Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist and poet, central figure of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s.
His novel *On the Road* became a touchstone for countercultural rebellion and spontaneous prose style.
Kerouac's name evokes jazz-influenced writing, restless travel, and bohemian rejection of middle-class conformity: very Kerouac, hitchhiking across the country with nothing but a notebook.
Fifties literary counterculture movement
- beatnikFifties counterculture member
- Ginsberg"Howl" writer, beatnik
- CorsoItalian main street
- City LightsGlowing metropolitan nightscape
Burroughs · Greenwich Village · coffeehouse · poetry reading · jazz poetry · spontaneity · hipster · cool
Writer of prose narratives
- authorCreator of written works
- poetWriter of verse
- proseUnversified language
- stream of consciousnessNarrative mimicking uninterrupted thought
On the Road · Big Sur · autobiographical · confessional · manuscript · sketching · American literature · Lowell
Travel from place to place
- highwayMajor road for travel
- hitchhikingSoliciting free rides
- cross-countryTraversing wide natural terrain
- wanderlustCraving for distant places
restlessness · Denver · San Francisco · Mexico · automobile · gas station · roadside · American West
Fast, complex jazz style
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- Charlie ParkerBebop alto saxophone innovator
- saxophoneReed instrument, brass body
- rhythmPatterned stress and silence
Dizzy Gillespie · riff · jam session · nightclub · spontaneity · syncopation · cool jazz · musical phrasing
Enlightenment-seeking Eastern religion
- ZenMeditative Buddhist school
- dharmaCosmic moral order
- satoriSudden spiritual awakening
- meditationFocused attention practice
enlightenment · Catholicism · prayer · mysticism · transcendence · suffering · compassion · solitude
Beat Generation
Fifties literary counterculture movement
Burroughs · City Lights · Greenwich Village · coffeehouse · poetry reading · jazz poetry · spontaneity · hipster · cool · cat
novelist
Writer of prose narratives
stream of consciousness · On the Road · Big Sur · autobiographical · confessional · manuscript · sketching · American literature · Lowell
journey
Travel from place to place
- highwayMajor road for travel
- hitchhikingSoliciting free rides
- cross-countryTraversing wide natural terrain
wanderlust · restlessness · Denver · San Francisco · Mexico · automobile · gas station · roadside · American West · freedom
bebop
Fast, complex jazz style
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- Charlie ParkerBebop alto saxophone innovator
- saxophoneReed instrument, brass body
Dizzy Gillespie · rhythm · riff · jam session · nightclub · spontaneity · syncopation · cool jazz · musical phrasing · swing
Buddhism
Enlightenment-seeking Eastern religion
meditation · enlightenment · Catholicism · prayer · mysticism · transcendence · suffering · compassion · solitude · contemplation
- American WritersToni Morrison, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, Thomas Pynchon
- AuthorsShakespeare, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Authors JJ.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, James Patterson, John Grisham
- Authors KStephen King, Dean Koontz, Ken Kesey, Rudyard Kipling, Franz Kafka
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick
- 20th Century AuthorsErnest Hemingway, Hemingway, William Faulkner, Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jack KerouacHenry James
"The Ambassadors" author
T.S. Eliot · Vladimir Nabokov · John Updike · Edith Wharton · New Criticism
Jack KerouacNorman Rockwell
settling down · squares · square · Dwight D. Eisenhower · Billy Graham