ''The Subterraneans'' that he was approached by Ginsberg and others to formally explicate exactly how he wrote it, how he did Spontaneous Prose. Among the writings he set down specifically about his Spontaneous Prose method, the most concise would be [[Belief and Technique for Modern Prose]], a list of thirty "essentials."
+''On the Road'' is an autobiographical account of Kerouac's road trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with [[Neal Cassady]]. The main character, Sal Paradise, is modeled after Kerouac and the character of Dean Moriarty was created from the experiences and letters of Neal Cassady. Kerouac's novel is the defining work of the [[Beat Generation]].
+[[Image:Jack Kerouac House - Winter Park Florida.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Jack Kerouac's House, College Park area of Orlando, Florida, where he wrote ''The Dharma Bums'']]
+Kerouac's friendship with [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[William Burroughs]], and [[Gregory Corso]], among others, defined a generation. Kerouac also wrote and narrated a "Beat" movie entitled ''Pull My Daisy'' in 1958. He wrote many of his novels during the 1950s, yet none of them were published during that time. It was only when he and his friends began to get a group of followers in San Francisco that the publishers began to take any notice of Kerouac's writing. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and [[Gary Snyder]] were underground celebrities because of their constant poetry readings. This led to the eventual publication of ''On the Road'' as well ''The Dharma Bums,'' which many have dubbed the sequel to ''On the Road.''
-*1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for your own joy
+In 2007, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of ''On the Road''{{'s}} publishing, Viking issued two new editions: ''On the Road: The Original Scroll''<ref>Jack Kerouac, ''On the Road: The Original Scroll'' (Penguin Classics, 2008, ISBN 978-0143105466)</ref> and ''On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition''.<ref>Jack Kerouac, ''On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition'' (Viking, 2007, ISBN 978-0670063260).</ref> By far the more significant is ''Scroll'', a transcription of Kerouac's original draft typed as one long paragraph on the scroll. The text is more sexually explicit than Viking allowed to be published in 1957, and also uses the real names of Kerouac's friends.
-*2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
-*3. Try never get drunk outside yr [sic] own house
-*4. Be in love with yr [sic] life
-*5. Something that you feel will find its own form
-*6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
-*7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
-*8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
-*9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
-*10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
-*11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
-*12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
-*13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
-*14. Like [[Marcel Proust|Proust]] be an old [[marijuana|teahead]] of time
-*15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
-*16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
-*17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself
-*18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
-*19. Accept loss forever
-*20. Believe in the holy contour of life
-*21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
-*22. Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better
-*23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
-*24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
-*25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
-*26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
-*27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
-*28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
-*29. You're a Genius all the time
-*30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven
-{{Quote_box|
+==Style==
-width=45%
+One of the most famous sentences ever penned by Kerouac is "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." This quote from ''On the Road'' demonstrates what Kerouac called his original technique of "spontaneous prose."
-|align=right
-|quote="The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.."
-|source=From Kerouac's famous novel "On The Road" which demonstrates his beautiful use of imagery in a beat style.
-|}}
-Some believed that at times Kerouac's writing technique did not produce lively or energetic prose. [[Truman Capote]] famously said about Kerouac's work, "That's not writing, it's typing." Despite such criticism, it should be kept in mind that what Kerouac said about writing and how he wrote are sometimes seen to be separate. According to [[Carolyn Cassady]] and other people who knew him he rewrote and rewrote. Some claim his own style was in no way spontaneous. However it should be taken into account that throughout most of the 50's, Kerouac was constantly trying to have his work published, and consequently he often revised and re-arranged manuscripts in an often futile attempt to interest publishers, as is clearly documented in his collected letters (which are in themselves wonderful examples of his style). "The Subterraneans" & "Visions of Cody" are possibly the best examples of Kerouac's free-flowing spontaneous prose method of writing.
-A [[DVD]] entitled "Kerouac: King of the Beats" features several minutes of his appearance on ''[[Firing Line]]'', [[William F. Buckley, Jr.|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 [[haiku]]s 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. Presently, [[Douglas Brinkley]] has exclusive access to parts of this archive until [[2005]]. The first collection of edited journals, ''[[Wind Blown World]]'', was published in [[2004]].
+His style is similar to the "stream of consciousness" technique. His motto was "First thought=best thought," and thus many of his books, including ''On the Road,'' ''Visions of Cody,'' ''Visions of Gerard,'' ''Big Sur,'' and ''The Subterraneans,'' were written in a matter of weeks, instead of years like his some of his contemporaries. Kerouac claimed that this style was greatly influenced by the exploding [[jazz]] era of his time. More specifically, it was the effect of the [[bebop]] genre established by [[Charlie Parker]], [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Thelonious Monk]], and others that gave feeling and mood to much of Kerouac's writings.
-==Trivia==
+Kerouac's writing centered around the idea of breath (borrowed from [[jazz]] and from Buddhist [[meditation]]). Connected to this idea also came a disdain for the full stop or period, instead he would much rather use a long dash that he felt gave his writings a sense of connectedness. This prolific use of dashes caused his works, when read aloud, to sound as if they had their own unique rhythm. Thus his works were compared to the lyrics and music of jazz.
-*Kerouac mentions his best friends George "John" Apostolos and Sebastian "Sammy" Sampas, killed during [[WWII]], numerous times throughout his writings.[http://www.uunashua.org/sermons/todiefor.shtml]
+Unlike many writers who liked to keep their methods and ideas secret, Kerouac never tired of talking about his inspiration and his style. Often influenced by drugs and alcohol, Kerouac could talk to anyone for hours about how he wrote and why he wrote. These indiscretions were frowned upon by Ginsberg, who felt that Kerouac's drunken openness would make it more difficult for him to sell his work to a publisher. Nevertheless, Kerouac decided to write down his method for anyone who wanted to know how write like him. The most specific directions he gave on his spontaneous prose can be found in his "Belief & Technique for Modern Prose."<ref>Jack Kerouac, [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/kerouac-technique.html Belief and Technique for Modern Prose]. Retrieved December 24, 2022.</ref>
-*Kerouac was an avid athlete; he initially played football in [[Columbia University]] in New York, and was known to be a fan of boxing.
-*Apostolos and Sampas were the uncle and cousin, respectively, of [[Ted Leonsis]].[http://www.cwhonors.org/archives/histories/Leonsis.pdf]
-*The [[1995]] collection of Kerouac letters edited by [[Ann Charters]] is dedicated to Sebastian “Sammy” Sampas, Kerouac’s boyhood friend, who died in World War II.[http://www.jackboulware.com/writing/index.php?p=40more-40]
-*Legendarily, ''On the Road'' was written in just three weeks, on one continuous roll of teletype paper. (In fact, this is true with qualifications only; see discussion at ''[[On the Road]]''.)
-*At the time of his death in 1969, Kerouac's estate was worth little more than ninety-one dollars, but by 2004 had grown to an estimated $20 million.
-==Influence==
+Although Kerouac made a name for himself during his lifetime, he had many critics. Among them were [[Truman Capote]], who described Kerouac's quick writing ability by saying, "That's not writing, it's typing."
-:''Related article: [[Jack Kerouac in popular culture]]''.
-Kerouac is considered by some as the "King of the [[Beats]]" as well as the "Father of the [[Hippie]]s". Kerouac's plainspeak manner of writing prose, as well as his nearly long-form haiku style of poetry have inspired countless modern neo-beat writers and artists, such as George Condo (Painter), Roger Craton (Poet and Philosopher), and John McNaughton (filmmaker).
+It is a fact, however, that although his initial draft may have been spontaneous, he did spend days perfecting many of his writings. This is most likely attributed to the fact that Kerouac was constantly trying to get his work published during the 1950s and thus trying to adjust to various publishers' standards. Kerouac documented his struggles, his revisions, and his disappointments in a vast number of letters he wrote that were also written in his Spontaneous Prose style.
-==Quotes==
+==Major works==
-{{wikiquote}}
-*"I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down."
-:&mdash; Jack Kerouac
-*"If you're working with words, it's got to be poetry. I grew up with [the books of Jack] Kerouac. If he hadn't wrote ''On The Road'', the Doors would have never existed. [[Jim Morrison|Morrison]] read ''On The Road'' down in [[Florida]], and I read it in [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]]. That sense of freedom, spirituality, and intellectuality in ''On The Road'' &mdash; that's what I wanted in my own work."
-:&mdash; [[Ray Manzarek]], [[The Doors]]' keyboard player
-*"I read ''[[On the Road]]'' in maybe [[1959]].  It changed my life like it changed everyone else's."
-:&mdash; [[Bob Dylan]]
-*“Someone handed me Mexico City Blues in St. Paul [Minnesota] in 1959 and it blew my mind. It was the first poetry that spoke my own language.”
-:&mdash; [[Bob Dylan]]<ref>Moore, Dave.  Kerouac Corner website.  http://www.wordsareimportant.com/kerouaccorner.htm#Bob%20Dylan%20influenced%20by%20Jack%20Kerouac</ref>
-*"Once when Kerouac was high on psychedelics with [[Timothy Leary]], he looked out the window and said, 'Walking on water wasn't built in a day.'  Our goal was to save the planet and alter human consciousness.  That will take a long time, if it happens at all."
-:&mdash; [[Allen Ginsberg]]
-*"The world that [Kerouac] trembling stepped out into in that decade was a bitter, gray one".
-:&mdash; [[Michael McClure]], San Francisco poet
-*Kerouac was "locked in the [[Cold War]] and the first Asian debacle" in "the gray, chill, militaristic silence, [...] the intellective void [...] the spiritual drabness".
-:&mdash; [[Michael McClure]], San Francisco poet
-:&mdash; [http://www.quotationsbook.com/authors/4010/Kerouac_Jack more]
-==Bibliography==
-[[Image:neal_jack.jpg|thumb|250px|''On the Road'' cover]]
 ===Prose===
-*''[[Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings]]'' (ISBN 0670888222)
+*''Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings.'' ISBN 0670888222
-*''[[Visions of Gerard]]'' (ISBN 0140144528)
+*''Visions of Gerard.'' ISBN 0140144528
-*''[[Doctor Sax]]'' (ISBN 0802130496)
+*''Doctor Sax.'' ISBN 0802130496
-*''[[The Town and the City]]'' (ISBN 0156907909)
+*''The Town and the City.'' ISBN 0156907909
-*''[[Maggie Cassidy]]'' (ISBN 0140179062)
+*''Maggie Cassady.'' ISBN 0140179062
-*''[[Vanity of Duluoz]]'' (ISBN 0140236392)
+*''Vanity of Duluoz.'' ISBN 0140236392
-*''[[On the Road]]'' (ISBN 0140042598)
+*''On the Road.'' ISBN 0140042598
-*''[[Visions of Cody]]'' (ISBN 0140179070)
+*''Visions of Cody.'' ISBN 0140179070
-*''[[The Subterraneans]]'' (ISBN 0802131867)
+*''The Subterraneans.'' ISBN 0802131867
-*''[[Tristessa]]'' (ISBN 0140168117)
+*''Tristessa.'' ISBN 0140168117
-*''[[The Dharma Bums]]'' (ISBN 0140042520)
+*''The Dharma Bums.'' ISBN 0140042520
-*''[[Lonesome Traveler]]'' (ISBN 0802130747)
+*''Lonesome Traveler.'' ISBN 0802130747
-*''[[Desolation Angels (novel)|Desolation Angels]]'' (ISBN 1573225053)
+*''Desolation Angels.'' ISBN 1573225053
-*''[[Big Sur (Novel)|Big Sur]]'' (ISBN 0140168125)
+*''Big Sur.'' ISBN 0140168125
-*''[[Satori in Paris]]'' (ISBN 0394174372, out of print; currently available in ISBN 0802130615)
+*''Satori in Paris.'' ISBN 0802130615
-*''[[Pic (Novel)|Pic]]'' (ISBN 0704311224, out of print; currently available in ISBN 0802130615)
+*''Pic.'' ISBN 0802130615
-*''[[Old Angel Midnight]]'' (ISBN 0912516976)
+*''Old Angel Midnight.'' ISBN 0912516976
-*''[[Book of Dreams]]'' (ISBN 0872860272)
+*''Book of Dreams.'' ISBN 0872860272
-*''[[Good Blonde & Others]]'' (ISBN 0912516224)
+*''Good Blonde & Others.'' ISBN 0912516224
-*''[[Orpheus Emerged]]'' (ISBN 0743475143)
+*''Orpheus Emerged.'' ISBN 0743475143
-*''[[Book of Sketches]]'' (ISBN 0142002151)
+*''Book of Sketches.'' ISBN 0142002151
-*''[[And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks]]'' (unpublished work; with [[William S. Burroughs]])
+*''And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks.'' (Unpublished work, with William S. Burroughs)
 ===Poetry, letters, audio recordings and other writings===
-*''[[Mexico City Blues]]''
+*''Mexico City Blues''. ISBN 0802130607
-*''[[Scattered Poems]]''
+*''Scattered Poems''. ISBN 0872860647
-*''[[Heaven and Other Poems]]''
+*''Heaven and Other Poems''. ISBN 0912516313
-*''[[Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from SF to NY]]''  (with Albert Saijo and Lew Welch)
+*''Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from SF to NY'' (with Albert Saijo and Lew Welch). ISBN 0912516046
-*''[[Pomes All Sizes]]''
+*''Pomes All Sizes''
-*''[[San Francisco Blues]]''
+*''San Francisco Blues''. ISBN 0146001184
-*''[[Book of Blues]]''
+*''Book of Blues''. ISBN 0140587004
-*''[[Book of Haikus]]''
+*''Book of Haikus''. ISBN 0140587004
-*''[[The Scripture of the Golden Eternity]]'' (meditations, koans, poems) ISBN 0-87286-291-7
+*''The Scripture of the Golden Eternity'' (meditations, koans, poems). ISBN 0872862917
-*''[[Wake Up (Kerouac)|Wake Up]]''
+*''Wake Up (Kerouac)''
-*''[[Some of the Dharma]]''
+*''Some of the Dharma''. ISBN 0670848778
-*''[[Beat Generation (play)|Beat Generation]]''  (a play written in 1957 but not found or published until 2005)[http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/4849.html]
+*''Beat Generation'' (a play written in 1957 but not found or published until 2005) [http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/4849.html]
-*''[[Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940-1956]]''
+*''Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940-1956''. ISBN 0140234446
-*''[[Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1957-1969]]''
+*''Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1957-1969''. ISBN 0140296158
-*''[[Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac]]''
+*''Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac''. ISBN 0670033413
-*''[[Safe In Heaven Dead]]''  (Interview fragments)
+*''Safe In Heaven Dead'' (Interview fragments). ISBN 0937815446
-*''[[Conversations with Jack Kerouac]]''  (Interviews)
+*''Conversations with Jack Kerouac'' (Interviews). ISBN 1578067553
-*''[[Empty Phantoms]]''  (Interviews)
+*''Empty Phantoms'' (Interviews). ISBN 1560256583
-*''[[Departed Angels: The Lost Paintings]]''
+*''Departed Angels: The Lost Paintings''. ISBN 1560256214
-*''[[Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation]] [[1959|(1959)]]'' (LP)
+*''Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation 1959'' (LP)
-*''[[Poetry For The Beat Generation]] [[1959|(1959)]]'' (LP)
+*''Poetry For The Beat Generation 1959'' (LP)
-*''[[Blues And Haikus]] [[1960|(1960)]]'' (LP)
+*''Blues And Haikus 1960'' (LP)
-*''The Jack Kerouac Collection''  (1990) [Box] (Audio CD Collection of 3 LPs)
+*''The Jack Kerouac Collection'' (1990) (Audio CD Collection of 3 LPs)
 *''Reads On The Road'' (1999) (Audio CD)
-*''[[Doctor Sax|Doctor Sax & Great World Snake]]'' (2003) (Play Adaptation with Audio CD)
+*''Doctor Sax & Great World Snake'' (2003) (Play Adaptation with Audio CD)
-*''[[Door Wide Open]]'' (2000) (Jack Kerouac and Joyce Johnson)
+*''Door Wide Open'' (2000) (Jack Kerouac and Joyce Johnson). ISBN 0141001879
 ==Notes==
 <references/>
-==Further reading==
+==References==
-* Amburm, Ellis. "''Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac''". St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0312206771
+* Amburn, Ellis. ''Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac''. St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0312206771
-* Amram, David. "''Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac''". Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002.ISBN 1560253622
+* Kerouac, Jack. ''On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition''. Viking, 2007. ISBN 978-0670063260
-* Bartlett, Lee (ed.) "''The Beats: Essays in Criticism''". London: McFarland, 1981.
+* Kerouac, Jack. ''On the Road: The Original Scroll''. Penguin Classics, 2008. ISBN 978-0143105466
-* Beaulieu, Victor-Lévy. "''Jack Kerouac: A Chicken Essay''". Coach House Press, 1975.
+* Nikolopoulos, Stephanie, and Paul Maher Jr. ''Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"''. Lulu, 2015. ISBN 978-1329179059
-* Brooks, Ken. "''The Jack Kerouac Digest''". Agenda, 2001.
-* Cassady, Carolyn. "''Off the Road: Twenty Years with Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg''". William Morrow, 1990.
+== External links ==
-* Challis, Chris. "''Quest for Kerouac''". Faber & Faber, 1984.
+All links retrieved December 21, 2022.
-* Charters, Ann. "''Kerouac''". San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1973.
-* Charters, Ann (ed.) "''The Portable Beat Reader''". New York: Penguin, 1992.
-* Charters, Ann (ed.) "''The Portable Jack Kerouac''". New York: Penguin, 1995.
-* Christy, Jim. "''The Long Slow Death of Jack Kerouac''". ECW Press, 1998.
-* Clark, Tom. "''Jack Kerouac''". Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1984.
-* Coolidge, Clark. "''Now It's Jazz: Writings on Kerouac & the Sounds''". Living Batch, 1999.
-* Dagier, Patricia; Quéméner, Hervé. "''Jack Kerouac: Au Bout de la Route ... La Bretagne''". An Here, 1999.
-* Edington, Stephen. "''Kerouac's Nashua Roots''". Transition, 1999.
-* Ellis, R.J., "''Liar! Liar! Jack Kerouac - Novelist''". Greenwich Exchange, 1999.
-* French, Warren. "''Jack Kerouac''". Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.
-* Gaffié, Luc. "''Jack Kerouac: The New Picaroon''". Postillion Press, 1975.
-* Giamo, Ben. "''Kerouac, The Word and The Way''". Southern Illinois U.P., 2000.
-* Gifford, Barry. "''Kerouac's Town''". Creative Arts, 1977.
-* Gifford, Barry; Lee, Lawrence. "''Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac''". St. Martin's Press, 1978. ISBN 01400.52690
-* Goldstein, N.W., "Kerouac's On the Road." Explicator 50.1. 1991.
-* Hipkiss, Robert A., "''Jack Kerouac: Prophet of the New Romanticism''". Regents Press, 1976.
-* Holmes, John Clellon. "''Visitor: Jack Kerouac in Old Saybrook''". tuvoti, 1981.
-* Holmes, John Clellon. "''Gone In October: Last Reflections on Jack Kerouac''". Limberlost, 1985.
-* Holton, Robert. "''On the Road: Kerouac's Ragged American Journey''". Twayne, 1999.
-* Huebel, Harry Russell. "''Jack Kerouac''". Boise State U.P., 1979.
-* Hunt, Tim. "''Kerouac's Crooked Road''". Hamden: Archon Books, 1981.
-* Jarvis, Charles. "''Visions of Kerouac''". Ithaca Press, 1973.
-* Johnson, Joyce. "''Minor Characters: A Young Woman's Coming-Of-Age in the Beat Orbit of Jack Kerouac''". Penguin Books, 1999.
-* Johnson, Joyce. "''Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957-1958''". Viking, 2000.
-* Johnson, Ronna C., "''You're Putting Me On: Jack Kerouac and the Postmodern Emergence''". College Literature. 27.1 2000.
-* Jones, James T., "''A Map of Mexico City Blues: Jack Kerouac as Poet''". Southern Illinois U.P., 1992.
-* Jones, James T., "''Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend''". Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.
-* Jones, Jim. "''Use My Name: Kerouac's Forgotten Families''". ECW Press, 1999.
-* Jones, Jim. "''Jack Kerouac's Nine Lives''". Elbow/Cityful Press, 2001.
-* Kealing, Bob. "''Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends''". Arbiter Press, 2004.
-* Kerouac, Joan Havery. "''Nobody's Wife: The Smart Aleck and the King of the Beats''". Creative Arts, 2000.
-* Maher Jr., Paul. "''Kerouac: The Definitive Biography''". Lanham: Taylor Trade P, July 2004 ISBN 0878333053
-* McNally, Dennis. "''Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America''". Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0306812223
-* Miles, Barry. "''Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats''". Virgin, 1998.
-* Montgomery, John. "''Jack Kerouac: A Memoir ...''". Giligia Press, 1970.
-* Montgomery, John. "''Kerouac West Coast''". Fels & Firn Press, 1976.
-* Montgomery, John. "''The Kerouac We Knew''". Fels & Firn Press, 1982.
-* Montgomery, John. "''Kerouac at the Wild Boar''". Fels & Firn Press, 1986.
-* Mortenson, Erik R., "''Beating Time: Configurations of Temporality in Jack Kerouac's On the Road''". College Literature 28.3. 2001.
-* Motier, Donald. "''Gerard: The Influence of Jack Kerouac's Brother on his Life and Writing''". Beaulieu Street Press, 1991.
-* Nicosia, Gerald. "''Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac''". Berkely: U of Cal P, 1994. ISBN 0520085698
-* Parker, Brad. "''Jack Kerouac: An Introduction''". Lowell Corporation for the Humanities, 1989.
-* Sandison, David. "''Jack Kerouac''". Hamlyn, 1999.
-* Swartz, Omar. "''The View From On the Road: The Rhetorical Vision of Jack Kerouac''". Southern Illinois U.P., 1999.
-* Swick, Thomas. "''South Florida Sun Sentinel''". February 22, 2004. Article: "Jack Kerouac in Orlando".
-* Theado, Matt. "''Understanding Jack Kerouac''". Columbia: University of South Carolina, 2000.
-* Turner, Steve. "''Angelheaded Hipster: A Life of Jack Kerouac''". Viking Books, 1996. ISBN 0670870382
-* Weinreich, Regina. "''The Spontaneous Prose of Jack Kerouac''". Southern Illinois U.P., 1987.
-==See also==
+* [https://litkicks.com/BlylerKerouac/ Blyler, Kerouac, and Bohemian Roads] ''Literary Kicks'', March 12, 2003.
-* [[Beat generation]]
+* [http://www.levity.com/aciddreams/docs/dearcoach.html Dear Coach: Jack Kerouac to Timothy Leary]
-* [[Beatnik]]
+* [https://www.languageisavirus.com/creative-writing-techniques/jack-kerouacs-essentials-of-spontaneous-prose.php Essentials of Spontaneous Prose] ''Language Is A Virus''
-* [[Neal Cassady]]
+* [https://www.kerouacproject.org/ The Kerouac Project of Orlando]
-* [[William S. Burroughs]]
+* [https://lckorg.tripod.com/ Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!]
-* [[References in On the Road|References in ''On the Road'']]
-{{Kerouac}}
-== External links ==
-{{wikiquote}}
-² [http://www.genealogie.org/famille/kirouac Kirouac Family Association bilingual Web Site]
-* [http://www.jackkerouac.com/ The Official Web Site of Jack Kerouac]
-* [http://www.kerouac.com/ Kerouac.com - Online Resourse]
-* [http://jackkerouac.free.fr/ Jack Kerouac's Life]
-* [http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/kerouac.htm Jack Kerouac]
-* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/kerouac.html Jack Kerouac Bibliography]
-* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/duluoz.html Books comprising Jack Kerouac's Duluoz legend]
-* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/alias2.html Key to the characters in Jack Kerouac's books, and their real-life counterparts]
-* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/alias.html Key to the real people represented in Jack Kerouac's books, and their fictional counterparts]
-* [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1385865 A more complete Jack Kerouac Character Key from the everything2 site]
-*[http://www.neonalley.org/kerouac.html Blue Neon Alley - Jack Kerouac directory]
-* [http://archives.radio-canada.ca/IDC-0-72-55-126-21/inoubliables/arts_culture/jack_kerouac_entrevue Interview with Jack Kerouac (Montreal, 1967)] (in French)
-*[http://www.litkicks.com/BeatPages/page.jsp?what=BlylerKerouac&who=muse_maiden Blyler, Kerouac, and Bohemian Roads]- Article linking Kerouac's novel On the Road with D.A. Blyler's Steffi's Club.
-* [http://www.levity.com/aciddreams/docs/dearcoach.html A letter he wrote to Timothy Leary, describing his experience with psilocybin]
-* [http://www.americanwriters.org/classroom/videolesson/vlp35_kerouac.asp American Writers: Jack Kerouac] - A two-hour C-SPAN television show about Jack Kerouac
-* [http://www.markbeebe.com/Kerouac%20title.htm "A Vision of Kerouac as The Shadow"] - a six page comic about two guys in Indiana talking about Kerouac
-*[http://archive.tc/kerouac/beat.html "About the Beat Generation", by Jack Kerouac] - a definition of the Beat Generation in Kerouac's own words
-*[http://www.runmuki.com/paul/random/dharmabummed.html  Dharma Bummed: A Marxist Analysis of Jack Kerouac and the Beats]
-*[http://www.languageisavirus.com/ Language Is A Virus] Kerouac's 'Belief and Technique for Modern Prose' and 'Essentials of Spontaneous Prose'
-*[http://www.pbase.com/pzo/beat_tour Denver Beat Photo Tour]
-*[http://www.pbase.com/pzo/kerouac_gas_station_longmontco Photos of the Kerouac Gas Station in Longmont, CO]
-*[http://www.pbase.com/pzo/ncgravesite Photos, Neal Cassady Sr. Gravesite]
-*[http://www.pbase.com/pzo/jacks_house Photos, Jack Kerouac's Last House, St. Petersburg, FL]
-*[http://www.wordsareimportant.com/dharmabeat.htm '''DHARMA beat''' - A Jack Kerouac website] with articles on Kerouac including a Calendar and a Links page
-*[http://kerouacproject.markandjodi.net/ Jack Kerouac Project website]
-*[http://lckorg.tripod.com Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! festival site]
-*[http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article343025.ece ''Independent on Sunday'' feature]
-*[http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/1999/kerouac.html Analysis of Kerouac's life and works from a Roman Catholic perspective]
-*[http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/jkbooks/index.html A selection of front covers of various editions of On the Road]
-*[http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1488451,00.html Guardian article on the history of the play Beat Generation, written and left unpublished for almost 50 years]
-[[Category:Art, Music, Literature, Sports, Leisure|Kerouac, Jack]]
+[[Category:Writers and poets]]
-[[Category:Biography|Kerouac, Jack]]
+[[Category:Biography]]
 {{Credit|67242466}}

Jack Kerouac by Tom Palumbo circa 1956
Born:	March 12 1922(1922-03-12) Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died:	October 21 1969 (aged 47) St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.
Occupation(s):	Poet, novelist
Nationality:	American
Writing period:	1942–1969
Literary movement:	Beat, Franco American