Jack Kerouac

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Lore & Background

Kerouac's first published novel was *The Town and the City* (written 1946–1949; published 1950). His most famous work, *On the Road*, was written in 1951 and published in 1957. He wrote *The Subterraneans* in 1953 (published 1958) and *The Dharma Bums* in November 1957 (published 1958). Other fiction published during his lifetime includes *Doctor Sax* (written June 1952; published 1959), *Maggie Cassidy* (written Jan. 2, 1953; published 1959), *Tristessa* (written summer 1955 and fall 1956; published 1960), *Book of Dreams* (written 1952–1960; published 1960), *Big Sur* (written October 1961; published 1962), *Visions of Gerard* (written January 1956; published 1963), *Desolation Angels* (written fall 1956 and summer 1961; published 1965), and *Vanity of Duluoz* (written 1967; published 1968). Posthumous fiction includes *The Sea Is My Brother* (written 1942; first published in Slovak translation 2010), *And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks* with William S. Burroughs (written 1945; published 2008), *Visions of Cody* (written 1951–1952; excerpts published December 1959; novel published 1972), and *Pic* (written 1951 and 1969, published 1971).

Reader's Guide

Kerouac's poetry includes *Mexico City Blues* (1955; published 1959), *Scattered Poems* (1945–1968; published 1971), *Book of Sketches* (1952–1957; published 2006), *Old Angel Midnight* (1956-1959; published 1973, republished in 2016 by City Lights), *Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from SF to NY* (1959; published 1973) with Albert Saijo and Lew Welch, *Heaven and Other Poems* (1957–1962; published 1977), *San Francisco Blues* (1954; published 1983), *Pomes All Sizes* (compiled 1960; published 1992), *Book of Blues* (1954–1961; published 1995), *Book of Haikus* (published 2003), and *Collected Poems* (published 2012). His non-fiction includes *Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha* (1955; published 2008), *Some of the Dharma* (1953–1956; published 1997), *The Scripture of the Golden Eternity* (1956; published 1960), the play *Beat Generation* (1957, published 2005), *Lonesome Traveler* (1960), and *Satori in Paris* (1966). He also released spoken-word recordings: *Poetry for the Beat Generation* (1959), *Blues and Haikus* (1959), *Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation* (1960), and *Jack Kerouac Reads On the Road* (1999).

Did You Know?

• Kerouac used the name 'Duluoz Legend' to refer to his collected autobiographical works.
• His novel *The Sea Is My Brother* was written in 1942 but first published in a Slovak translation in 2010.
• He co-wrote *And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks* with William S. Burroughs in 1945; it was published in 2008.
• Kerouac's poetry collection *Mexico City Blues* was written in 1955 and published in 1959.
• He released a spoken-word album titled *Poetry for the Beat Generation* in 1959.