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Jack Kerouac

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En 1959, Jack Kerouac parle de littérature et de la «Beat Generation»
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Beautiful books worth treasuring - The Folio Society
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Jack Kerouac


Born
in Lowell, Massachusetts, The United States
March 12, 1922

Died
October 21, 1969

Website

Genre
Fiction, Poetry, Travel

Influences
Neal Cassady, Thomas Wolfe, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Jean Genet, Henry ...more


Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.

Of French-Canadian ancestry, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marine; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and num ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.7 · 741,943 ratings · 38,405 reviews · 359 distinct works • Similar authors
On the Road
3.61 avg rating — 446,474 ratings — published 1957 — 656 editions
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The Dharma Bums
3.93 avg rating — 101,271 ratings — published 1958 — 5 editions
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Big Sur
3.84 avg rating — 37,796 ratings — published 1962 — 4 editions
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The Subterraneans
3.65 avg rating — 16,786 ratings — published 1958 — 7 editions
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On the Road: The Original S...
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4.11 avg rating — 13,614 ratings — published 1957 — 58 editions
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Desolation Angels
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3.93 avg rating — 12,269 ratings — published 1958 — 113 editions
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Lonesome Traveler
3.75 avg rating — 8,114 ratings — published 1960 — 112 editions
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Tristessa
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3.65 avg rating — 6,930 ratings — published 1960 — 4 editions
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Atop an Underwood: Early St...
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3.58 avg rating — 6,289 ratings — published 1999 — 19 editions
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Maggie Cassidy
3.59 avg rating — 5,469 ratings — published 1959 — 81 editions
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More books by Jack Kerouac…

Series by Jack Kerouac

Selected Letters, 1940-1956 Selected Letters, 1957-1969
(2 books)
by
4.15 avg rating — 1,206 ratings

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Quotes by Jack Kerouac  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“[...]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
tags: freethinker, inspirational, mad
11474 likes
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“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
tags: dharma, simplicity, writing
8463 likes
Like

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry.”
― Jack Kerouac
5613 likes
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Polls

March 2016 New School Group Read

1950, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, 182 pages
 
  25 votes, 12.6%

1987, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, 296 pages
 
  24 votes, 12.1%

1965, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, 343 pages
 
  20 votes, 10.1%

1972, Watership Down by Richard Adams, 481 pages
 
  19 votes, 9.5%

1955, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 307 pages
 
  14 votes, 7.0%

 
  14 votes, 7.0%

1963, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, 179 pages
 
  12 votes, 6.0%

1928, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, 228 pages
 
  11 votes, 5.5%

1987, Beloved by Toni Morrison, 324 pages
 
  11 votes, 5.5%

 
  9 votes, 4.5%

 
  9 votes, 4.5%

1931, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, 418 pages
 
  8 votes, 4.0%

1919, Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, 240 pages
 
  8 votes, 4.0%

1958, The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, 567 pages
 
  5 votes, 2.5%

1920, Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, 1168 pages
 
  4 votes, 2.0%

1937, Christ in Concrete by Pietro Di Donato, 256 pages
 
  2 votes, 1.0%

 
  2 votes, 1.0%

1949, The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, 342 pages
 
  2 votes, 1.0%

199 total votes
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