Kerouac << KEHR oo `ak,` >> Jack (1922-1969), was an American author and a leader of the beat movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Most of the beats were young people who reacted against what they felt were the commercialism and conventional quality of American life. Kerouac’s major writings are loosely organized and autobiographical. Many describe his wanderings throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe. Like the works of other beat writers, Kerouac’s novels emphasized spiritual liberation through sex, drugs, and the Asian religion called Zen. Kerouac’s most famous novel is On the Road (1957), an account of several beat characters who travel across the United States seeking personal fulfillment.
Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts. His real name was Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac. He entered Columbia University in 1940 but left a year later. He served in the merchant marine and worked as a laborer. His first book was the novel The Town and the City(1950). By the mid-1950’s, Kerouac had become a celebrity as a spokesman for the beat movement. He died on Oct. 21, 1969. Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954 was published in 2004. In 2016, the Library of America published The Unknown Kerouac: Rare, Unpublished & Newly Translated Writings. The translations are works that Kerouac wrote in French.
