Jack Kerouac, along with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, belonged to the group of writers who called themselves "the beat generation," the source of the popular word "beatnik." He was best known for his most successful book, On the Road, that made him a cult figure.
The 'beatniks' rebelled against the conformity of 1950s "square" society and valued artistic and personal freedom of expression.
Early Life of Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French-Canadian parents. His real name was Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, and he spoke only French until he was six. When he was four, his beloved older brother Gerard died, and for much of his life, Kerouac believed that his brother was his guardian angel.
While studying at Columbia University in New York City, he met future friends William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, co-founders of the Beat Generation, but Kerouac left a year later. After briefly serving as a merchant marine in World War II, he traveled through the US, Mexico and Europe. He took odd jobs and at the same time, wrote about his experiences.
Kerouac's Novel On the Road
His first novel, The Town and the City, was written when he was 28-years-old. He believed that creative writing should be spontaneous. Kerouac's novel On the Road, the first beat novel, became the defining text of the beat culture. Written over a short period of 20 days on a single roll of telegraph paper.
The books was based on his wild adventures while traveling across the United States with his friend Neal Cassady, who he fictionalized in this cult book as Dean Moriarty. His friends Ginsberg appears as Carlo Marx, and Burroughs as Old Bull Lee.
Kerouac's Later Years
In his search for spiritual liberation, Jack Kerouac experimented with drugs and sex. Jazz inspired his writings and he also studied Zen Buddhism. Unlike his famous novel On the Road, his other books were not as successful.
Kerouac was a spokesman for the Beat Generation, but later found this burdensome. He settled in Florida with his third wife. On the 21st of October 1969, aged 47, Kerouac died of an alcohol-related illness.
A Quote from Kerouac's On the Road
In On the Road, Kerouac wrote, "Darling, you know and I know that everything is straight between us at least beyond the furthest abstract definition in metaphysical terms or any terms you want to specify or sweetly impose or harken back…"
Major Works by Jack Kerouac
- The Town and the City, 1950
- On the Road, 1957
- The Dharma Bums, 1958
- The Subterraneans, 1958
- Mexico City Blues, 1959
- Doctor Sax, 1959
- The Scripture of Golden Eternity, 1960
- Lonesome Traveller, 1960-1963
- Rimbaud, (poem, 1960)
- Book of Dreams (1961)
- Big Sur, 1962
- Visions of Gerard, 1963
- Desolation Angels, 1965
- Vanity of Duluoz, 1968
Sources:
- Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994.
- Oxford Who's Who in the 20th Century. Oxford: OUP, 1999.
- Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997.
 |
