Jack Kerouac Essay -- Writer Author Jack Kerouac Biography Essays

Jack KerouacIn the beginning Jack Kerouac lived a wild and exciting biography outside(a) the realm ofeveryday normal American life. Though On the Road and The Dharma Bums were Kerouacs only commercial sucesses, he was a man who changed American belles-lettres and pop-culture. Kerouac virtually created a life-style devoted to life, art, literature, music, and poetry. When his movement grew out of his control, he came to despise it, and died lonely on the other side of what he once love and cherished above all else. But, on the way he created a style of writing which combined elements of all the great writers, with speed, common language, real people, and the realness of his life. In a public junior high school he began to read feverishly. In English classes heflourished, but socially he did not. affect deeply by Mark Twain and Jack London,Kerouac created his own imaginary world, which he recorded in hand-written newspapers. These led to his first novel Jack Kerouac Explores the M errimack,which he wrote in a notebook at the age of twelve (Clark, 22).Skipping classes at Lowell High School, in Lowell Massachusetts, Kerouac wasexposed to the work of Thomas Wolfe by a swell student Sammy Sampas. They encouraged writing in each other, and Kerouac began writing seriously. Since the Kerouacs could not afford college, a local priest suggested he try for a football scholarship (Clark, 32). He was offered two one from Colombia University and the other from Boston College. Kerouac opted for Columbia and first spent one year, by the request of the university, at the Horace Mann School for Boys. here(predicate) he didnt fit in with the rich prep-school crowd, but he was exposed to Hemmingway (Clark, 37). Here, also, in a schoolpublication his work was first printed (Clark, 39). after(prenominal) two years of school at Columbia Kerouac made a decision that would change his life. He always believed he learned more outside of the classroom than in and so after a series of arguments with his coach, he quit the team. Not long after he dropped out of school as well. He served briefly in the navy, and drinking heavily, was discharged on psychiatric grounds(Clark, 52). Upon his return home he got a job with as a merchandiser Marine. When he wasnt working he spent his time with Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cass... ...ectric...). Kerouac, though, was a conservative at heart andavoided the psychedelic drug movement (Clark, 193). This eventually to Kerouac being hated by even those whos careers he began, and lives he had changed. In one meetingone of the Merry Pranksters had covered a couch with a flag. Ginsberg watched Kerouacslowly mickle it up and marveled sadly... history was... out of Jacks hands now, (Clark,201).Neal Cassady died of a drug overdose in Mexico in 1968. Not long after, JackKerouac died of an abdominal hemorrhage and cirrhosis of the liver of the liver, he had literallydrunk himself to death. He was only 47. He died a lonely death. A sad ending to the sadwriter who gave so a great deal of himself in his belief that writing was his duty on earth.Works CitedClark, Tom. Jack Kerouac A Biography. Paragon House.Jack Kerouac. 3 Oct.1998 <http//www.charm.net/brooklyn/People/JackKerouac.html>Kerouac, Jack. Big Sur. newborn York Viking Press, 1959. --- The Dharma Bums. New York Viking Press, 1958.--- On the Road. New York Viking Press, 1957.Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. New York Bantam Books, 1968.