With his rhythmic and spontaneous writings, Jack Kerouac challenged literary conforms in the 1950s, establishing himself as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Take a look back at four interesting facts about one of the great founders of the Beat Generation.
1. At a very young age, writing became his refuge
At just eleven years old, Jack Kerouac wrote the novel ‘Mike Explores the Merrimack’, which was reminiscent of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, before designing his own comic strips. This was the moment that he created his invincible alter ego, Dr. Sax, who had a disease of the night. Although he was a gifted sportsman - the star of his American football team in fact - ever since he was a young boy, Kerouac had only ever wanted to become a writer.
2. His love of travel
The most famous of his novels, On the Road, published in 1957, can attest to his love of travel. Throughout the pages, the writer recounts his own adventures across the United States accompanied by his sidekick, Dean Moriarty, (a character from Jack’s real traveling companion, Neal Cassady). At the age of 18, he enrolled at Columbia University on a sports scholarship, but after an injury, he was forced to rest again and began to suffer. He was introduced to the world of drugs and prostitution, and it was at that very moment that he decided to travel around the country. After a stop in Washington, he decided to return to his hometown of Lowell, before boarding the SS Dorchester in Spring 1942. He joined the merchant navy and was inspired by his long voyage to Murmansk in the Soviet White Sea, to write his very first novel, ‘The Sea Is My Brother’.
3. He was one of the founders of the “Beat Generation”
More than a mere literary movement, the Beat Generation was a revolution. In the 1940s and 1950s, Jack Kerouac found it hard to find his place in the world. He hated all traditional values, and the consumerist society in which he lived, as well as the social pressure that oppressed it. It was in this environment that he founded the Beat Generation along with his friends Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. A movement characterized by concise, sharp, fast paced and rhythmic writing. With this newfound group, Jack Kerouac searched for the meaning of life, and came into contact with drugs and alcohol, but also with spirituality such as Buddhism. Some claim that the Beat Generation undeniably inspired the hippie movement of the 1970s, as well as the revolutions of May 1968.
4. Drama: Kill Your Darlings
Flashback: On August 14, 1944, Lucien Carr, a friend of Jack Kerouac whom he met through his wife’s intermediary Edie Parker, stabbed David Kammerer, a gymnastics teacher who was 14 years older than Lucien, and with whom he had an ambiguous relationship. He threw the body into the Hudson, and asked Kerouac for help to hide the crime scene. This drama, which became the Carr-Kammerer case, inspired Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs to write a four-part book in 1945, which was first published in 2009. This work, and ‘And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks’ were adapted for the silver screen in 2013 by John Krokidas, under the title ‘Kill Your Darlings’, starring Michael C. Hall, Dane DeHaan and Daniel Radcliffe in the lead roles.
Translated by Anushka Shah
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