Editing Jack Kerouac (section)

==Biography==
===Early life and adolescence===
[[File:Jack Kerouac's birthplace, 9 Lupine Road, Lowell MA.jpg|thumb|Jack Kerouac's birthplace, 9 Lupine Road, 2nd floor, West Centralville, Lowell, Massachusetts|alt=]]
Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French Canadian parents, Léo-Alcide Kéroack and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque.<ref>Ann Charters, Samuel Charters, ''Brother-Souls: John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and the Beat Generation'', University Press of Mississippi, 2010, p. 113</ref>

There is some confusion surrounding his name, partly because of variations on the spelling of ''Kerouac'', and because of Kerouac's own statement of his name as ''Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac''. His reason for that statement seems to be linked to an old family legend that the Kerouacs had descended from Baron François Louis Alexandre Lebris de Kerouac. Kerouac's baptism certificate lists his name simply as ''Jean Louis Kirouac'', the most common spelling of the name in Quebec.<ref name="autogenerated1983">{{harvnb|Nicosia|1994}}</ref> Kerouac's roots were indeed in [[Brittany]], and he was descended from a middle-class merchant colonist, Urbain-François Le Bihan, Sieur de [[Lanmeur|Kervoac]], whose sons married French Canadians.<ref name="dagier ; Quéméner"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogie.org/famille/kirouac/PlaquesCOMM_AN.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222185908/http://www.genealogie.org/famille/kirouac/PlaquesCOMM_AN.htm|title=genealogie.org|archive-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref>

Kerouac's father Leo had been born into a family of potato farmers in the village of [[Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec]]. Jack also had various stories on the etymology of his surname, usually tracing it to Irish, [[Breton language|Breton]], [[Cornish language|Cornish]], or other [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] roots. In one interview he claimed it was from the name of the Cornish language (''Kernewek''), and that the Kerouacs had fled from Cornwall to Brittany.<ref>[[Alan M Kent]], ''Celtic Cornwall: Nation, Tradition, Invention.'' Halsgrove, 2012</ref> Another version was that the Kerouacs had come to Cornwall from Ireland before the time of Christ and the name meant "language of the house".<ref>Michael J. Dittman, Jack Kerouac: A Biography, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004</ref> In still another interview he said it was an Irish word for "language of the water" and related to ''Kerwick''.<ref>{{cite web|author=Berrigan, Ted |author-link=Ted Berrigan |url=http://www.parisreview.com/media/4260_KEROUAC.pdf |title=The Art of Fiction No. 43: Jack Kerouac, pg. 49 |work=[[The Paris Review]] |year=1968 |access-date=May 14, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528025958/http://www.parisreview.com/media/4260_KEROUAC.pdf |archive-date=May 28, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kerouac, derived from ''Kervoach'', is the name of a town in Brittany in [[Lanmeur]], near [[Morlaix]].<ref name="dagier ; Quéméner">{{harvnb|Dagier|2009}}</ref>
[[Image:Jack Kerouac's 3rd home, 34 Beaulieu.jpg|thumb|left|His third of several homes growing up in the West Centralville section of Lowell]]
Jack Kerouac later referred to 34 Beaulieu Street as "sad Beaulieu". The Kerouac family was living there in 1926 when Jack's older brother Gerard died of [[rheumatic fever]], aged nine. This deeply affected four-year-old Jack, who later said Gerard followed him in life as a guardian angel. This is the Gerard of Kerouac's novel ''[[Visions of Gerard]]''. He had one other sibling, an older sister named Caroline. Kerouac was referred to as Ti Jean or little John around the house during his childhood.<ref name="autogenerated1983"/>

Kerouac spoke French with his family and began learning English at school, around age six; he began speaking it confidently in his late teens.<ref>{{cite book |last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |title=After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism |year=2018 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34217614 |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |page=64 |isbn=978-1-138-05405-9 |access-date=November 26, 2020 |archive-date=October 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025161000/https://www.academia.edu/34217614 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Sandison|1999}}</ref> He was a serious child who was devoted to his mother, who played an important role in his life. She was a devout [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], who instilled this deep faith into both her sons.<ref name="culturewars.com">Fellows, Mark [http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/1999/kerouac.html The Apocalypse of Jack Kerouac: Meditations on the 30th Anniversary of his Death] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227101435/http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/1999/kerouac.html |date=February 27, 2012 }}, ''Culture Wars'', November 1999.</ref> He later said she was the only woman he ever loved.<ref name="beatmuseum.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.beatmuseum.org/kerouac/jackkerouac.html |title=Jack Kerouac – bio and links |publisher=Beatmuseum.org |access-date=April 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322094757/http://www.beatmuseum.org/kerouac/jackkerouac.html |archive-date=March 22, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> After Gerard died, his mother sought solace in her faith, while his father abandoned it, wallowing in drinking, gambling, and smoking.<ref name="culturewars.com"/>

Some of Kerouac's poetry was written in French, and in letters written to friend [[Allen Ginsberg]] towards the end of his life, he expressed a desire to speak his parents' native tongue again. In 2016, a whole volume of previously unpublished works originally written in French by Kerouac was published as ''La vie est d'hommage''.<ref>{{cite news|work = Le Devoir | language = fr| url = https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/467010/l-autre-kerouac | access-date = April 13, 2019 | date= April 2, 2016 | title = L'autre Kerouac| first = Christian |last= Desmeules}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.editionsboreal.qc.ca/catalogue/livres/vie-est-hommage-2490.html|title=La vie est d'hommage|website=Éditions Boréal|access-date=April 26, 2016|language=fr|archive-date=May 2, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502190039/http://www.editionsboreal.qc.ca/catalogue/livres/vie-est-hommage-2490.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On May 17, 1928, while six years old, Kerouac made his first [[Confession (religion)|Confession]].<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book |last=Amburn |first=Ellis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bN0PJn6VCNIC |title=Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac |pages=13–14 |publisher=MacMillan |year=1999 |isbn=9780312206772 }}</ref> For [[penance]], he was told to say a [[rosary]], during which he heard God tell him that he had a good soul, that he would suffer in life and die in pain and horror, but would in the end receive salvation.<ref name="books.google.com"/> This experience, along with his dying brother's vision of the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]] (as the nuns fawned over him, convinced he was a saint), combined with a later study of Buddhism and an ongoing commitment to Christ, solidified the worldview which informed his work.<ref name="books.google.com"/>

Kerouac once told [[Ted Berrigan]], in an interview for ''[[The Paris Review]]'', of an incident in the 1940s in which his mother and father were walking together in a Jewish neighborhood on the [[Lower East Side]] of New York. He recalled "a whole bunch of rabbis walking arm in arm&nbsp;... teedah- teedah – teedah&nbsp;... and they wouldn't part for this Christian man and his wife, so my father went POOM! and knocked a rabbi right in the gutter."<ref>{{harvnb|Miles|1998|p=8}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Berrigan|1968|p=14}}</ref> Leo, after the death of his child, also treated a priest with similar contempt, angrily throwing him out of the house despite his invitation from Gabrielle.<ref name="culturewars.com"/>

Kerouac was a capable athlete in football and wrestling. Kerouac's skills as running back in football for [[Lowell High School (Massachusetts)|Lowell High School]] earned him scholarship offers from [[Boston College]], [[University of Notre Dame|Notre Dame]], and [[Columbia University]], where he enrolled in 1940.<ref name="SmithThoreau">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Smith (public historian) |title='A model for the world': Jack Kerouac and Henry Thoreau |journal=Thoreau Society Bulletin |date=2022 |volume=318 |pages=1–2 |quote=exposure to Thoreau caused Kerouac to consider abandoning his scholarship and college education and 'living in the woods like Thoreau.'}}</ref> 

From around this time, Kerouac's journal includes an ambitious "Immediate Reading List," a wide-ranging list that includes sacred texts from India and China as well as a note to read "[[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]] and [[Henry David Thoreau|Thoreau]] (again)."<ref name="SmithThoreau"/>

He spent a year at [[Horace Mann School]], where he befriended Seymour Wyse, an Englishman whom he later featured as a character, under the pseudonym 'Lionel Smart', in several of Kerouac's books. He also cites Wyse as the person who introduced him to the new styles of jazz, including [[Bebop|bop]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Moore |first1=Dave |title=Kerouac — "My really best friend…" an interview with Seymour Wyse by Dave Moore |url=https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/beat/seymour-wyse-interview |website=www.emptymirrorbooks.com |date=July 16, 2012 |access-date=March 23, 2021 |archive-date=March 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305112415/https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/beat/seymour-wyse-interview |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Seymour Wyse: friend of Jack Kerouac |url=http://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2020/12/seymour-wyse-friend-of-jack-kerouac.html |website=www.kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com |access-date=March 23, 2021 |archive-date=January 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128202443/http://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2020/12/seymour-wyse-friend-of-jack-kerouac.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After his year at Horace Mann, Kerouac earned the requisite grades for entry to Columbia. Kerouac broke a leg playing football during his freshman season, and during an abbreviated second year he argued constantly with coach [[Lou Little]], who kept him benched. While at Columbia, Kerouac wrote several sports articles for the student newspaper, the ''[[Columbia Daily Spectator]]'', and joined the [[Phi Gamma Delta]] fraternity.<ref>{{cite web|title=Phi Gamma Delta|url=http://www.wikicu.com/Phi_Gamma_Delta|publisher=Wiki CU|access-date=July 19, 2011|archive-date=September 30, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930172657/http://www.wikicu.com/Phi_Gamma_Delta|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Bill|last1=Morgan|title=The Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-nt1xVR4SrAC&pg=PA8|location=San Francisco, California|publisher=City Lights Books| access-date=July 23, 2011| isbn=978-0872863255| year=1997}}</ref> He was a resident of [[Wallach Hall|Livingston Hall]] and [[Hartley Hall]], where other Beat Generation figures lived.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maher|first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0_Lr0fl3qcC&dq=hartley+hall+jack+kerouac&pg=PA68|title=Kerouac: The Definitive Biography|date=2004|publisher=Taylor Trade Publications|isbn=978-0-87833-305-9|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Krajicek|first=David J.|date=April 5, 2012|title=Where Death Shaped the Beats|language=en-US|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/books/columbia-u-haunts-of-lucien-carr-and-the-beats.html|access-date=January 20, 2022|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=March 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319063350/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/books/columbia-u-haunts-of-lucien-carr-and-the-beats.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He also studied at [[The New School]].<ref name=hpo>{{cite web|last=Johnson|first=Joyce|title=How the 'Beat Generation' Got Away from Kerouac|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joycejohnson/how-the-beat-generation-g_b_1958500.html|work=HuffPost|date=November 11, 2012|access-date=December 7, 2012|archive-date=October 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015073342/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joycejohnson/how-the-beat-generation-g_b_1958500.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Early adulthood===
[[File:Jack Kerouac Naval Reserve Enlistment, 1943.png|thumb|Kerouac's Naval Reserve Enlistment photograph, 1943]]
When his football career at Columbia ended, Kerouac dropped out of the university. He continued to live for a time in New York's Upper West Side with his girlfriend and future first wife, [[Edie Parker]]. It was during this time that he first met the [[Beat Generation]] figures who shaped his legacy and became characters in many of his novels, such as [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Neal Cassady]], [[John Clellon Holmes]], [[Herbert Huncke]], [[Lucien Carr]], and [[William S. Burroughs]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |last=Menand |first=Louis |date=2007-09-24 |title=Drive, Jack Kerouac Wrote |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/01/drive-he-wrote |access-date=2024-06-08 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Douglas |first=Ann |date=1997-12-26 |title=City Where the Beats Were Moved to Howl |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/26/arts/city-where-the-beats-were-moved-to-howl.html |access-date=2024-06-08 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harbron |first=Lucy |date=2024-03-12 |title=Jack Kerouac's favourite neighbourhood in the world |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/jack-kerouacs-favourite-neighbourhood-world/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=[[Far Out (website)|Far Out]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Kerouac was a [[United States Merchant Marine|United States Merchant Mariner]] from July to October 1942 and served on the [[SS Dorchester|SS ''Dorchester'']] before its maiden voyage.<ref name=loss>[https://www.kerouac.com/the-profundity-of-loss/ "The Profundity of Loss"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202163503/https://www.kerouac.com/the-profundity-of-loss/ |date=December 2, 2021 }}, ''[[The Beat Museum]] website'', August 31, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2021.</ref> A few months later, the SS Dorchester was sunk during a submarine attack while crossing the Atlantic, and several of his former shipmates were lost.<ref name=loss/> In 1943 he joined the [[United States Navy Reserve]]s. He served eight days of active duty with the Navy before arriving on the sick list. According to his medical report, Kerouac said he "asked for an aspirin for his headaches and they diagnosed me [[dementia praecox]] and sent me here." The medical examiner reported that Kerouac's military adjustment was poor, quoting Kerouac: "I just can't stand it; I like to be by myself." Two days later he was honorably discharged on the psychiatric grounds that he was of "indifferent character" with a diagnosis of "[[Schizoid personality disorder|schizoid personality]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0906052_jack_kerouac_1.html|title=Hit The Road, Jack|work=[[The Smoking Gun]]|date=September 5, 2005|access-date=April 29, 2008|archive-date=May 13, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513110046/http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0906052_jack_kerouac_1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

While a Merchant Mariner in 1942, Kerouac wrote his first novel, ''[[The Sea Is My Brother]]''. The book was published in 2011, 70 years after it was written and over 40 years after Kerouac's death. Kerouac described the work as being about "man's simple revolt from society as it is, with the inequalities, frustration, and self-inflicted agonies." He viewed the work as a failure, calling it a "crock as literature" and never actively seeking to publish it.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/25/kerouacs-lost-debut-novel-published |title=Kerouac's Lost Debut Novel Published |work=The Guardian |date=November 25, 2011 |access-date=December 6, 2011 |location=London |first=Stephen |last=Bates |archive-date=March 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326140556/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/25/kerouacs-lost-debut-novel-published |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1944, Kerouac was arrested as a [[material witness]] in the murder of David Kammerer, who allegedly had been stalking Kerouac's friend [[Lucien Carr]] since Carr was a teenager in St. Louis. William Burroughs was also a native of St. Louis, and it was through Carr that Kerouac came to know both Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Carr said Kammerer's homosexual obsession turned aggressive, finally provoking Carr to stab him to death in self-defense.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Becky |date=2021-11-22 |title=We're All Boring Compared to the Beats |url=https://www.theblueandwhite.org/post/we-re-all-boring-compared-to-the-beats |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=[[The Blue and White]] |language=en}}</ref> Carr dumped the body in the Hudson River. Afterwards, Carr sought help from Kerouac. Kerouac disposed of the murder weapon and buried Kammerer's eyeglasses.<ref name=":1" /> Carr, encouraged by Burroughs, turned himself in to the police. Kerouac and Burroughs were later arrested as material witnesses. Kerouac's father refused to pay his bail; Kerouac then agreed to marry [[Edie Parker]] if her parents would pay the bail. They married on Tuesday 22 August 1944 in the Municipal Building, with two detectives as witnesses, before Kerouac was returned to his cell in the Bronx City Prison (their marriage was annulled in 1948.)<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{harvnb|Knight|1996|pp=78–79}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=25 August 1944 |title=Honor Slayer Faces Trial in Second Degree |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/443334922 |work=[[The New York Daily News | Daily News]] |pages=307}}</ref> Kerouac and Burroughs collaborated on a novel about the Kammerer killing entitled ''[[And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks]]''. Though the book was not published during their lifetimes, an excerpt eventually appeared in ''Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader'' (and as noted below, the novel was finally published late 2008). Kerouac also later wrote about the killing in his novel ''[[Vanity of Duluoz]]''.

Later, Kerouac lived with his parents in the [[Ozone Park, Queens|Ozone Park]] neighborhood of Queens, after they had also moved to New York. He wrote his first published novel, ''[[The Town and the City]]'', and began ''[[On the Road]]'' around 1949 when living there.<ref>{{cite web|author=Fenton, Patrick |url=http://www.wordsareimportant.com/ozonepark.htm |title=The wizard of Ozone Park |work=Dharma Beat |year=1997 |access-date=May 27, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080225101624/http://www.wordsareimportant.com/ozonepark.htm |archive-date=February 25, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His friends jokingly called him "The Wizard of Ozone Park", alluding to [[Thomas Edison]]'s nickname, "the Wizard of Menlo Park", and to the film ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]''.<ref>{{cite news|author=Kilgannon, Corey|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/nyregion/10ink.html|title=On the Road, the One Called Cross Bay Boulevard|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 10, 2005|access-date=April 29, 2008|archive-date=May 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515215509/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/nyregion/10ink.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Early career: 1950–1957===
[[Image:Jacks house3.JPG|thumb|Jack Kerouac lived with his parents for a time above a corner drug store in Ozone Park (now a flower shop),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&num=100&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%22LITTLE+SHOPPE+OF+FLOWERS%22+%22Ozone+Park%22+Queens+%22New+York%22&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=0,0,6055163161404423961&ei=rL37SfO0BZmSswOXo731AQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1 |title=LITTLE SHOPPE OF FLOWERS" "Ozone Park" Queens "New York|publisher=Google Maps |date=January 1, 1970 |access-date=November 21, 2013}}</ref> while writing some of his earliest work.]]

''[[The Town and the City]]'' was published in 1950 under the name "John Kerouac" and, though it earned him a few respectable reviews, the book sold poorly. Heavily influenced by Kerouac's reading of [[Thomas Wolfe]], it reflects on the generational epic formula and the contrasts of small-town life versus the multi-dimensional, and larger life of the city. The book was heavily edited by [[Robert Giroux]], with around 400 pages taken out.

[[File:Jack Kerouac House, New York City, NY.jpg|thumb|454 West 20th Street]]
For the next six years, Kerouac continued to write regularly. Building upon previous drafts tentatively titled "The Beat Generation" and "Gone on the Road", he completed what is now known as ''On the Road'' in April 1951, while living at 454 West 20th Street in Manhattan with his second wife, [[Joan Haverty Kerouac|Joan Haverty]].<ref name="epic">{{cite web|author=Wolf, Stephen|url=http://www.thevillager.com/villager_238/anepic.html|title=An epic journey through the life of Jack Kerouac|work=[[The Villager (Manhattan)|The Villager]]|date=November 21–27, 2007|access-date=May 14, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706005254/http://thevillager.com/villager_238/anepic.html|archive-date=July 6, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> The book was largely autobiographical and describes Kerouac's road-trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady in the late 40s and early 50s, as well as his relationships with other Beat writers and friends. Although some of the novel is focused on driving, Kerouac did not have a driver's license and Cassady did most of the cross-country driving. He learned to drive aged 34, but never had a formal license.<ref>{{cite news |last=Briere |first=Rachel R. |url=https://www.lowellsun.com/2006/10/06/you-dont-know-jack-about-kerouac/ |title=You don't know Jack about Kerouac |work=[[The Sun (Lowell)]] |date=October 6, 2006 |access-date=July 27, 2020 |archive-date=July 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727173738/https://www.lowellsun.com/2006/10/06/you-dont-know-jack-about-kerouac/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Kerouac completed the first version of the novel during a three-week extended session of spontaneous confessional prose. Kerouac wrote the final draft in 20 days, with Joan, his wife, supplying him with benzedrine, cigarettes, bowls of pea soup, and mugs of coffee to keep him going.<ref name="amburn">{{Cite book|author=Amburn, Ellis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bN0PJn6VCNIC&pg=PA164|title=Subterranean Kerouac: the hidden life of Jack Kerouac|date=October 5, 1999| publisher=Macmillan |access-date=September 28, 2010|isbn=9780312206772}}</ref> Before beginning, Kerouac cut sheets of tracing paper<ref name="sante">{{cite news|author=Sante, Luc|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/books/review/Sante2-t-1.html|title=On the Road Again|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 19, 2007|access-date=May 10, 2008|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124092512/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/books/review/Sante2-t-1.html|url-status=live}}</ref> into long strips, wide enough for a typewriter, and taped them together into a {{convert|120|ft|m|adj=on}} long roll which he then fed into the machine. This allowed him to type continuously without the interruption of reloading pages. The resulting manuscript contained no chapter or paragraph breaks and was much more explicit than the version which was eventually published. Though "spontaneous," Kerouac had prepared long in advance before beginning to write.<ref name="allthings">{{cite web|author=Shea, Andrea|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14112461|title=Jack Kerouac's Famous Scroll, 'On the Road' Again|publisher=[[National Public Radio|NPR]]|date=July 5, 2007|access-date=April 29, 2008|archive-date=July 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710223807/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14112461|url-status=live}}</ref> In fact, according to his Columbia professor and mentor [[Mark Van Doren]], he had outlined much of the work in his journals over the several preceding years.

Though the work was completed quickly, Kerouac had a long and difficult time finding a publisher. Before ''On the Road'' was accepted by Viking Press, Kerouac got a job as a "railroad brakeman and fire lookout" (see [[Desolation Peak (Washington)]]) traveling between the East and West coasts of the United States to earn money, frequently finding rest and the quiet space necessary for writing at the home of his mother. While employed in this way he met and befriended Abe Green, a young freight train jumper who later introduced Kerouac to [[Herbert Huncke]], a Times Square street hustler and favorite of many Beat Generation writers. 

According to Kerouac, ''On the Road'' "was really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him. I found him in the sky, in Market Street San Francisco (those 2 visions), and Dean (Neal) had God sweating out of his forehead all the way. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY OUT FOR THE HOLY MAN: HE MUST SWEAT FOR GOD. And once he has found Him, the Godhood of God is forever Established and really must not be spoken about."<ref name="culturewars.com"/> According to his biographer, historian [[Douglas Brinkley]], ''On the Road'' has been misinterpreted as a tale of companions out looking for kicks, but the most important thing to comprehend is that Kerouac was an American Catholic author – for example, virtually every page of his diary bore a sketch of a crucifix, a prayer, or an appeal to Christ to be forgiven.<ref name="weekendedition">{{cite web|author=Vitale, Tom|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14112461|title='On the Road' at 50|publisher=[[National Public Radio|NPR]]|date=September 1, 2007|access-date=February 28, 2011|archive-date=July 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710223807/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14112461|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the spring of 1951, while pregnant, Joan Haverty left and divorced Kerouac.<ref>{{harvnb|Knight|1996|pp=88}}</ref> In February 1952, she gave birth to Kerouac's only child, [[Jan Kerouac]], whom he acknowledged as his daughter after a blood test confirmed it nine years later.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jan-kerouac-dlb/|title=Jan Kerouac Biography|website=[[Dictionary of Literary Biography]]|access-date=May 10, 2008|archive-date=December 6, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206144048/http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jan-kerouac-dlb/|url-status=live}}</ref> For the next several years Kerouac continued writing and traveling, taking long trips through the U.S. and Mexico. He often experienced episodes of heavy drinking and depression. During this period, he finished drafts of what became ten more novels, including ''[[The Subterraneans]]'', ''[[Doctor Sax]]'', ''[[Tristessa]]'', and ''[[Desolation Angels (novel)|Desolation Angels]]'', which chronicle many of the events of these years.

Despite being friends, Kerouac and Ginsberg often took opposing sides of electoral politics. In 1952, Kerouac endorsed the [[Old Right (United States)|Old Right]] candidate [[Robert A. Taft]] of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], while Ginsberg expressed support of [[Adlai Stevenson II]] of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].<ref>{{cite book | first=Jonah | last=Raskin | url=https://www.google.dk/books/edition/American_Scream/SVA0389HG-UC?hl=da&gbpv=1&dq=kerouac+robert+taft&pg=PA162&printsec=frontcover | title=
American Scream, Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation | publisher=University of California Press |date=April 7, 2004 | pages=320| isbn=9780520939349}}</ref>

In 1953, he lived mostly in New York City, having a brief but passionate affair with [[Alene Lee]], an African-American woman, and member of the Beat generation. Alene was the basis for the character named "Mardou" in the novel ''The Subterraneans,'' and Irene May in ''[[Book of Dreams (novel)|Book of Dreams]]'' and ''[[Big Sur (novel)|Big Sur]]''. At the request of his editors, Kerouac changed the setting of the novel from New York to San Francisco.<ref>{{cite book | first=James | last=Campbell | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xq-AZZ-zXkcC&pg=PA142 | title=This is the Beat Generation: New York, San Francisco, Paris | publisher=University of California Press |date=November 2001 | pages=138–139, 142 | isbn=0-520-23033-7}}</ref>

In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's ''A Buddhist Bible'' at the [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] Library, which marked the beginning of his study of Buddhism. Between 1955 and 1956, he lived on and off with his sister, whom he called "Nin," and her husband, Paul Blake, at their home outside of [[Rocky Mount, North Carolina]] ("Testament, Va." in his works) where he meditated on, and studied, Buddhism.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/books/article10358366.html|title=The Road to Rocky Mount|work=newsobserver|access-date=August 14, 2018|language=en|archive-date=August 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814170530/https://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/books/article10358366.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He wrote ''Some of the Dharma'', an imaginative treatise on Buddhism, while living there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aceswebworld.com/kerouac8.html|title=Jack Kerouac: All Roads Lead to Rocky Mount by Daniel Barth (pg 8)|website=www.aceswebworld.com|access-date=August 14, 2018|archive-date=August 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814170147/http://www.aceswebworld.com/kerouac8.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dharmabeat.com/someofdharma.html|title=DHARMA beat – A Jack Kerouac Website|website=www.dharmabeat.com|access-date=August 14, 2018|archive-date=August 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802024916/http://www.dharmabeat.com/someofdharma.html|url-status=live}}</ref> However, Kerouac had earlier taken an interest in Eastern thought. In 1946 he read Heinrich Zimmer's ''Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization''. In 1955, Kerouac wrote a biography of [[Gautama Buddha|Siddhartha Gautama]], titled ''Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha'', which was unpublished during his lifetime, but eventually serialized in ''[[Tricycle: The Buddhist Review]]'', 1993–95. It was published by Viking in September 2008.<ref>{{Cite book|title=''Wake Up!'' on Amazon.com}}</ref>

[[Image:Jack Kerouac House - Orlando Florida.jpg|thumb|House in [[College Park (Orlando)|College Park]] in Orlando, Florida, where Kerouac lived and wrote ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'']]

Kerouac found enemies on both sides of the [[Left–right political spectrum|political spectrum]], the right disdaining his association with drugs and sexual libertinism and the left contemptuous of his anti-communism and Catholicism; characteristically, he watched the 1954 Senate [[Army–McCarthy hearings|McCarthy hearings]] smoking marijuana and rooting for the anti-communist crusader, Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]].<ref name="culturewars.com"/> In ''Desolation Angels'' he wrote, "when I went to Columbia all they tried to teach us was [[Karl Marx|Marx]], as if I cared" (considering Marxism, like [[Sigmund Freud|Freudianism]], to be an illusory tangent).<ref>{{cite book|last=Fisher|first=James Terence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q08cuo8-7ggC |title=The Catholic Counterculture in America, 1933–1962|pages=216, 237|publisher=UNC Press|year=2001|isbn=9780807849491}}</ref>

In 1957, after being rejected by several other publishers, ''On the Road'' was finally purchased by [[Viking Press]], which demanded major revisions prior to publication.<ref name="allthings"/> Many of the most sexually explicit passages were removed and, fearing [[Defamation|libel]] suits, pseudonyms were used for the book's "characters." These revisions have often led to criticisms of the alleged spontaneity of Kerouac's style.<ref name="sante"/>

===Later career: 1957–1969===
{{Conservatism US|expanded=Intellectuals}}In July 1957, Kerouac moved to a small house at 1418½ Clouser Avenue in the [[College Park (Orlando)|College Park]] section of Orlando, Florida, to await the release of ''On the Road''. Weeks later, a review of the book by Gilbert Millstein appeared in ''The New York Times'' proclaiming Kerouac the voice of a new generation.<ref name="nytreview">{{cite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-roadglowing.html
|title=Books of the Times
|date=September 5, 1957
|first=Gilbert
|last=Millstein
|access-date=October 24, 2012
|newspaper=The New York Times
|archive-date=November 10, 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110202842/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-roadglowing.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> Kerouac was hailed as a major American writer. His friendship with [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[William S. Burroughs]] and [[Gregory Corso]], among others, became a notorious representation of the Beat Generation. The term Beat Generation was invented by Kerouac during a conversation held with fellow novelist [[Herbert Huncke]]. Huncke used the term "beat" to describe a person with little money and few prospects.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Kerouac|title=Jack Kerouac {{!}} Biography & Facts|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=September 12, 2017|archive-date=August 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819143412/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Kerouac|url-status=live}}</ref> Kerouac's fame came as an unmanageable surge that would ultimately be his undoing.

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,"<ref name="King">{{cite news
|url=http://partners.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-conference.html
|title=Beat Generation Elders Meet to Praise Kerouac
|first=WIilliam E.
|last=Schmidt
|date=July 30, 1982
|access-date=December 16, 2008
|newspaper=The New York Times
|archive-date=August 8, 2008
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808112334/http://partners.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-conference.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> a term with which he never felt comfortable. He once observed, "I'm not a beatnik. I'm a Catholic", showing the reporter a painting of [[Pope Paul VI]] and saying, "You know who painted that? Me."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-obit.html|title=Jack Kerouac, Novelist, Dead; Father of the Beat Generation|first=Joseph|last=Lelyveld|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 22, 1969|access-date=February 22, 2017|archive-date=April 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421015018/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-obit.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The success of ''[[On the Road]]'' brought Kerouac instant fame. His celebrity status brought publishers desiring unwanted manuscripts that were previously rejected before its publication.<ref name="beatmuseum.org"/> After nine months, he no longer felt safe in public. He was badly beaten by three men outside the [[San Remo Cafe]] at 189 [[Bleecker Street]] in New York City one night. [[Neal Cassady]], possibly as a result of his new notoriety as the central character of the book, was set up and arrested for selling marijuana.<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter|2002|p=237}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Berrigan|1968|pp=19–20}}</ref>

In response, Kerouac chronicled parts of his own experience with Buddhism, as well as some of his adventures with [[Gary Snyder]] and other San Francisco–area poets, in ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'', set in California and [[Washington (state)|Washington]] and published in 1958. It was written in Orlando between November 26<ref name="suiter">{{harvnb|Suiter|2002|p=229}}</ref> and December 7, 1957.<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter|2002|p=233}}</ref> To begin writing ''Dharma Bums'', Kerouac typed onto a ten-foot length of teleprinter paper, to avoid interrupting his flow for paper changes, as he had done six years previously for ''On the Road''.<ref name="suiter"/>

Kerouac was demoralized by criticism of ''Dharma Bums'' from such respected figures in the American field of Buddhism as Zen teachers [[Ruth Fuller Sasaki]] and [[Alan Watts]]. He wrote to Snyder, referring to a meeting with [[D. T. Suzuki]], that "even Suzuki was looking at me through slitted eyes as though I was a monstrous imposter." He passed up the opportunity to reunite with Snyder in California, and explained to [[Philip Whalen]] "I'd be ashamed to confront you and Gary now I've become so decadent and drunk and don't give a shit. I'm not a Buddhist any more."<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter|2002|pp=242–243}}</ref> In further reaction to their criticism, he quoted part of Abe Green's café recitation, ''Thrasonical Yawning in the Abattoir of the Soul'': "A gaping, rabid congregation, eager to bathe, are washed over by the Font of Euphoria, and bask like protozoans in the celebrated light."

Kerouac used earnings from ''On the Road'' to purchase the first of three homes in [[Northport, New York]] — a wood-framed Victorian on Gilbert Street that he shared with his mother, Gabrielle. They moved there in March 1958 and stayed in Northport for six years, moving twice during that time.

Kerouac also wrote and narrated a beat movie titled ''[[Pull My Daisy]]'' (1959), directed by [[Robert Frank]] and [[Alfred Leslie]]. It starred poets [[Allen Ginsberg]] and [[Gregory Corso]], musician [[David Amram]] and painter [[Larry Rivers]] among others.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.photoeye.com/magazine/reviews/2008/05_21_pull_my_daisy.cfm|title=Is Pull My Daisy Holy?|date=August 8, 2008|access-date=September 13, 2013|first=John|last=Cohen|publisher=photo-eye Magazine|archive-date=September 28, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928194159/http://www.photoeye.com/magazine/reviews/2008/05_21_pull_my_daisy.cfm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Originally to be called ''The Beat Generation'', the title was changed at the last moment when [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] released a [[The Beat Generation (film)|film by the same name]] in July 1959 that sensationalized beatnik culture.

The television series ''[[Route 66 (TV series)|Route 66]]'' (1960–1964), featuring two untethered young men "on the road" in a [[Chevrolet Corvette|Corvette]] seeking adventure and fueling their travels by apparently plentiful temporary jobs in the various U.S. locales framing the anthology-styled stories, gave the impression of being a commercially sanitized misappropriation of Kerouac's story model for ''On the Road''.<ref name="Southern Illinois University Press">{{cite book|last1=Mills|first1=Katie|title=The Road Story and the Rebel; Moving Through Film, Fiction and television|date=2006|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|location=IL, USA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KsfXQbGmBKsC&pg=PA76 |access-date=July 25, 2017|isbn=9780809388172}}</ref> Even the leads, Buz and Todd, bore a resemblance to the dark, athletic Kerouac and the blonde Cassady/Moriarty, respectively. Kerouac felt he'd been conspicuously ripped off by ''Route 66'' creator [[Stirling Silliphant]] and sought to sue him, CBS, the [[Screen Gems]] TV production company, and sponsor Chevrolet, but was somehow counseled against proceeding with what looked like a very potent cause of action.<ref name="Southern Illinois University Press"/>

John Antonelli's 1985 documentary ''Kerouac, the Movie'' begins and ends with footage of Kerouac reading from ''On the Road'' and ''[[Visions of Cody]]'' on ''[[The Steve Allen Show]]'' in November 1959.  In response to Allen's question "How would you define the word 'beat?{{'"}}, Kerouac responds "well ... ''sympathetic''."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LLpNKo09Xk| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211029/3LLpNKo09Xk| archive-date=October 29, 2021|title=Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1959)| website=[[YouTube]]|date=November 13, 2008|access-date=October 22, 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

During the [[1964 United States presidential election]], [[Hunter S. Thompson]] noted that Kerouac was a staunch supporter of Republican Senator [[Barry Goldwater]]. An election won by a landslide by incumbent [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.google.dk/books/edition/Kingdom_of_Fear/Kb3lH3N22B4C?hl=da&gbpv=1&dq=jack+kerouac+barry+goldwater&pg=PT36&printsec=frontcover |title=Kingdom of Fear|isbn=9780241958735|pages=384|last=S. Thompson| first=Hunter| date=November 24, 2011| publisher=Penguin Books Limited}}</ref>

In 1965, he met the poet [[Youenn Gwernig]] who was a [[Breton American]] like him in New York, and they became friends. Gwernig used to translate his Breton language poems into English so that Kerouac could read and understand them : "Meeting with Jack Kerouac in 1965, for instance, was a decisive turn. Since he could not speak Breton he asked me: 'Would you not write some of your poems in English? I'd really like to read them ! ... ' So I wrote an Diri Dir – Stairs of Steel for him, and kept on doing so. That's why I often write my poems in Breton, French and English."<ref>''Un dornad plu'', Youenn Gwernig, Al Liamm, 1997, page 10.</ref>

During these years, Kerouac suffered the loss of his older sister to a heart attack in 1964 and his mother suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1966. Kerouac moved in with his mother in [[Hyannis, Massachusetts|Hyannis]], Massachusetts, for almost a year in 1966.<ref>{{Cite web |title=On the Cape with Jack Kerouac |url=https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/books/2019/11/28/on-cape-with-jack-kerouac/2192896007/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=The Providence Journal |language=en-US |archive-date=February 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201184759/https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/books/2019/11/28/on-cape-with-jack-kerouac/2192896007/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1968, Neal Cassady also died while in Mexico.<ref>[[Douglas Brinkley|Brinkley, Douglas]], ed. ''Kerouac: Road Novels 1957–1960''. New York: The Library of America, 2007. pp. 844–45.</ref>

Despite the role which his literary work played in inspiring the counterculture movement of the 1960s, Kerouac was openly critical of it.<ref name=hippiehate /> Arguments over the movement, which Kerouac believed was only an excuse to be "spiteful," also resulted in him splitting with Ginsberg by 1968.<ref>Gore Vidal quotes Ginsberg speaking of Kerouac: "'You know around 1968, when we were all protesting the Vietnam War, Jack wrote me that the war was just an excuse for 'you Jews to be spiteful again.'" Gore Vidal, ''Palimpsest: A Memoir'', 1995, {{ISBN|0-679-44038-0}}.</ref>

Also in 1968, Kerouac last appeared on television, for ''[[Firing Line (TV series)|Firing Line]]'', produced and hosted by [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] (a friend of his from college). Seemingly intoxicated, he affirmed his Catholicism and talked about the [[counterculture of the 1960s]].<ref name=hippiehate>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/Buckley.html |title=Digital Beats : Jack Kerouac |publisher=Faculty.uml.edu |access-date=November 21, 2013 |archive-date=January 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150118221702/http://faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/Buckley.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Death===
On the morning of October 20, 1969, in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], Kerouac was working on a book about his father's print shop. He suddenly felt nauseated and went to the bathroom, where he began to vomit blood. Kerouac was taken to [[St. Anthony's Hospital (St. Petersburg, Florida)|St. Anthony's Hospital]], suffering from an esophageal hemorrhage. He received several transfusions in an attempt to make up for the loss of blood, and doctors subsequently attempted surgery, but a damaged liver prevented his blood from clotting. He never regained consciousness after the operation, and died at the hospital at 5:15 the following morning, at the age of 47. His cause of death was listed as an internal hemorrhage (bleeding [[esophageal varices]]) caused by [[cirrhosis]], the result of longtime alcohol abuse.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/what-hollywood-gets-wrong-about-jack-kerouac-and-the-beat-generation/280612/|title=What Hollywood Gets Wrong About Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation|last=Larson|first=Jordan|work=The Atlantic|access-date=September 12, 2017|archive-date=January 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131093003/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/what-hollywood-gets-wrong-about-jack-kerouac-and-the-beat-generation/280612/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/football-and-the-fall-of-jack-kerouac|title=Football and the Fall of Jack Kerouac|last=Scheffler|first=Ian|date=September 6, 2013|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=September 12, 2017|issn=0028-792X|archive-date=June 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617165159/https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/football-and-the-fall-of-jack-kerouac|url-status=live}}</ref> A possible contributing factor was an untreated hernia he suffered in a bar fight several weeks earlier.<ref name="collegian">{{cite web| url=http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=DCG/1969/10/22&EntityId=Ar00402| title=Author Kerouac Dies; Led 'Beat Generation'| work=[[The Daily Collegian]]| date=October 22, 1969| access-date=April 29, 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921165902/http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=DCG%2F1969%2F10%2F22&EntityId=Ar00402| archive-date=September 21, 2008| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="NYTimes">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/nyregion/31kerouac.html | title=For Kerouac, Off the Road and Deep into the Bottle, a Rest Stop on the Long Island Shore | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 31, 2006 | access-date=December 23, 2008 | first=Corey | last=Kilgannon | archive-date=February 1, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201025047/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/nyregion/31kerouac.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Free Articles Directory">{{cite web | url=http://articlime.com/article135145-investigating-death-jack-kerouac.html#comment-9250 | title=Investigating the Death of Jack Kerouac | date=May 13, 2011 | access-date=February 16, 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130221100012/http://articlime.com/article135145-investigating-death-jack-kerouac.html#comment-9250 | archive-date=February 21, 2013 }}</ref> His funeral was held at St. Jean Baptiste Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, and he was buried at [[Edson Cemetery]].<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 25332). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref>

[[File: JackKerouacGravestone.JPG|thumb|Grave in [[Edson Cemetery]], Lowell]]

At the time of his death, Kerouac was living with his third wife, Stella Sampas Kerouac. His mother, Gabrielle, inherited most of his estate.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maher |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Maher Jr. |date=2014 |title=Kerouac: His Life and Work |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyYjgJ4NUnYC&q=who+inherited+jack+kerouac%27s+estate&pg=PA479 |location=Maryland |publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing |page=479 |isbn=978-1-58979-366-8}}</ref>