Kerouac, Jack (John Kerouac) (kĕr`əwăk'), 1922–69, American novelist, b. Lowell, Mass., studied at Columbia Univ. One of the leaders of the beat generation beat generation, term applied to certain American artists and writers who were popular during the 1950s. Essentially anarchic, members of the beat generation rejected traditional social and artistic forms.
..... Click the link for more information. , he was the author of the novel On the Road (1957), widely considered the testament of the beat movement. Kerouac's writings reflect a frenetic, restless pursuit of new sensation and experience, and a disdain for the conventional measures of economic and social success. Among his other works are the novels The Subterraneans (1958), The Dharma Bums (1958), Big Sur (1962), and Desolation Angels (1965); a volume of poetry, Mexico City Blues (1959); and a volume describing his dreams, Book of Dreams (1961).

Bibliography

See A. Charters, ed., Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940–1956 (1995) and Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1957–1969 (1999); D. Brinkley, ed., Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947–1954 (2004); biographies by A. Charters (1973), B. Gifford and L. Lee (1978, repr. 1994), D. McNally (1980), G. Nicosia (1988), and B. Miles (1998); studies by T. Hunt (1981) and R. Weinreich (1986).

Kerouac, Jack

orig. Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac

(born March 12, 1922, Lowell, Mass., U.S.—died Oct. 21, 1969, St. Petersburg, Fla.) U.S. poet and novelist. Born to a French-Canadian family, he attended Columbia University, served as a merchant seaman, and roamed the U.S. and Mexico before his first book appeared. At Columbia he met Allen Ginsberg and other kindred spirits, and he became a spokesman of what would be dubbed the Beat movement (a term he coined). He celebrated its code of poverty and freedom in On the Road (1957); his best-known novel, and the first written in the nonstop, unedited style that he advocated, it enjoyed a huge success among young people, for whom Kerouac became a romantic hero. All his novels, including The Dharma Bums (1958), The Subterraneans (1958), and Desolation Angels (1965), are autobiographical. His death at age 47 resulted from alcoholism.

Kerouac, Jack (b. Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac) (Jean-Louis, Jean Louis Incognito, John Kerouac, pen names) (1922–69) writer; born in Lowell, Mass. He studied at Columbia University (1940–42), and served in the merchant marine (1942; 1943) and the navy (1943). Later he studied at the New School for Social Research (1948–49). He lived with his mother in Lowell, held a variety of jobs, and traveled throughout the United States and Mexico. The publication of On the Road (1957), a semiautobiographical tale of his wanderings with Neal Cassady, instantly established his reputation as a spokesman for the Beat Generation. His friends, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs Jr., were strongly supportive when conservative critics of the day were upset by the subject matter of the book and by what Kerouac called his "spontaneous prose." Although his new-found fame helped to promote his previously unpublished books, he was profoundly disturbed by his loss of privacy. He lost his gift for high-speed writing, drank heavily, and tried to escape his notoriety by living in California. His last major work, Big Sur (1962), described the price he paid for success, and he lived out his final years back in Lowell with his mother.