Jack Kerouac
...American life. Though On the Road and The Dharma Bums were
Kerouac's only commercial successes
, he was a man who changed American literature and
pop-culture. Kerouac virtually created a life-style devoted to life, art, literature, music,
and poetry. When his movement grew out of his control, he came to despise it, and died
lonely on the other side of what he once loved and cherished above all else. But, on the
way he created a style of writing which combined elements of all the great writers, with
speed, common language, real people, and the reality of his life.
In a public junior high school he began to read feverishly. In English classes he
flourished, but socially he did not. Impressed deeply by Mark Twain and Jack London,
Kerouac created his own imaginary world, which he recorded in hand-written
"newspapers." These led to his first "novel" Jack Kerouac Explores the Merrimack,
which he wrote in a notebook at the age of twelve (Clark, 22).
Skipping classes at Lowell High School, in Lowell Massachusetts, Kerouac was
exposed to the work of Thomas Wolfe by a fellow student Sammy Sampas. They
encouraged writing in each other, and Kerouac began writing seriously. Since the
Kerouacs could not afford college, a local priest suggested he try for a football
scholarship (Clark, 32). He was offered two; one from Colombia University and the
other from Boston College.
Kerouac opted for Columbia and first spent one year, by the request of the
university, at the Horace Mann School for Boys. Here he didn't fit in with the rich prep-
school crowd, but he was exposed to Hemmingway (Clark, 37). Here, also, in a school
publication his work was first printed (Clark, 39).
After two years of school at Columbia Kerouac made a decision that would
change his life. He always believed he learned more outside of the classroom than in; and
so...
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