roberta

life and times on the road

Jack Kerouac was born Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac in Lowell Massachusetts, in 1922. He was the third born to French-Canadian immigrants.

Kerouac briefly attended Columbia College. He enslisted in the U.S. Navy and was discharged on psychiatric grounds. Later he traveled throughout the United States.

He was the first person to use the term Beat Generation in reference to a group of American writers. These writers, including himself, rejected mainstream society in the 1950s through their unconventional writings and alternative lifestyles.

Kerouac's best-known novel, On the Road, is mostly an autobiographical account of the Beat experience in America. On The Road is regarded as one of the classic works of the Beat Generation. It recounts the hitchhiking adventures of several characters who embrace drugs, sex, and music in their wanderings across the United States.

Kerouac was unable to find a publisher for On The Road so he spent the next six years writing whatever came into his head. On The Road was finally published in 1957 and brought him almost immediate fame.

Jack Kerouac died in St. Petersburg, Oct. 21, 1969, of abdominal hemorrhage due to complications associated with alcohol abuse.

Other works by Jack Kerouac include: The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, and The Dharma Bums. He wrote the novel, The Subterraneans in 72 straight hours (Benzedrine helped fight off sleep). If you like Kerouac's works you will enjoy Hunter S. Thompson or Thomas Wolfe.

Jack Kerouac featured in Atlantic Monthly

Kerouac wore khakis.

Once I was young and had so much more orientation and could talk with nervous intelligence about everything and with clarity and without as much literary preambling as this; in other words this is the story of an unself-confident man, at the same time of an egomaniac, naturally, facetious won't do -- just to start at the beginning and let the truth seep out...

Jack Kerouac, Subterraneans

"Jack Kerouac, new Buddha of American prose, who spit forth intelligence . . . creating a spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature." -Allen Ginsberg

"Kerouac's work represents the most extensive experiment in language and literary form undertaken by an American writer of his generation." -Ann Douglas

"Kerouac's peculiar genius infects every page." -The New York Times

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac Books, Poetry, novels, beat literature and more!

http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/LitKicks.html

Recommended Books:

anything by Jack Kerouac

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

by: Tom Wolfe

A Clockwork Orange

by: Anthony Burgess

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

by: Hunter S. Thompson

THE END

OF THE ROAD

Jack Kerouac was born Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac in Lowell Massachusetts, in 1922. He was the third born to French-Canadian immigrants.

He was the first person to use the term Beat Generation in reference to a group of American writers. These writers, including himself, rejected mainstream society in the 1950s through their unconventional writings and alternative lifestyles.

Kerouac was unable to find a publisher for On The Road so he spent the next six years writing whatever came into his head. On The Road was finally published in 1957 and brought him almost immediate fame.

Jack Kerouac died in St. Petersburg, Oct. 21, 1969, of abdominal hemorrhage due to complications associated with alcohol abuse.

Other works by Jack Kerouac include: The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, and The Dharma Bums. He wrote the novel, The Subterraneans in 72 straight hours (Benzedrine helped fight off sleep). If you like Kerouac's works you will enjoy Hunter S. Thompson or Thomas Wolfe.

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac Character Alias Key

From 'On The Road'