Jack Kerouac was the reluctant hero of the Beat generation during the late 1950’s. His groundbreaking novel “On the Road” captured the spirit of the new generation of youth who were tired of the strict conformity of the 1950’s.

Kerouac’s life was a tragic one. His father lost his business and began gambling and drinking. His older brother, Gerald, died at the age of nine of heart disease. For the rest of his life, Kerouac believed that Gerald’s angel remained with him. Jack entered Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship. Unfortunately, several fights with his football coach, a broken leg, and an unemployed, alcoholic father forced Jack to quit Columbia University.

Prior to leaving the university, Jack made friends with several people. The most important of these were Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady and Lucien Carr. Kerouac’s life became tied to the lives of these men. He spent the next several years with them traveling the country and writing.

During his travels across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady, he wrote his mostly autobiographical work, “On the Road.” He wrote the novel on a roll of paper instead of individual pages. He used a stream of consciousness style that he called “Spontaneous Prose.” By the time he was finished, the roll of paper was 120 feet long. Though he wrote the book in three weeks, it took another five years before it was published. Unfortunately, Kerouac could not handle the sudden fame that came with the success of the book.

Forced into this instant success, Jack Kerouac found it hard to defend his lifestyle. Although a free spirit in his books and social life, Kerouac was privately conservative. When the hippies of the 1960’s replaced the beatniks of the 1950’s, he badmouthed the hippies. He even spoke out publicly for the Vietnam War.

His success caused him to withdraw from society, and he returned Lowell, MA, and his sick mother. He remained there, writing little, until his alcoholism-related death in 1969.