Jack Kerouac


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

Died
October 21, 1969

Website

Genre

Influences


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
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Average rating: 3.7 · 741,887 ratings · 38,401 reviews · 359 distinct worksSimilar authors
On the Road

3.61 avg rating — 446,438 ratings — published 1957 — 656 editions
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The Dharma Bums

3.93 avg rating — 101,261 ratings — published 1958 — 5 editions
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Big Sur

3.84 avg rating — 37,790 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 — 13,613 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 — 8,112 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 — 5,468 ratings — published 1959 — 81 editions
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More books 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

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

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

Polls

June 2016 New School Classic Poll

 
  38 votes, 18.1%

 
  35 votes, 16.7%

 
  22 votes, 10.5%

1913, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, 134 pages
 
  19 votes, 9.0%

1955, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 307 pages
 
  18 votes, 8.6%

1930, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, 267 pages
 
  17 votes, 8.1%

 
  12 votes, 5.7%

1995, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, 334 pages
 
  11 votes, 5.2%

 
  9 votes, 4.3%

1997, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, 424 pages
 
  7 votes, 3.3%

1988, Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, 649 pages
 
  6 votes, 2.9%

1971, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, 569 pages
 
  5 votes, 2.4%

1957, The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas, 200 pages
 
  4 votes, 1.9%

1958, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, 220 pages
 
  4 votes, 1.9%

1987, Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif, 627 pages
 
  3 votes, 1.4%

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