Editing Jack Kerouac

{{Short description|American writer (1922–1969)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Jack Kerouac
| image            = Kerouac by Palumbo 2 (cropped).png
| caption          = Kerouac {{circa|1956}}
| birth_name       = Jean-Louis Kérouac
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1922|3|12|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1969|10|21|1922|3|12|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], U.S.
| occupation       = {{hlist|Poet|novelist}}
| period           = 1942–1969
| alma_mater       = [[Columbia University]]
| movement         = {{cslist|[[Beat Generation|Beat]]|[[Franco American literature|Franco American]]}}
| notableworks     = ''[[On the Road]]''<br />''[[The Dharma Bums]]''<br />''[[Big Sur (novel)|Big Sur]]''<br /> ''[[Desolation Angels (novel)|Desolation Angels]]''
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Edie Parker]]|1944|1948|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Joan Haverty Kerouac|Joan Haverty]]|1950|1951|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Stella Sampas]]|1966}}
}}
| signature        = Jack Kerouac signature.svg
| children         = [[Jan Kerouac]]
}}

'''Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac'''<ref>[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jack-kerouac Jack Kerouac] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422043302/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jack-kerouac |date=April 22, 2022 }}, Poetry Foundation.</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɛr|u|.|æ|k}};<ref>{{cite Dictionary.com|Kerouac}}</ref> March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as '''Jack Kerouac''', was an American novelist and poet<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kerouac|first1=Jack|url=https://www.loa.org/books/516-the-unknown-kerouac-rare-unpublished-newly-translated-writings|title=The Unknown Kerouac: Rare, Unpublished & Newly Translated Writings|date=September 15, 2016|publisher=The Library of America|isbn=978-159853-498-6|location=New York|access-date=December 22, 2016|archive-date=June 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628193617/https://www.loa.org/books/516-the-unknown-kerouac-rare-unpublished-newly-translated-writings|url-status=live}}</ref> who, alongside [[William S. Burroughs]] and [[Allen Ginsberg]], was a pioneer of the [[Beat Generation]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PNRHQ96szrsC&pg=PA4 |title=The view from on the road: the rhetorical vision of Jack Kerouac|last=Swartz|first=Omar|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|year=1999 |access-date=January 29, 2010|page=4|isbn=978-0-8093-2384-5}}</ref>

Of [[French Canadian Americans|French-Canadian]] parentage,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kerouac|first1=Jack|chapter=Ma folle naissance crépusculaire - La nuit est ma femme|title=La Nouvelle Revue Française|date=June 1996|publisher=Editions Gallimard|isbn=207074521X|url=http://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD/La-Nouvelle-Revue-Francaise/La-Nouvelle-Revue-Francaise424|access-date=December 22, 2016|archive-date=May 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512165739/http://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD/La-Nouvelle-Revue-Francaise/La-Nouvelle-Revue-Francaise424|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last1=Pratte| first1=Andre| title=Legacy: How French Canadians Shaped North America|date=November 8, 2016| publisher=Signal| isbn= 978-0771072413| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6HiSCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT16 |access-date=December 22, 2016}}</ref> Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in [[Lowell, Massachusetts]]. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens."<ref>{{cite book |last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |date=2018 |title=After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism |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> During [[World War II]], he served in the [[United States Merchant Marine]]; he completed [[The Sea Is My Brother|his first novel]] at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was ''[[The Town and the City]]'' (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, ''[[On the Road]]'', in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.

Kerouac died in 1969. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published. Kerouac is recognized for his style of [[stream of consciousness]] spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in [[New York City]], [[Buddhism]], drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a [[progenitor]] of the [[History of the hippie movement|hippie movement]], although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements.<ref>{{citation|last=Martinez|first=Manuel Luis|title=Countering the Counterculture: Rereading Postwar American Dissent from Jack Kerouac to Tomás Rivera|page=26|year=2003|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-19284-6|quote=Kerouac appeared to have done an about-face, becoming extraordinarily reactionary and staunchly anticommunist, vocalizing his intense hatred of the 1960s counterculture ...}}; ''id''. at p. 29 ("Kerouac realized where his basic allegiance lay and vehemently disassociated himself from hippies and revolutionaries and deemed them unpatriotic subversives."); ''id''. at p. 30 ("Kerouac['s] ... attempt to play down any perceived responsibility on his part for the hippie generation, whose dangerous activism he found repellent and "delinquent."); ''id''. at p. 111 ("Kerouac saw the hippies as mindless, communistic, rude, unpatriotic and soulless."); {{citation|last1=Maher|first1=Paul|title=Kerouac: His Life and Work|page=469|year=2007|publisher=Taylor Trade Publications|isbn=9781589793668|quote=In the current political climate, Kerouac wrote, he had nowhere to turn, as he liked neither the hippies ... nor the upper-echelon ...|last2=Amram|first2=David}}</ref> He has a lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including [[Bob Dylan]], [[the Beatles]], [[Jerry Garcia]], and [[the Doors]].

==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>

==Style==
Kerouac is generally considered to be the father of the Beat movement, although he actively disliked such labels. Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of
jazz, especially the [[bebop]] genre established by [[Charlie Parker]], [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Thelonious Monk]], and others. Later, he included ideas he developed from his [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] studies that began with [[Gary Snyder]]. He often referred to his style as "spontaneous prose".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hunt|first1=Tim|title=The textuality of soulwork : Jack Kerouac's quest for spontaneous prose|date=2014|publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-07216-3}}</ref> Although Kerouac's prose was spontaneous and purportedly without edits, he primarily wrote autobiographical novels (or ''[[roman à clef]]'') based upon actual events from his life and the people with whom he interacted. This approach is reflected also by his plot structure: his narratives were not heavily focused on traditional plot structures. Instead, his works often revolved around a series of episodic encounters, road trips, and personal reflections. The emphasis was on the characters' experiences and the exploration of themes such as freedom, rebellion, and the search for meaning.

[[Image:The air was soft the stars so fine the promise of every cobbled alley so great by Jack Kerouac - Jack Kerouac Alley.jpg|thumb|''On the Road'' excerpt in the center of [[Jack Kerouac Alley]] ]]
Many of his books exemplified this spontaneous approach, including ''On the Road'', ''Visions of Cody'', ''Visions of Gerard'', ''Big Sur'', and ''The Subterraneans''. The central features of this writing method were the ideas of breath (borrowed from jazz and from Buddhist meditation breathing), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and limited revision. Connected with this idea of breath was the elimination of the [[Full stop|period]], substituting instead a long connecting dash. As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble [[improvisation|improvisational jazz]] licks. When spoken, the words take on a certain musical rhythm and tempo.{{fact|date=January 2024}}

Kerouac greatly admired and was influenced by Gary Snyder. ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'' contains accounts of a mountain climbing trip Kerouac took with Snyder, and includes excerpts of letters from Snyder.<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter| 2002|p=186}}</ref> While living with Snyder outside Mill Valley, California, in 1956, Kerouac worked on a book about him, which he considered calling ''Visions of Gary''.<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter| 2002|p=189}}</ref> (This eventually became ''Dharma Bums'', which Kerouac described as "mostly about [Snyder].")<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter| 2002|p=228}}</ref> That summer, Kerouac took a job as a [[fire lookout]] on [[Desolation Peak (Washington)|Desolation Peak]] in the [[North Cascades]] in Washington, after hearing Snyder's and Whalen's stories of working as fire spotters. Kerouac described the experience in ''Desolation Angels'' and later in "Alone on a Mountaintop" (published in ''[[Lonesome Traveler]]'') and ''The Dharma Bums''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oxley |first=Dyer |date=2023-08-29 |title=Fire lookout that author Jack Kerouac wrote about is in danger of burning in Washington state |url=https://www.kuow.org/stories/fire-lookout-that-author-jack-kerouac-wrote-about-is-in-danger-of-burning-in-washington-state |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=KUOW |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-02 |title=Jack Kerouac: Alone on a Mountaintop |url=https://www.theculturium.com/jack-kerouac-alone-on-a-mountaintop/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=The Culturium |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wilma |first=David |date=December 18, 2006 |title=Author Jack Kerouac spends 63 days as a fire lookout on Desolation Pe |url=https://www.historylink.org/file/8034 |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=HistoryLink.org}}</ref>

Kerouac would go on for hours, often drunk, to friends and strangers about his method. Allen Ginsberg, initially unimpressed, would later be one of his great proponents, and it was Kerouac's free-flowing prose method that inspired the composition of Ginsberg's poem ''[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]''. It was at about the time of ''The Subterraneans'' that he was encouraged by Ginsberg and others to formally explain his style. Of his expositions of the spontaneous prose method, the most concise was {{cite web |title=Belief and Technique for Modern Prose|url=https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-technique.html}}, a list of 30 "essential" maxims. 

{{quote box
| quote = ... and I shambled after as usual as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"
| source = —''[[On the Road]]''
| align = right
| width = 45%
| fontsize = 12
}}

Some believed that at times Kerouac's writing technique did not produce lively or energetic prose. [[Truman Capote]] said of it, "That's not writing, it's typing".<ref>{{cite book | title = Conversations with Capote | first = Lawrence | last = Grobel | publisher = Da Capo Press | page = 32 | isbn = 0-306-80944-3 | year = 2000 }}</ref> According to [[Carolyn Cassady]] and others, he constantly rewrote and revised his work.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shea|first1=Andrea|title=Jack Kerouac's Famous Scroll, 'On the Road' Again|website=NPR.org|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11709924|publisher=NPR|access-date=July 20, 2017|archive-date=July 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710061640/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11709924|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although the body of Kerouac's work has been published in English, in addition to his poetry and letters to friends and family, he also wrote unpublished works of fiction in French. The existence of his two novels written in French, ''La nuit est ma femme'' and ''Sur le chemin'' was revealed to the general public in a series of articles published by journalist Gabriel Anctil, in the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir in 2007 and 2008.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/155613/les-50-ans-d-on-the-road-kerouac-voulait-ecrire-en-francais | title=Kerouac voulait écrire en français|trans-title=Kerouac wanted to write in French|date=September 5, 2007|language=fr|author-first1=Gabriel|author-last1=Anctil|work=Le Devoir}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/156026/kerouac-le-francais-et-le-quebec | title=Kerouac, le français et le Québec| date=September 8, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/203916/sur-le-chemin |title = Sur le chemin|date = September 4, 2008}}</ref> All these works, including ''La nuit est ma femme'', ''Sur le chemin'', and large sections of ''Maggie Cassidy'' (originally written in French), have now been published together in a volume entitled ''La vie est d'hommage'' (Boréal, 2016) edited by University of Pennsylvania professor Jean-Christophe Cloutier. In 1996, the ''Nouvelle Revue Française'' had already published excerpts and an article on "La nuit est ma femme", and scholar [[Paul Maher Jr.]], in his biography ''Kerouac: His Life and Work'''', ''''' discussed ''Sur le chemin''. The novella, completed in five days in Mexico during December 1952, is a telling example of Kerouac's attempts at writing in his first language, a language he often called Canuck French.

Kerouac refers to this short novel in a letter addressed to Neal Cassady (who is commonly known as the inspiration for the character Dean Moriarty) dated January 10, 1953. The published novel runs over 110 pages, having been reconstituted from six distinct files in the Kerouac archive by Professor Cloutier. Set in 1935, mostly on the East Coast, it explores some of the recurring themes of Kerouac's literature by way of a spoken word narrative. Here, as with most of his French writings, Kerouac writes with little regard for grammar or spelling, often relying on phonetics in order to render an authentic reproduction of the French-Canadian vernacular. Even though this work has the same title as one of his best known English novels, it is the original French version of an incomplete translation that later became ''Old Bull in the Bowery'' (now published in ''The Unknown Kerouac'' from the Library of America).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1107-forthcoming-from-library-of-america-summer-fall-2016|title=Forthcoming from Library of America: Summer–Fall 2016 {{!}} Library of America|website=www.loa.org|access-date=April 26, 2016|archive-date=May 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530161642/https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1107-forthcoming-from-library-of-america-summer-fall-2016|url-status=live}}</ref> ''The Unknown Kerouac,'' edited by Todd Tietchen, includes Cloutier's translation of ''La nuit est ma femme'' and the completed translation of ''Sur le Chemin'' under the title ''Old Bull in the Bowery''. ''La nuit est ma femme'' was written in early 1951 and completed a few days or weeks before he began the original English version of ''On the Road'', as many scholars, such as Paul Maher Jr., Joyce Johnson, Hassan Melehy, and Gabriel Anctil<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/155613/les-50-ans-d-on-the-road-kerouac-voulait-ecrire-en-francais | title=Kerouac voulait écrire en français | date=September 5, 2007 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/156026/kerouac-le-francais-et-le-quebec | title=Kerouac, le français et le Québec | date=September 8, 2007 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/203916/sur-le-chemin |title = Sur le chemin |date = September 4, 2008 |language=fr}}</ref> have pointed out.

=== Influences ===
Kerouac's early writing, particularly his first novel ''The Town and the City'', was more conventional, and bore the strong influence of [[Thomas Wolfe]]. The technique Kerouac developed that later gained him notoriety was heavily influenced by jazz, especially [[Bebop]], and later, Buddhism, as well as the Joan Anderson letter written by Neal Cassady.<ref>{{cite book | last =Cassady | first =Neal | author-link =Neal Cassady | title =The First Third | publisher =Underground Press | year= 1964 | page =387 | oclc =42789161}}</ref> The ''[[Diamond Sutra]]'' was the most important Buddhist text for Kerouac, and "probably one of the three or four most influential things he ever read".<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter| 2002|p=191}}</ref> In 1955, he began an intensive study of this sutra, in a repeating weekly cycle, devoting one day to each of the six [[Pāramitā]]s, and the seventh to the concluding passage on [[Samādhi]]. This was his sole reading on Desolation Peak, and he hoped by this means to condition his mind to [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]], and possibly to have a vision.<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter| 2002|p=210}}</ref>

[[James Joyce]] was also a literary influence on Kerouac and alludes to Joyce's work more than any other author.<ref name="findarticles.com">Begnal, Michael, [https://web.archive.org/web/20111203004051/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3362/is_2_77/ai_n28721379/ "I Dig Joyce": Jack Kerouac and Finnegans Wake], Philological Quarterly, Spring 1998</ref> Kerouac had high esteem for Joyce and he often used Joyce's stream-of-consciousness technique.<ref name="findarticles.com"/><ref name="Encyclopedia of Beat Literature">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yzVV1Hl1NvAC |title=Encyclopedia of Beat Literature |page=244 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=9781438109084 }}</ref> Regarding ''On the Road'', he wrote in a letter to Ginsberg, "I can tell you now as I look back on the flood of language. It is like ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' and should be treated with the same gravity."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5FN49R58-gC&pg=PT163 |title=Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters |publisher=Penguin |year=2010 |isbn=9781101437131 }}</ref> Additionally, Kerouac admired Joyce's experimental use of language, as seen in his novel ''Visions of Cody'', which uses an unconventional narrative as well as a multiplicity of authorial voices.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Begnal|first1=Michael|title="To be an Irishman Too": Jack Kerouac's Irish Connection|journal=Irish Province of the Society of Jesus|year=2003|volume=92|issue= 368|page=372|ref=71|jstor=30095661}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
Kerouac and his literary works had a major impact on the popular rock music of the 1960s. Artists including [[Bob Dylan]], [[the Beatles]], [[Patti Smith]], [[Tom Waits]], [[the Grateful Dead]], and [[the Doors]] all credit Kerouac as a significant influence on their music and lifestyles. This is especially so with members of the band the Doors, [[Jim Morrison]] and [[Ray Manzarek]], who quote Jack Kerouac and his novel ''On the Road'' as one of the band's greatest influences.<ref>"Jack Kerouac Biography | Jack Kerouac." Jack Kerouac. UMass Lowell, 2014. Web. April 29, 2014.</ref> In his book ''Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors'', [[Ray Manzarek]], keyboard player of The Doors, wrote "I suppose if Jack Kerouac had never written ''On the Road'', The Doors would never have existed." 

The [[alternative rock]] band [[10,000 Maniacs]] wrote a song bearing his name, "Hey Jack Kerouac" on their 1987 album ''[[In My Tribe]]''. Hip-hop group the Beastie Boys mention Kerouac in their 1989 song, "3-Minute Rule", from the album Paul's Boutique.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genius.com/Beastie-boys-3-minute-rule-lyrics/|title=Song Meanings|access-date=September 24, 2023|archive-date=June 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601000448/https://genius.com/Beastie-boys-3-minute-rule-lyrics|url-status=live}}</ref> The 2000 [[Barenaked Ladies]] song, "Baby Seat", from the album [[Maroon (Barenaked Ladies album)|''Maroon'']], references Kerouac.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/5198/|title=Song Meanings|date=August 19, 2002 |access-date=June 2, 2019|archive-date=June 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603044616/https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/5198/|url-status=live}}</ref>

As the critic Juan Arabia has written in relation to Kerouac's work and rock 'n' roll: {{Quote | text = In order to vindicate the cultural, ideological and aesthetic advancement in Kerouac's work and its relevance–and the genesis of rock ‘n' roll–one must first understand the origins of jazz and its offshoots.
The first forms of jazz were formed in New Orleans from a melange of blues, work songs, marches, work songs, African and European music. Bop–the form of jazz that most influenced Kerouac–was created by [[African Americans|African-American musicians]] in New York basements between 1941 and 1945.
Bop arose as a reaction to the perception of musical theft perpetrated by white entertainers (e.g., [[Benny Goodman]] and his swing band) in an attempt to reclaim the cultural property of the black community which had informed every popular music genre.
There has always been an exchange of ideas and musical forms between black and white communities. For example, [[Elvis]] sings gospel and blues and white country songs and some black rock n' roll artists sing in a manner similar to Elvis or borrow elements from European music or folk. Rock n' roll borrows elements from blues, country-western, [[boogie]], and jazz.
This is the scenario that surrounds the dénouement of Kerouac's work. It's in 1948 that he finishes his first novel, The Town and the City; very soon after came the birth–and its explosion of popularity in the 1950s–of rock ‘n' roll.<ref>{{cite web | last1 = Arabia | first1 = Juan | title = Beatnik / Kerouac and Rock 'n Roll: Two essays by Juan Arabia | website = Empty Mirror | url = https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/beat/beatnik | date = 23 October 2016 | access-date = 1 October 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201001162750/https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/beat/beatnik | archive-date = 1 October 2020 | url-status = live }}
</ref>}}

In 1974, the [[Jack Kerouac School|Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics]] was opened in his honor by Allen Ginsberg and [[Anne Waldman]] at Naropa University, a private Buddhist university in [[Boulder, Colorado]]. The school offers a BA in Writing and Literature, MFAs in Writing & Poetics and Creative Writing, and a summer writing program.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.naropa.edu/academics/graduate/writingpoetics/index.cfm|title=The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics|publisher=[[Naropa University]]|access-date=May 10, 2008|archive-date=May 16, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516010125/http://www.naropa.edu/academics/graduate/writingpoetics/index.cfm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

From 1978 to 1992, Joy Walsh published 28 issues of a magazine devoted to Kerouac, ''[[Moody Street Irregulars]]''.
[[File:Jack Kerouac Alley street sign.jpg|thumb|[[Jack Kerouac Alley]] in [[Chinatown, San Francisco]]]]
Kerouac's French-Canadian origins inspired a 1987 [[National Film Board of Canada]] docudrama, ''Jack Kerouac's Road: A Franco-American Odyssey'',<ref name="NFB1987">{{cite video |last1=Chiasson |first1=Herménégilde |title=Jack Kerouac's Road - A Franco-American Odyssey |url=https://www.nfb.ca/film/jack_kerouacs_road_francoamerican_odyssey/ |publisher=National Film Board of Canada |access-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801234251/https://www.nfb.ca/film/jack_kerouacs_road_francoamerican_odyssey/ |archive-date=August 1, 2020 | url-status = live}}</ref> directed by [[Acadians|Acadian]] poet [[Herménégilde Chiasson]].<ref name="William Lawlor">{{cite book|last=Lawlor|first=William|title=Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-1-85109-400-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMZqLXP01e4C&pg=PA109|page=109|date=May 20, 2005}}</ref> Other tributes in French Canada include the 1972 biography by novelist [[Victor-Lévy Beaulieu]] ''Jack Kérouac (essai-poulet)'', translated as ''Jack Kerouac: a chicken-essay'', the second in a series of works by Beaulieu on his literary forefathers, and two songs that came out within months of each other in 1987 and 1988: "Sur la route" by Pierre Flynn, and "L'ange vagabond" by [[Richard Séguin]].

In the mid-1980s, Kerouac Park was placed in downtown [[Lowell, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Marion|first=Paul|title=Atop an Underwood|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|page=xxi|date=1999}}</ref>

A street, ''rue Jack-Kerouac'', is named after him in Quebec City, as well as in the hamlet of Kerouac, [[Lanmeur]], Brittany. An annual Kerouac festival was established in Lanmeur in 2010.<ref>{{cite news|title=Kerouac|url=http://www.lanmeur.fr/index.php/vivre-a-lanmeur/patrimoine/214-kerouac|access-date=April 17, 2017|publisher=Ville de Lanmeur|language=fr-fr|archive-date=April 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418081809/http://www.lanmeur.fr/index.php/vivre-a-lanmeur/patrimoine/214-kerouac|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 1980s, the city of San Francisco named a one-way street, [[Jack Kerouac Alley]], in his honor in [[Chinatown, San Francisco|Chinatown]].

The character Hank in David Cronenberg's 1991 film ''[[Naked Lunch (film)|Naked Lunch]]'' is based on Kerouac.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tuchman |first=Mitch |date=1991-05-12 |title=Too Extreme . . . Until Now : The 1959 novel 'Naked Lunch'--labeled 'literary sewage' by a Supreme Court justice--has a champion in David Cronenberg |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-12-ca-2484-story.html |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

Kerouac was featured in clothing brand [[Gap Inc.|Gap]]'s 1993 "Who Wore Khakis" campaign, using a black and white photo of the poet taken in 1958 in Greenwich Village.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lithub.com/in-honor-of-jack-kerouacs-98th-birthday-lets-look-back-at-his-time-as-a-gap-model/|title=In honor of Jack Kerouac's 98th birthday, let's look back at his time as a Gap model.|date=March 12, 2020}}</ref> 

In 1997, the house on Clouser Avenue where ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'' was written was purchased by a newly formed non-profit group, [[The Jack Kerouac Writers in Residence Project of Orlando, Inc.]] This group provides opportunities for aspiring writers to live in the same house in which Kerouac was inspired, with room and board covered for three months. In 1998, the Chicago Tribune published a story by journalist [[Oscar J. Corral]] that described a simmering legal dispute between Kerouac's family and the executor of daughter Jan Kerouac's estate, Gerald Nicosia. The article, citing legal documents, showed that Kerouac's estate, worth $91 at the time of his death, was worth $10&nbsp;million in 1998.

In 2005, Kerouac was mentioned in the single "Nolwenn Ohwo!" by French pop singer-songwriter [[Nolwenn Leroy]], released on her album ''Histoires Naturelles''.<ref>[https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Nolwenn-Leroy/Nolwenn-Ohwo "Nolwenn Ohwo! - Lyrics"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514130611/https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Nolwenn-Leroy/Nolwenn-Ohwo |date=May 14, 2023 }}.Musixmatch.com.</ref>

In 2007, Kerouac was posthumously awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the [[University of Massachusetts Lowell]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uml.edu/Media/PressReleases/Commencement_2007.html|title=UMass Lowell Honors Jack Kerouac, U.S. Rep. John Lewis|publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Lowell|University of Massachusetts]]|date=May 23, 2007|access-date=April 29, 2008|archive-date=May 26, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080526022620/http://www.uml.edu/Media/PressReleases/Commencement_2007.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=May 31, 2007|title=Jack Kerouac Receives Posthumous Honorary Degree|url=http://www.uml.edu/News/press-releases/2007/med_advis_on_commencement_07.aspx|access-date=March 13, 2015|publisher=UMass Lowell|archive-date=April 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402122913/http://www.uml.edu/News/press-releases/2007/med_advis_on_commencement_07.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2009, the movie ''One Fast Move or I'm Gone – Kerouac's Big Sur'' was released. It chronicles the time in Kerouac's life that led to his novel ''[[Big Sur (novel)|Big Sur]]'', with actors, writers, artists, and close friends giving their insight into the book. The movie also describes the people and places on which Kerouac based his characters and settings, including the cabin in Bixby Canyon. An album released to accompany the movie, "One Fast Move or I'm Gone", features Benjamin Gibbard ([[Death Cab for Cutie]]) and Jay Farrar ([[Son Volt]]) performing songs based on Kerouac's ''Big Sur''.

In 2010, during the first weekend of October, the 25th anniversary of the literary festival "Lowell Celebrates Kerouac" was held in Kerouac's birthplace of Lowell, Massachusetts. It featured walking tours, literary seminars, and musical performances focused on Kerouac's work and that of the Beat Generation.

In the 2010s, there was a surge in films based on the Beat Generation. Kerouac has been depicted in the films ''[[Howl (2010 film)|Howl]]'' and ''[[Kill Your Darlings (2013 film)|Kill Your Darlings]]''. A feature film version of ''[[On the Road (2012 film)|On the Road]]'' was released internationally in 2012, and was directed by [[Walter Salles]] and produced by [[Francis Ford Coppola]]. Independent filmmaker [[Polish brothers|Michael Polish]] directed ''[[Big Sur (film)|Big Sur]]'', based on the novel, with [[Jean-Marc Barr]] cast as Kerouac. The film was released in 2013.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/apr/18/jack-kerouac-big-sur | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Xan | last=Brooks | title=Jack Kerouac's Big Sur heads to the big screen | date=April 18, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Thornton |first=Stuart |url=http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/2011/jun/16/silver-screen-sur/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909153259/http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/2011/jun/16/silver-screen-sur/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 9, 2012 |title=Jack Kerouac's 'Big Sur' gets the Hollywood treatment from Kate Bosworth and company. – Monterey County Weekly: Movies |work=Monterey County Weekly |date=June 16, 2011 |access-date=November 21, 2013 }}</ref>

A species of Indian [[Platygastridae|platygastrid]] wasp that is [[Phoresis (biology)|phoretic]] (hitch-hiking) on grasshoppers is named after him as ''Mantibaria kerouaci''.<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/LBB_0044_2_1715-1725.pdf| title=Studies on phoretic Scelioninae (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) from India along with description of a new species of Mantibaria Kirby| journal=Linzer Biol. Beitr.| volume=44| issue=2| year=2012| pages=1715–1725| author1=Veenakumari, K.| author2=Rajmohana, K.| author3=Prashanth, M.| access-date=November 23, 2017| archive-date=December 1, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201034706/https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/LBB_0044_2_1715-1725.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref>

In October 2015, a [[Kerouac (crater)|crater]] on the planet [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] was named in his honor.<ref>[https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15416 Kerouac] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008082740/https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15416 |date=October 8, 2020 }}, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)</ref>

[[The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps]] based their 2022 production ''Rearview Mirror'' off of Kerouac's travels across America and his novel ''[[On the Road]]''.

The 2023 [[Dierks Bentley]] song "Walking Each Other Home" opens with the lyrics "Kerouac gave me a book of poems."

==Works==
{{Main|Jack Kerouac bibliography}}

===Poetry===
While he is best known for his novels, Kerouac also wrote poetry. Kerouac said that he wanted "to be considered as a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jazz session on Sunday.".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1016 |title=Jack Kerouac- Poets.org – Poetry, Poems, Bios & More |publisher=Poets.org |access-date=November 21, 2013 |archive-date=October 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009093002/http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Many of Kerouac's poems follow the style of his free-flowing, uninhibited prose, also incorporating elements of jazz and Buddhism. "Mexico City Blues," a collection of poems published in 1959, is made up of 242 choruses following the rhythms of jazz. In much of his poetry, to achieve a jazz-like rhythm, Kerouac made use of the long dash in place of a period. Several examples of this can be seen in "Mexico City Blues":

{{poemquote|
Everything
Is Ignorant of its own emptiness—
Anger
Doesnt like to be reminded of fits—|fragment from 113th Chorus<ref>{{cite book |last=Kerouac |first=Jack |date=1959 |title=Mexico City Blues (242 Choruses) |publisher=Grove Press |page=113 }}</ref>}}

Other poems by Kerouac, such as "Bowery Blues," incorporate jazz rhythms with Buddhist themes of [[Saṃsāra]], the cycle of life and death, and [[Samadhi]], the concentration of composing the mind.<ref name="poemhunter.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bowery-blues-2/ |title=Bowery Blues by Jack Kerouac |publisher=Poemhunter.com |date=May 4, 2012 |access-date=November 21, 2013 |archive-date=November 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131124184856/http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bowery-blues-2 |url-status=live }}</ref> Also, following the jazz / blues tradition, Kerouac's poetry features repetition and themes of the troubles and sense of loss experienced in life.

===Posthumous editions===
In 2007, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of ''On the Road''{{'s}} publishing, Viking issued two new editions: ''On the Road: The Original Scroll'' and ''On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/uncensored-road-be-published-wbna14045410|title=Uncensored 'On the Road' to be published|publisher=[[Today.com]]|date=July 26, 2006|access-date=April 29, 2008|archive-date=March 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321010952/http://www.today.com/popculture/uncensored-road-be-published-wbna14045410|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author1=Bignell, Paul|author2=Johnson, Andrew|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/on-the-road-uncensored-discovered-kerouac-cuts-459446.html|title=On the Road (uncensored). Discovered: Kerouac 'cuts'|work=[[The Independent]]|date=July 29, 2007|access-date=April 29, 2008|location=London|archive-date=April 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422183556/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/on-the-road-uncensored-discovered-kerouac-cuts-459446.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> By far the more significant is ''Scroll'', a transcription of the original draft typed as one long paragraph on sheets of tracing paper which Kerouac taped together to form a {{convert|120|ft|m|adj=on}} scroll. The text is more sexually explicit than Viking allowed to be published in 1957, and also uses the real names of Kerouac's friends rather than the fictional names he later substituted. [[Indianapolis Colts]] owner [[Jim Irsay]] paid $2.43&nbsp;million for the original scroll and allowed an exhibition tour that concluded at the end of 2009. The other new issue, ''50th Anniversary Edition'', is a reissue of the 40th anniversary issue under an updated title.

The Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript ''[[And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks]]'' was published for the first time on November 1, 2008, by [[Grove Press]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/03/02/new_kerouac-burroughs_book_due_out/2264/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20081207051614/http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/03/02/new_kerouac-burroughs_book_due_out/2264/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 7, 2008|title=New Kerouac-Burroughs book due out|work=[[United Press International]]|date=March 2, 2008|access-date=April 29, 2008}}</ref> Previously, a fragment of the manuscript had been published in the Burroughs compendium, ''Word Virus''.<ref name="virus">{{cite book | last =Burroughs | first =William | author-link =William S. Burroughs | title =Word virus | publisher =Grove Press | year =1998 | page =[https://archive.org/details/wordviruswilliam00burr/page/576 576] | isbn =0-8021-1629-9 | url =https://archive.org/details/wordviruswilliam00burr/page/576 }}</ref>

Les Éditions du Boréal, a Montreal-based publishing house, obtained rights from Kerouac's estate to publish a collection of works titled ''La vie est d'hommage'' (it was released in April 2016). It includes 16 previously unpublished works, in French, including a novella, ''Sur le chemin'', ''La nuit est ma femme'', and large sections of ''Maggie Cassidy'' originally written in French. Both ''Sur le chemin'' and ''La nuit est ma femme'' have also been translated to English by Jean-Christophe Cloutier, in collaboration with Kerouac, and were published in 2016 by the Library of America in ''The Unknown Kerouac''.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/jack-kerouac-s-rare-french-novels-to-be-released-by-canadian-publishers-1.2953512 | title=Jack Kerouac's rare French novels to be released by Canadian publishers | date=February 11, 2015 | publisher=CBC/Radio-Canada | access-date=February 15, 2015 | archive-date=February 14, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214011136/http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/jack-kerouac-s-rare-french-novels-to-be-released-by-canadian-publishers-1.2953512 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/unpublished-jack-kerouac-writings-to-be-released-1.2230909 | title=Unpublished Jack Kerouac writings to be released | work=Relaxnews | date=February 11, 2015 | agency=CTV News | access-date=February 15, 2015 | archive-date=February 15, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215190719/http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/unpublished-jack-kerouac-writings-to-be-released-1.2230909 | url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Literary executorship and representation ===
Kerouac's literary executor, after the death of his direct family members, was John Sampas, who had been married to Kerouac's sister. When he died, in 2017, his son took over.<ref>{{Cite web |last=showbiz411 |date=2017-04-04 |title=Jack Kerouac's Estate Takes A New Turn as Longtime Custodian John Sampas Dies at 84 |url=https://www.showbiz411.com/2017/04/04/jack-kerouacs-estate-takes-a-new-turn-as-longtime-custodian-john-sampas-dies-at-84 |access-date=2022-09-12 |website=Showbiz411 |language=en-US |archive-date=September 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220912181204/https://www.showbiz411.com/2017/04/04/jack-kerouacs-estate-takes-a-new-turn-as-longtime-custodian-john-sampas-dies-at-84 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Discography==
===Studio albums===
* ''[[Poetry for the Beat Generation]]'' (with [[Steve Allen]]) (1959)
* ''[[Blues and Haikus]]'' (with [[Al Cohn]] and [[Zoot Sims]]) (1959)
* ''[[Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation]]'' (1960)

===Compilation albums===
* ''The Jack Kerouac Collection'' (1990) [Box] (Audio CD collection of three studio albums)
* ''[[Jack Kerouac Reads On the Road]]'' (1999)

==References==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Berrigan |first=Ted |date=Summer 1968 |title=Jack Kerouac, The Art of Fiction No. 41 |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac |url-status=dead |journal=The Paris Review |volume=Summer 1968 |issue=43 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027203508/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac |archive-date=October 27, 2010 |access-date=November 6, 2010}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dagier |first=Patricia |title=Jack Kerouac, Breton d'Amérique |publisher=Editions Le Télégramme |year=2009}}
* {{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Brenda |title=Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution |year=1996 |publisher=Conari Press |isbn=1-57324-138-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Miles |first=Barry |title=Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats |publisher=Virgin |year=1998}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nicosia |first=Gerald |title=Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac |publisher=Berkeley: University of California Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-520-08569-8}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sandison |first=David |title=Jack Kerouac |publisher=Hamlyn |year=1999}}
* {{Cite book |last=Suiter |first=John |title=Poets on the Peaks Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades |publisher=Counterpoint |year=2002 |isbn=1-58243-148-5}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* Amburm, Ellis. ''Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac''. [[St. Martin's Press]], 1999. {{ISBN|0-312-20677-1}}.
* Amram, David. ''Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac''. Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002. {{ISBN|1-56025-362-2}}.
* Bartlett, Lee (ed.). ''The Beats: Essays in Criticism''. London: McFarland, 1981.
* Beaulieu, Victor-Lévy. ''Jack Kerouac: A Chicken Essay''. Coach House Press, 1975.
* Brooks, Ken. ''The Jack Kerouac Digest''. Agenda, 2001.
* Cassady, Carolyn. ''Neal Cassady Collected Letters, 1944–1967''. Penguin, 2004. {{ISBN|0-14-200217-8}}.
* Cassady, Carolyn. ''[[Off the Road|Off the Road: Twenty Years with Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg]]''. [[Black Spring Press]], 1990.
* Challis, Chris. ''Quest for Kerouac''. Faber & Faber, 1984.
* [[Ann Charters|Charters, Ann]]. ''Kerouac''. San Francisco: [[Straight Arrow Press|Straight Arrow Books]], 1973.
* Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''. New York: Penguin, 1992.
* Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Jack Kerouac''. New York: Penguin, 1995.
* Christy, Jim. ''The Long Slow Death of Jack Kerouac''. ECW Press, 1998.
* {{cite web|last=Chiasson|first=Herménégilde|title=Jack Kerouac's Road – A Franco-American Odyssey|url=http://www.nfb.ca/film/jack_kerouacs_road_francoamerican_odyssey/|work=Online documentary|publisher=[[National Film Board of Canada]]|access-date=October 25, 2011|year=1987|archive-date=July 18, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718092028/http://www.nfb.ca/film/jack_kerouacs_road_francoamerican_odyssey|url-status=live}}
* [[Tom Clark (poet)|Clark, Tom]]. ''Jack Kerouac''. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1984.
* [[Clark Coolidge|Coolidge, Clark]]. ''Now It's Jazz: Writings on Kerouac & the Sounds''. Living Batch, 1999.
* Collins, Ronald & Skover, David. ''Mania: The Story of the Outraged & Outrageous Lives that Launched a Cultural Revolution'' (Top-Five Books, March 2013).
* Cook, Bruce. ''The Beat Generation''. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. {{ISBN|0-684-12371-1}}.
* {{cite book|last=Dagier|first=Patricia|title=Jack Kerouac: Au Bout de la Route ... La Bretagne|publisher=An Here|year=1999}}
* Dale, Rick. ''The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions''. Booksurge, 2008.
* Edington, Stephen. ''Kerouac's Nashua Roots''. Transition, 1999.
* Ellis, R. J. ''Liar! Liar! Jack Kerouac – Novelist''. Greenwich Exchange, 1999.
* French, Warren. ''Jack Kerouac''. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.
* Gaffié, Luc. ''Jack Kerouac: The New Picaroon''. Postillion Press, 1975.
* Giamo, Ben. ''Kerouac, The Word and The Way''. Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.
* Gifford, Barry. ''Kerouac's Town''. Creative Arts, 1977.
* Gifford, Barry; Lee, Lawrence. ''Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac''. St. Martin's Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-14-005269-0}}.
* Grace, Nancy M. Jack Kerouac and the Literary Imagination. Palgrave-macmillan, 2007.
* Goldstein, N. W. "Kerouac's ''On the Road''{{-"}}. ''Explicator'' 50.1. 1991.
* Harma, Tanguy. ''The Paradox of Thanatos: Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, From Self-destruction to Self-liberation''. Peter Lang, 2022.
* Haynes, Sarah, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070427060537/http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/Miscellaneous/KerouacBuddhism.html "An Exploration of Jack Kerouac's Buddhism:Text and Life"]
* Hemmer, Kurt. ''Encyclopedia of Beat Literature: The Essential Guide to the Lives and Works of the Beat Writers''. Facts on File, Inc., 2007.
* Hernandez, Tim Z. "Mañana Means Heaven". The University of Arizona Press, 2013.
* Hipkiss, Robert A. ''Jack Kerouac: Prophet of the New Romanticism''. Regents Press, 1976.
* Holmes, John Clellon. ''Visitor: Jack Kerouac in Old Saybrook''. tuvoti, 1981.
* Holmes, John Clellon. ''Gone In October: Last Reflections on Jack Kerouac''. Limberlost, 1985.
* Holton, Robert. ''On the Road: Kerouac's Ragged American Journey''. Twayne, 1999.
* [[Michael Hrebeniak|Hrebeniak, Michael]]. ''Action Writing: Jack Kerouac"s Wild Form''. Carbondale IL., Southern Illinois UP, 2006.
* Huebel, Harry Russell. ''Jack Kerouac''. [[Boise State University]], 1979.[https://archive.today/20121212023409/http://digital.boisestate.edu/u?/western,31 available online]
* Hunt, Tim. ''Kerouac's Crooked Road''. Hamden: Archon Books, 1981.
* Jarvis, Charles. ''Visions of Kerouac''. Ithaca Press, 1973.
* [[Joyce Johnson (author)|Johnson, Joyce]]. ''Minor Characters: A Young Woman's Coming-Of-Age in the Beat Orbit of Jack Kerouac''. Penguin Books, 1999.
* Johnson, Joyce. ''Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957–1958''. Viking, 2000.
* Johnson, Joyce. ''The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac''. Viking Press. 2012. 
* Johnson, Joyce. [https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2022/03/02/jack-kerouacs-journey/ "Jack Kerouac's Journey"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814185056/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2022/03/02/jack-kerouacs-journey/ |date=August 14, 2022 }}. ''The New York Review of Books'', March 2, 2022.
* Johnson, Ronna C., "You're Putting Me On: Jack Kerouac and the Postmodern Emergence". College Literature. 27.1 2000.
* Jones, James T. ''A Map of Mexico City Blues: Jack Kerouac as Poet''. [[Southern Illinois University Press]], 1992.
* Jones, James T. ''Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.
* Jones, Jim. ''Use My Name: Kerouac's Forgotten Families''. ECW Press, 1999.
* Jones, Jim. ''Jack Kerouac's Nine Lives''. Elbow/Cityful Press, 2001.
* Kealing, Bob. ''Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends''. Arbiter Press, 2004.
* Kerouac, Joan Haverty. ''Nobody's Wife: The Smart Aleck and the King of the Beats''. Creative Arts, 2000.
* Landefeld, Kurt. ''Jack's Memoirs: Off the Road, A Novel''. Bottom Dog Press, 2014.
* Le Bihan, Adrien. ''Mon frère, Jack Kerouac'', Le temps qu'il fait, 2018. ({{ISBN|9782868536341}}).
* [[John Leland (journalist)|Leland, John]]. ''Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think)''. New York: [[Viking Press]], 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-670-06325-3}}.
* [[Paul Maher Jr.|Maher Jr., Paul]]. ''Kerouac: His Life and Work''. Lanham: Taylor Trade P, July 2004 {{ISBN|0-87833-305-3}}.
* McNally, Dennis. ''Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America''. Da Capo Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-306-81222-3}}.
* Montgomery, John. ''Jack Kerouac: A Memoir ... '' Giligia Press, 1970.
* Montgomery, John. ''Kerouac West Coast''. Fels & Firn Press, 1976.
* Montgomery, John. ''The Kerouac We Knew''. Fels & Firn Press, 1982.
* Montgomery, John. ''Kerouac at the Wild Boar''. Fels & Firn Press, 1986.
* Mortenson, Erik R. "Beating Time: Configurations of Temporality in Jack Kerouac's On the Road". ''College Literature'' 28.3. 2001.
* Motier, Donald. ''Gerard: The Influence of Jack Kerouac's Brother on his Life and Writing''. Beaulieu Street Press, 1991.
* Nelson, Victoria. "Dark Journey into Light: On the Road with Jack Kerouac". ''Saint Austin Review'' (November/December 2014).
* Nicosia, Gerald. ''Kerouac: The Last Quarter Century''. Noodlebrain Press, 2019.
* Nicosia, Gerald. ''Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac''. Grove Press, 1983. Revised edition Noodlebrain Press, 2022.
* Nicosia, Gerald. ''One and Only: The Untold Story of On the Road''. Viva Editions, 2011.
* Parker, Brad. "''Jack Kerouac: An Introduction''". Lowell Corporation for the Humanities, 1989.
* Swick, Thomas. ''South Florida Sun Sentinel''. February 22, 2004. Article: "Jack Kerouac in Orlando".
* Theado, Matt. ''Understanding Jack Kerouac''. Columbia: [[University of South Carolina]], 2000.
* Turner, Steve. ''Angelheaded Hipster: A Life of Jack Kerouac''. Viking Books, 1996. {{ISBN|0-670-87038-2}}.
* Walsh, Joy, editor. ''[[Moody Street Irregulars|Moody Street Irregulars: A Jack Kerouac Newsletter]]''
* [[Helen Weaver|Weaver, Helen]]. ''The Awakener: A Memoir of Jack Kerouac and the Fifties''. City Lights, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-87286-505-1}}. {{OCLC|318876929}}.
* Weinreich, Regina. ''The Spontaneous Poetics of Jack Kerouac''. Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.
* Wills, David, editor. ''Beatdom'' Magazine. Mauling Press, 2007.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|d=Q160534|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
{{Library resources box
 |onlinebooks=yes
 |by=yes
 |viaf= 27066713
 |label=Jack Kerouac}}
*[http://kerouac.net/ Kerouac.net] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911205747/http://kerouac.net/ |date=September 11, 2017 }}—An introduction to the life and work of Jack Kerouac, and the deep impact he had on our society and culture.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170321010835/http://www.jackkerouac.com/ JackKerouac.com] – The Jack and Stella Kerouac Center for the Public Humanities's website is an interactive storehouse and exhibition space dedicated to Jack Kerouac and connected topics.
* {{FadedPage|id=Kerouac, Jack|name=Jack Kerouac|author=yes}}
*{{IMDb name|0449616}}
*{{isfdb name|id=15979|name=Jack Kerouac}}
*[http://findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078982/ Jack Kerouac Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100624064756/http://findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078982/ |date=June 24, 2010 }} at the [[Rare Book & Manuscript Library]] at [[Columbia University]]
*[http://archives.nypl.org/brg/19343 Jack Kerouac Papers, 1920–1977] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817144420/http://archives.nypl.org/brg/19343 |date=August 17, 2016 }}, held by the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, [[New York Public Library]]
*[http://www.c-span.org/video/?170413-1/writings-jack-kerouac "Writings of Jack Kerouac"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313032936/http://www.c-span.org/video/?170413-1/writings-jack-kerouac |date=March 13, 2016 }} from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]''
*[http://www.beatbookcovers.com/kercomp/index.htm The Kerouac Companion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004612/http://www.beatbookcovers.com/kercomp/index.htm |date=August 29, 2013 }}—The definitive key to the 600+ characters in Kerouac's novels.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20191018215350/https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sur-les-traces-de-kerouac/id943523913 ''sur-les-traces-de-kerouac''] Radio documentary by Gabriel Anctil ans Jean-Philippe Pleau on Radio-Canada (2015)
*[https://books.apple.com/ca/book/sur-les-traces-de-kerouac/id932063600 ''sur-les-traces-de-kerouac''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018215353/https://books.apple.com/ca/book/sur-les-traces-de-kerouac/id932063600 |date=October 18, 2019 }} ebook by Gabriel Anctil & Marie-Sandrine Auger
*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713172530/https://rose.library.emory.edu/ |date=July 13, 2020 }}, Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/b7298 Jack Kerouac collection, 1950-1978]
*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713172530/https://rose.library.emory.edu/ |date=July 13, 2020 }}, Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/f7wxb Jack and Stella Sampas Kerouac papers,1940-1994]
*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713172530/https://rose.library.emory.edu/ |date=July 13, 2020 }}, Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/q4krs John Sampas collection of Jack Kerouac material, circa 1900-2005]
* {{Librivox author |id=17283}}

{{Kerouac|state=expanded}}
{{Poets in The New American Poetry 1945–1960}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerouac, Jack}}
[[Category:Jack Kerouac| ]]
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
[[Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Florida]]
[[Category:American anti-communists]]
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[[Category:American male novelists]]
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[[Category:American people of Breton descent]]
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[[Category:American travel writers]]
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[[Category:Beat Generation writers]]
[[Category:Catholics from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia Lions football players]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1950s]]
[[Category:Deaths from bleeding]]
[[Category:English-language haiku poets]]
[[Category:Exophonic writers]]
[[Category:History of Denver]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:North Beach, San Francisco]]
[[Category:Novelists from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Ozone Park, Queens]]
[[Category:People from the Upper West Side]]
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[[Category:People with schizoid personality disorder]]
[[Category:Poets from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:20th-century travel writers]]
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[[Category:Writers from Lowell, Massachusetts]]