Jack Kerouac (1922 - 1969), American novelist and poet,literary iconoclast, pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Kerouac wrote constantly, carrying a notebook with him everywhere. Letters to friends and family tended to be long and rambling, including great detail about his life and thoughts.
Kerouac completed On The Road in April 1951, typing it on a 120 foot scroll during a three-week extended session of spontaneous confessional prose.
Publishers rejected On The Road because of its experimental writing style and its sympathetic tone towards marginalized social groups and minorities of post-war America, as well as its graphic descriptions of drug use and homosexual behavior.
The term 'Beat Generation' was coined by Kerouac during a conversation held with fellow novelist Herbert Huncke.
Jack Kerouac died on 21 October 1969, at the age of 47, from internal hemorrhage, after cirrhosis had destroyed his liver.
"Everybody goes home in October."
12 comments:
I so love this - wonderful quotes. I just posted an email I received from my son, another vibrant and original "mad soul". He and Jack would have gotten along famously!
Jack and I would have got along famously! To think he never really found the right woman...Sigh...It's just too bad...
i just picked up on the road and read the first and last sentences. they are so powerful. it is the most emotional ending of a story i have ever read. jack was an artist indeed, and rebel.
Kerouac and the beats have been so influential on me of late (since you set that task actually) - and are a staple in my poetic readings haha - they saw the underside of the world in a shade others refused to see - ahh alas, we await the 21st century movement....
I am fascinated and want to know more.I love unique souls, off beat with a different view. Sad, he died in his middle years~ Thank you for shining the spotlight on this artist. I am going to go look for his book!
oh dear holy mother of carrotjuice, i SO needed this today...
i have a picture of jack (the one where he's leaning against some brick wall somewere holding a cigarette) that sits right in front of me on my desk... he saw everything, and yet always had so much joy. if you listen to him speak... his voice is always just bursting with life and gladness. hope. if it's possible to miss someone who lived and died before you were born... i miss him.
He lit my poetic candle ... back when I was about 14-15. He and Ferlingetti, and and many more. May even have been the reason that I moved to Greenwich Village when I was 18 and kicked out of college back in 64. Of course I did not realize that I would have to pound the pavement and actually work for a living back then. They knew that the bull sh** that was America back then ... really was BS. They saw every bit of it. Thank you Kerry.
Oh yeah ... I carried around "On The Road" as if it was a bible.
I was born in the 60s - found out about Kerouac and the Beat poets 30 years too late ... so feeling really envious right now, dear Raven. You were there!!
I love Jack. :-)
Loved this article! Jack is the MAN! He always pushed the boundaries! :)
Way back I read two road novels that affected me greatly. One was Kerouac's, the other 'Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance'.
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