JACK KEROUAC

Jack Kerouac was born in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. During World War II, Jack joined the US Merchant Marine and later the US Navy for a short time. When he was not sailing he was hanging around New York with Columbia University students Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Neal Cassady. Together they formed part of the Beat Generation. Jack wrote his first novel The Town and the City, but it did not meet the success he hoped for.He decided to change his style of writing. According to his new motto „Something that you feel will find its own form“, he sat down and within 21 days he wrote the novel On the Road. He wanted to describe his and Cassady’s trip across America. He became a close friend with the young Zen Buddhism poet Gary Snyder and found enlightenment thrugh the Buddhist religion and nature. He described his new experiences in the novel The Dharma Bums. In 1955 The six Gallery Reading was organized. This event was the first important public manifestation of the Beat Generation, and publishers began to express interest in the unwanted manuscript On the Road. Kerouac’s novel was finally published in 1957 and it was an immediate success. He published many books during the following years. Neal Cassady, one of Kerouac’s good friends, was an unfailing source of inspiration. Dean Moriaty, one of the main characters of this nove lis inspired by him. He is responsible for all the excitement and desire that fill the road trip and the book. In my view The Beat Generation would not be complete without the sound of jazz and countless talks about the meaning of life. I thing that they are so famous for their chaotic and spontaneous style of writing and true feelings.