Online Encyclopedia

Jack Kerouac

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 also embark on numerous trips throughout the world. His books are also sometimes credited as having contributed in sparking the counterculture of the 1960s.

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early years
1.2 Later years
1.3 Death and afterwards

2 Published works

3 His Influence on the World

4 Quotes

5 Further readings

6 External links

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 native of Quebec. Like many other Quebecers of their generation, the Lévesques and Kerouacs emigrated to New England to find employement. Jack didn't start to learn English before 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.

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 and William Burroughs, 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. At some point in his life he also wrote "Wake Up", a biography of Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha) that unfortunately still remains unpublished.

Kerouac died prior to finishing his "Duluoz Legend" project, which exists only as an incomplete autobiographical manuscript.

Death and afterwards

He died at home from an internal hemorrhage on October 21, 1969, in St. Petersburg, Florida, 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.

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, when his upcoming biography of Kerouac should be finished.

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 include:

Other works include prose, poetry, Buddhist writings, and sound recordings. 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 - see picture)

On The Road is the favorite book of Seth and Marissa in the television show The O.C.

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.

Actor Johnny Depp supposedly paid US$15,000 for a raincoat that Kerouac owned.

A street is named after him in San Francisco. (see picture)

Quotes

"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."

-- 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. Morrison read On The Road down in Florida, and I read it in Chicago. That sense of freedom, spirituality, and intellectuality in On The Road — that's what I wanted in my own work."

-- Ray Manzarek, The Doors' keyboard player

"I read On the Road in maybe 1959. It changed my life like it changed everyone else's."

-- Bob Dylan

"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."

-- Allen Ginsberg

"The world that [Kerouac] trembling stepped out into in that decade was a bitter, gray one".

-- 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".

-- Michael McClure, San Francisco poet

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:: Jack Kerouac

The Official Web Site of Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac Bibliography
Books comprising Jack Kerouac's Duluoz legend
Key to the characters in Jack Kerouac's books, and their real-life counterparts
Key to the real people represented in Jack Kerouac's books, and their fictional counterparts
A list of recordings which relate to Jack Kerouac and/or Neal Cassady
Interview with Jack Kerouac (Montreal, 1967) (in French)
Blyler, Kerouac, and Bohemian Roads- Article linking Kerouac's novel On the Road with D.A. Blyler's Steffi's Club.
A letter he wrote to Timothy Leary, describing his experience with psilocybin
American Writers: Jack Kerouac - A two-hour C-SPAN television show about Jack Kerouac
"A Vision of Kerouac as The Shadow" - a six page comic about two guys in Indiana talking about Kerouac
"About the Beat Generation", by Jack Kerouac - a definition of the Beat Generation in Kerouac's own words

Last updated: 11-08-2004 00:19:16

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