Guest Post: Barbara Shoup on The Real Jack Kerouac

By Barbara Shoup
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Few writers attained the fame Jack Kerouac experienced after the publication of his novel, On the Road (Viking, 1957). The book captured the spirit of rebellion bubbling beneath the staid and satisfied 1950’s, and inspired countless young people to throw off their parents’ expectations and set out on adventures of their own.

Kerouac himself became an icon, a role he both gloried in and despised—and which, ultimately, undid him.

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