Home » USA » Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

Biography

Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1922. His parents were from Quebec. He went to Columbia University on an athletic scholarship but left after one year and then joined the Merchant Marine, from which he was honourably discharged. He was arrested as an accessory to murder in 1944 and, when his father wouldn’t pay the bail, he married a woman who agreed to do so. The marriage was annulled a year later. When his parents moved to New York, he lived with them, while he started his writing career. He did various odd jobs, while writing. His first novel sold poorly. He allegedly spent three weeks writing On The Road but couldn’t find a publisher for it. He continued to write, travel and take drugs. Eventually a publisher was found for On The Road, though it was heavily edited. The book had considerable success. He continued to write and publish but never repeated the success of On The Road. He died in 1969, from an illness related to his heavy drinking. He will long be remembered for his seminal and highly influential On The Road.

Books about Jack Kerouac

Ann Charters and Allen Ginsberg: Kerouac: A Biography
Tom Clark: Jack Kerouac
Paul Maher Jr.: Kerouac: The Definitive Biography
Gerald Nicosia: Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac

Other links

Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
DHARMA beat (dedicated to Jack Kerouac’s life and writings)
Featured Author: Jack Kerouac
Kerouac: Homage To Jack
Kerouac, etc.
Misremembering Jack Kerouac
Remembering Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac’s Famous Scroll, ‘On the Road’ Again
Jack Kerouac Character Alias Key
Jack Kerouac character reference key
The battle for Jack Kerouac’s estate
An Exploration of Jack Kerouac’s Buddhism: Text and Life
Kerouac & The Outsider — A Puzzle
Belief and Technique for Modern Prose (Kerouac’s writing tips)
In the Kerouac Archive
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!
National Park Service site on places in Lowell (his hometown) associated with him
Jack Kerouac’s Last House; St. Petersburg, Florida
The Kerouac Project
My mother and Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac and David Amram
Interview

Bibliography

1950 The Town & the City (novel)
1957 On The Road (novel)
1958 The Subterraneans (novel)
1958 The Dharma Bums (novel)
1959 Doctor Sax: Faust Part Three (novel)
1959 Maggie Cassidy (novel)
1959 Mexico City Blues (poetry)
1960 Excerpts From Visions of Cody (novel)
1960 The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (poetry)
1960 Tristessa (novel)
1960 Visions of Cody (novel)
1960 Lonesome Traveler (novel)
1960 Rimbaud (poetry)
1961 Book of Dreams (novel)
1961 Pull My Daisy (poetry)
1962 Big Sur (novel)
1963 Visions of Gerard (later: Visions of Gerard & Tristessa) (novel)
1965 Desolation Angels (novel)
1966 Satori in Paris (novel)
1968 Vanity of Duluoz: An Adventurous Education 1935-46 (novel)
1971 Scattered Poems (poetry)
1971 Pic (novel)
1972 Visions of Cody (novel)
1973 Trip Trap Haiku along the Road from San Francisco to New York 1959 (with Albert Saijo and Lew Welch)
1977 Heaven & Other Poems (poetry)
1983 Dear Carolyn: Letters to Carolyne Cassady
1983 San Francisco Blues (poetry)
1991 Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings
1992 Pomes All Sizes (poetry)
1993 Good Blonde & Others (poetry)
1993 Old Angel Midnight (poetry)
1995 Book of Blues (poetry)
1995 Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1940-1956
1997 Some of the Dharma (sketches)
1999 Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings
2002 Orpheus Emerged (novel)
2003 Book of Haikus (poetry)
2004 Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954
2005 Beat Generation (drama)
2006 Book of Sketches (poetry)
2008 And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (with William Burroughs) (novel)
2008 Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha
2009 You’re a Genius All The Time: Belief And Technique For Modern Prose (novel)
2010 Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters
2011 The Sea Is My Brother (novel)
2012 Collected Poems
2014 The Haunted Life (novel)
2016 Old Angel Midnight (poetry)