Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac (born March 12, 1922 – died October 21, 1969), better known as Jack Kerouac, was an American author and poet. He was part of the Beat Generation movement of writers and artists of the 1950s and 1960s, and gave the movement its name. His most famous work was a long novel titled "On the Road", which was published in 1957.
Kerouac was a friend of writers Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gregory Corso, among many others. Nearly all of Kerouac's writings were directly based on his own life, but he mostly changed names and details, to protect everyone's privacy. The man he wrote about most was his friend Neal Cassady, who was called "Dean Moriarty" in "On the Road". Kerouac influenced many other writers and poets who came along later, and also many musicians of the 1960s, through his works. He also changed the way Americans saw themselves, and their country.
Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts to French Canadian parents (named Leo and Gabrielle), and was the youngest of three children. He spoke only French until he started school. His family was Roman Catholic. His father was a printer, and Kerouac became interested in printed works. He liked to make his own handwritten newspapers and books. He enjoyed reading, and imitated the styles of writers he liked, such as Thomas Wolfe. He became an expert typist, and could type faster than 100 words per minute.
Kerouac was a good athlete, and earned a football scholarship to Columbia University. An injury during a practice game ended his football career. He dropped out of Columbia, and devoted himself to writing stories and plays. He met Allen Ginsberg at college. Their circle of friends included many future writers and artists, like William S. Burroughs, and Herbert Huncke.
During World War II, Kerouac served in the Merchant Marine, which made him a veteran of the American military. He kept journals of his experiences, and he used them later to write other works. He was honorably discharged from military service in 1943 when he was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. He was able to get veteran's benefits later, such as medical help when he was sick with , and grant money to pay his bills while he wrote. Kerouac was proud to be an American, and always said good things about his country.
Kerouac's father died of stomach cancer in 1946. He made Kerouac promise to always work to support his mother. He tried to talk Kerouac out of becoming a writer, because he knew it was hard to succeed in such a career. Kerouac had a hard time staying with any other kind of work, though. He would become impatient or restless, or a disagreement with someone at work would turn into trouble. Kerouac did his best to earn enough money to pay for both his and his mother's living, but his mother also had to work. She was a nurse. She worked in a factory when there were no nursing jobs.
Kerouac published a few and reviews in New York magazines and newspapers in the 1940s. He worked briefly for his hometown newspaper, "The Lowell Sun". His first novel, "The Town and the City", was published in 1950. For his second novel, Kerouac wanted to write a book about road trips and hitchhiking. Hitchhiking was safer to do in the 1940s, in America, than it is today. Kerouac stopped and restarted writing this book several times. Kerouac did not want to just tell an ordinary story. He wanted to give an idea of how the people he met thought things through, and expressed this to each other, along with telling what they did and said. He also knew he needed more experiences, to tell a better story.
Many experiences came through Kerouac's friendship with Neal Cassady. Cassady was a handsome, bright young with a teenaged wife, named Luanne Henderson. Cassady and Luanne had a hard relationship, and broke up and got back together many times. He later married another woman named Carolyn Robinson, who was older than Luanne and understood him better, but Carolyn and Cassady also had troubles. Kerouac was briefly married, to girlfriend Edie Parker. They did not stay together long, and were soon divorced. Cassady taught Kerouac, who never had a , how to drive, while Kerouac taught Cassady about writing.
Neal Cassady traveled back and forth across the country, usually driving cars like Hudsons at high speed. he looked for jobs, fresh experiences, and new friends. Kerouac began to travel with him. They lived in and visited cities such as Denver, San Francisco, Monterey, and even Mexico City. They also looked sometimes for Cassady's father, who disappeared years earlier. Kerouac got sick in Mexico City, and Cassady left him behind at the hospital. Kerouac had to make his own way home. He took this very hard, and was angry with Cassady. He forgave him later, when they met again, and he made Cassady the central character of his new book. One job Kerouac could fall back on, thanks to Cassady, was as a railroad brakeman.
Many people in the 1940s and 1950s used drugs such as benzedrine, to help them stay alert. Jazz music was also popular, and some jazz musicians and listeners smoked marijuana. Kerouac was influenced by both drugs, and they changed the way he wrote. He began to write what he called " prose", jotting down words in much the same way a musician a solo in a song. (Kerouac played no musical instruments, but could well, and had many of the same instincts as a musician.) His new writing style was strange to many people, and even seen as bad by some older authors and critics. It was six years before Kerouac published his second novel.
The version of "On the Road" that finally satisfied Kerouac was written over three weeks in 1951. It was typed on a single roll of teletype paper. Kerouac liked to type on rolls of paper, because he did not have to stop to change pages. He had just gotten married for the second time, to Joan Haverty. The manuscript was Kerouac's way to explain his friendship with Neal Cassady to his new wife. The explanation made a fine rough draft for a novel, but it did not help his marriage. Joan felt that Kerouac's nonstop work on the manuscript was an , and she did not want to stay married to him after it was finished. They were soon divorced, as he was with his first wife.
The editor who worked on "The Town and the City" found the long, scroll-like manuscript hard to understand, and even harder to work with. Kerouac's publisher rejected the novel, as did every other publisher he went to. Nor was anyone interested in "The Subterraneans", a shorter novel he wrote in three nights, about his romance with an African-American woman. Such a relationship was taboo in America during the 1950s. Kerouac continued to write, from short stories and essays to long novels, and even poetry. He tried many different subjects, but had almost nothing published. He also worked different jobs, including brakeman and .
It turned out that Joan Haverty was pregnant by Kerouac, and she gave birth to a daughter, Jan-Michelle. Kerouac denied he was the father at first, but a blood test later proved it was likely. She also grew to look like him, and he accepted her as his child. Joan sued Kerouac for child support, but he was ill and could not work at the time, and she collected almost no money. Kerouac only saw Jan a few times, but talked to her more often by telephone. Joan mostly kept them apart.