Jack Kerouac, King of The Beats

Publish Date: January 12, 2007

Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist.

While enjoying popularity but little critical success during his own lifetime, Kerouac is now considered one of America's most important authors. His spontaneous, confessional prose style inspired many other writers, including Tom Robbins, Lester Bangs, Hunter S. Thompson, and Bob Dylan.

Kerouac's best known works are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur and Visions of Cody.

He divided most of his adult life between roaming the vast American landscape and living with his mother. Faced with a changing country, Kerouac sought to find his place, eventually rejecting the conservative values of the 1950s. His writing often reflects a desire to break free from society's structures and to find meaning in life.

This search led him to experiment with drugs and to embark on trips around the world. His books are often credited as the catalyst for the 1960s counterculture.

Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, to a family of French-Canadians.

Jack didn't start to learn English until the age of six, and at home he and his family spoke French. At an early age, he was profoundly marked by the death of his elder brother Gérard, an event that later prompted him to write the book “Visions of Gerard”.

Kerouac's athletic prowess led him to become a star on his local football team, and this achievement earned him scholarships to Boston College and Columbia University. At Columbia, he wrote several sports articles for the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator.

His football scholarship did not pan out and he went to live with an old girlfriend, Edie Parker, in New York. It was in New York that Kerouac met the people with whom he was to journey around the world, the subjects of many of his novels: the “Beat Generation”, including Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and William S. Burroughs. He wrote his first novel, The Town and the City, as well as his most famous work, the seminal On The Road, while living in New York.

The Town and the City was published in 1950 under the name "John Kerouac" and earned him some respect as a writer. Unlike Kerouac's later work, which established his Beat style, it is heavily influenced by Kerouac's reading of Thomas Wolfe.

Kerouac wrote constantly but could not find a publisher for his next novel for six years. Building upon previous drafts tentatively titled "The Beat Generation" and "Gone On The Road", Kerouac wrote what is now known as "On the Road" in April, 1951 (ISBN 0-312-20677-1).

Publishers rejected the book due to its experimental writing style and its sympathetic tone towards minorities and marginalized social groups of the United States in the 1950s. In 1957, Viking Press purchased the novel, demanding major revisions.

In 2007, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of On The Road, an uncensored version of On The Road will be released by Viking Press, containing text that was removed from the 1957 version because it was deemed too explicit for 1957 readers. It will be drawn solely from the original manuscript.

The book was largely autobiographical, describing Kerouac's road-trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady. Kerouac's novel is often described as the defining work of the post-World War II.

In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's "A Buddhist Bible" at the San Jose Library, which marked the beginning of Kerouac's immersion into Buddhism.

He chronicled parts of this, as well as some of his adventures with San Francisco-area poets, in the book The Dharma Bums, published in 1958.

Kerouac developed a friendship with the Buddhist-Taoist scholar Alan Watts. He also met and had discussions with the famous Japanese Zen Buddhist D.T. Suzuki.

In 1955 Kerouac wrote a biography of Siddhartha Gautama, entitled Wake Up, which was unpublished during his lifetime but eventually serialized in Tricycle magazine, 1993-95.

He died on October 21, 1969 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. His death, at the age of 47, resulted from an internal hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis of the liver, the result of a life of heavy drinking. He was living at the time with his third wife Stella, and his mother Gabrielle. He is buried in his home town of Lowell.

novelist: n. writer, author critical success: success with critics, good opinion from reviews

considered: v. thought to be

spontaneous: adj. unplanned

confessional: adj. open & honest about one’s feelings and life

works: n. books, art projects

roaming: v. moving around, wandering, traveling around

vast: adj. huge, very large and wide

landscape: n. land

sought: v. looked for

find his place: find his purpose

rejecting: v. saying “no” to

desire: n. wish, something you want

structures: rules

experiment with: v. try

to embark: v. go, leave

credited: v. said to be

catalyst: n. start; something that starts (or encourages) an action

counterculture: n. sub-culture, group that rejects the normal culture

profoundly: adj. deeply, seriously

marked by: v. affected by

elder: adj. older

prompted him: v. encouraged him; made him

athletic: adj. re: sports

prowess: n. skill, ability

a star: n. a top performer, top player

achievement: n. success

scholarship: n. money for university

pan out: v. happen, be successful

to journey: v. to travel

novels: n. books (long story books)

seminal: adj. creative; original

published: v. printed

established: v. to introduce; to prove

Beat: adj. a free style of writing

influenced by: v. affected by

constantly: adv. all the time; very often

building upon: v. adding to

drafts: n. unfinished books (or papers or articles or reports)

tentatively: adv. temporarily; in an unsure way

experimental: adj. very different; very original, very new

sympathetic tone: kind attitude

minorities: n. small groups in society (ie. Africa-Americans in the

USA)

marginalized social groups: groups with no power in society

purchased: v. bought (to buy)

demanding: v. insisting on, saying something must be done

revisions: n. changes

to coincide with: v. to be at the same time as

uncensored: adj. not changed by the government/authority

released: v. published, printed

containing: v. having

deemed: v. thought to be

explicit: adj. strong and direct (possibly obscene)

drawn: v. taken from

solely: adv. only

manuscript: n. typed paper/story

autobiographical: adj. about one’s own life

road-trip: n. a trip (using a car)

the defining work: n. the most important book

discovered: v. found

immersion into: n. deep study of; powerful experience with

chronicled: v. told; wrote about

scholar: n. professor; someone who studies

Siddhartha Gautama: n. The Buddha

entitled: n. named

serialized: v. published in small parts

resulted from: v. caused by

hemorrhage: n. sudden loss of blood; sudden bleeding

cirrhosis of the liver: n. dying of the liver; disease of the liver

buried: v. (dead body) put under the ground