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64-470: The collection is Kerouac's first undisguisedly autobiographical work written in his spontaneous prose style. "Mexico Fellaheen " and "The Railroad Earth" (also known as "October in the Railroad Earth"), together with his travel journal entries, produce a loose but effective collection. "Alone on a Mountaintop" recounts Kerouac's three-month stay on Desolation Peak as a lone fire lookout , which

128-667: A Catholic", showing the reporter a painting of Pope Paul VI and saying, "You know who painted that? Me." The success of On the Road brought Kerouac instant fame. His celebrity status brought publishers desiring unwanted manuscripts that were previously rejected before its publication. After nine months, he no longer felt safe in public. He was badly beaten by three men outside the San Remo Cafe at 189 Bleecker Street in New York City one night. Neal Cassady , possibly as

192-517: A Jewish neighborhood on the Lower East Side of New York. He recalled "a whole bunch of rabbis walking arm in arm ... teedah- teedah – teedah ... and they wouldn't part for this Christian man and his wife, so my father went POOM! and knocked a rabbi right in the gutter." Leo, after the death of his child, also treated a priest with similar contempt, angrily throwing him out of the house despite his invitation from Gabrielle. Kerouac

256-532: A Times Square street hustler and favorite of many Beat Generation writers. According to Kerouac, On the Road "was really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him. I found him in the sky, in Market Street San Francisco (those 2 visions), and Dean (Neal) had God sweating out of his forehead all the way. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY OUT FOR THE HOLY MAN: HE MUST SWEAT FOR GOD. And once he has found Him,

320-538: A beat movie titled Pull My Daisy (1959), directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie . It starred poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso , musician David Amram and painter Larry Rivers among others. Originally to be called The Beat Generation , the title was changed at the last moment when MGM released a film by the same name in July 1959 that sensationalized beatnik culture. The television series Route 66 (1960–1964), featuring two untethered young men "on

384-665: A biography of Siddhartha Gautama , titled Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha , which was unpublished during his lifetime, but eventually serialized in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review , 1993–95. It was published by Viking in September 2008. Kerouac found enemies on both sides of the political spectrum , the right disdaining his association with drugs and sexual libertinism and the left contemptuous of his anti-communism and Catholicism; characteristically, he watched

448-399: A diagnosis of " schizoid personality ". While a Merchant Mariner in 1942, Kerouac wrote his first novel, The Sea Is My Brother . The book was published in 2011, 70 years after it was written and over 40 years after Kerouac's death. Kerouac described the work as being about "man's simple revolt from society as it is, with the inequalities, frustration, and self-inflicted agonies." He viewed

512-453: A guardian angel. This is the Gerard of Kerouac's novel Visions of Gerard . He had one other sibling, an older sister named Caroline. Kerouac was referred to as Ti Jean or little John around the house during his childhood. Kerouac spoke French with his family and began learning English at school, around age six; he began speaking it confidently in his late teens. He was a serious child who

576-694: A lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan , the Beatles , Jerry Garcia and the Doors . In 1969, at the age of 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published. Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French Canadian parents, Léo-Alcide Kéroack (1889–1946) and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque (1895–1973). There

640-671: A leg playing football during his freshman season, and during an abbreviated second year he argued constantly with coach Lou Little , who kept him benched. While at Columbia, Kerouac wrote several sports articles for the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator , and joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He was a resident of Livingston Hall and Hartley Hall , where other Beat Generation figures lived. He also studied at The New School . When his football career at Columbia ended, Kerouac dropped out of

704-602: 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 numerous poetry volumes. Kerouac

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768-417: A mountain climbing trip Kerouac took with Snyder, and includes excerpts of letters from Snyder. While living with Snyder outside Mill Valley, California, in 1956, Kerouac worked on a book about him, which he considered calling Visions of Gary . (This eventually became Dharma Bums , which Kerouac described as "mostly about [Snyder].") That summer, Kerouac took a job as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in

832-449: A note to read " Emerson and Thoreau (again)." He spent a year at Horace Mann School , where he befriended Seymour Wyse, an Englishman whom he later featured as a character, under the pseudonym 'Lionel Smart', in several of Kerouac's books. He also cites Wyse as the person who introduced him to the new styles of jazz, including bop . After his year at Horace Mann, Kerouac earned the requisite grades for entry to Columbia. Kerouac broke

896-585: A publisher. Before On the Road was accepted by Viking Press, Kerouac got a job as a "railroad brakeman and fire lookout" (see Desolation Peak (Washington) ) traveling between the East and West coasts of the United States to earn money, frequently finding rest and the quiet space necessary for writing at the home of his mother. While employed in this way he met and befriended Abe Green, a young freight train jumper who later introduced Kerouac to Herbert Huncke ,

960-662: A result of his new notoriety as the central character of the book, was set up and arrested for selling marijuana. In response, Kerouac chronicled parts of his own experience with Buddhism, as well as some of his adventures with Gary Snyder and other San Francisco–area poets, in The Dharma Bums , set in California and Washington and published in 1958. It was written in Orlando between November 26 and December 7, 1957. To begin writing Dharma Bums , Kerouac typed onto

1024-456: A ten-foot length of teleprinter paper, to avoid interrupting his flow for paper changes, as he had done six years previously for On the Road . Kerouac was demoralized by criticism of Dharma Bums from such respected figures in the American field of Buddhism as Zen teachers Ruth Fuller Sasaki and Alan Watts . He wrote to Snyder, referring to a meeting with D. T. Suzuki , that "even Suzuki

1088-579: Is 11.5 °C (52.7 °F). The average annual rainfall is 984.9 mm (38.78 in) with December as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 17.0 °C (62.6 °F), and lowest in January, at around 6.7 °C (44.1 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Lanmeur was 36.1 °C (97.0 °F) on 2 August 1990; the coldest temperature ever recorded

1152-600: Is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France . A hamlet in the commune called Kerouac ( Breton : Kervoac'h ) has been established as the source of the name of the American writer Jack Kerouac . A street in Lanmeur has been named rue Jack Kerouac , and in March 2010 a first Jack Kerouac Festival took place in the commune. Lanmeur has an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ). The average annual temperature in Lanmeur

1216-586: Is also described (although somewhat differently) in The Dharma Bums and Part One of Desolation Angels . Similarly, "Big Trip to Europe" depicts Kerouac's 1957 trip to various European countries, as in Part Three of Desolation Angels. The book begins with Kerouac's answers to a publisher's questionnaire , about his life and work. This article about a 1960s novel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on

1280-485: Is recognized for his style of stream of consciousness spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City , Buddhism , drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement , although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. He has

1344-477: Is some confusion surrounding his name, partly because of variations on the spelling of Kerouac , and because of Kerouac's own statement of his name as Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac . His reason for that statement seems to be linked to an old family legend that the Kerouacs had descended from Baron François Louis Alexandre Lebris de Kerouac. Kerouac's baptism certificate lists his name simply as Jean Louis Kirouac ,

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1408-699: The North Cascades in Washington, after hearing Snyder's and Whalen's stories of working as fire spotters. Kerouac described the experience in Desolation Angels and later in "Alone on a Mountaintop" (published in Lonesome Traveler ) and The Dharma Bums . Kerouac would go on for hours, often drunk, to friends and strangers about his method. Allen Ginsberg, initially unimpressed, would later be one of his great proponents, and it

1472-820: The San Jose Library, which marked the beginning of his study of Buddhism. Between 1955 and 1956, he lived on and off with his sister, whom he called "Nin," and her husband, Paul Blake, at their home outside of Rocky Mount, North Carolina ("Testament, Va." in his works) where he meditated on, and studied, Buddhism. He wrote Some of the Dharma , an imaginative treatise on Buddhism, while living there. However, Kerouac had earlier taken an interest in Eastern thought. In 1946 he read Heinrich Zimmer's Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization . In 1955, Kerouac wrote

1536-582: The Screen Gems TV production company, and sponsor Chevrolet, but was somehow counseled against proceeding with what looked like a very potent cause of action. John Antonelli's 1985 documentary Kerouac, the Movie begins and ends with footage of Kerouac reading from On the Road and Visions of Cody on The Steve Allen Show in November 1959. In response to Allen's question "How would you define

1600-487: The 1954 Senate McCarthy hearings smoking marijuana and rooting for the anti-communist crusader, Senator Joseph McCarthy . In Desolation Angels he wrote, "when I went to Columbia all they tried to teach us was Marx , as if I cared" (considering Marxism, like Freudianism , to be an illusory tangent). In 1957, after being rejected by several other publishers, On the Road was finally purchased by Viking Press , which demanded major revisions prior to publication. Many of

1664-763: The Abattoir of the Soul : "A gaping, rabid congregation, eager to bathe, are washed over by the Font of Euphoria, and bask like protozoans in the celebrated light." Kerouac used earnings from On the Road to purchase the first of three homes in Northport, New York — a wood-framed Victorian on Gilbert Street that he shared with his mother, Gabrielle. They moved there in March 1958 and stayed in Northport for six years, moving twice during that time. Kerouac also wrote and narrated

1728-503: The Godhood of God is forever Established and really must not be spoken about." According to his biographer, historian Douglas Brinkley , On the Road has been misinterpreted as a tale of companions out looking for kicks, but the most important thing to comprehend is that Kerouac was an American Catholic author – for example, virtually every page of his diary bore a sketch of a crucifix, a prayer, or an appeal to Christ to be forgiven. In

1792-849: The Municipal Building, with two detectives as witnesses, before Kerouac was returned to his cell in the Bronx City Prison (their marriage was annulled in 1948.) Kerouac and Burroughs collaborated on a novel about the Kammerer killing entitled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks . Though the book was not published during their lifetimes, an excerpt eventually appeared in Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader (and as noted below,

1856-591: The article's talk page . Spontaneous prose Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac ( / ˈ k ɛr u . æ k / ; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), 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

1920-497: The body in the Hudson River. Afterwards, Carr sought help from Kerouac. Kerouac disposed of the murder weapon and buried Kammerer's eyeglasses. Carr, encouraged by Burroughs, turned himself in to the police. Kerouac and Burroughs were later arrested as material witnesses. Kerouac's father refused to pay his bail; Kerouac then agreed to marry Edie Parker if her parents would pay the bail. They married on Tuesday 22 August 1944 in

1984-575: The book by Gilbert Millstein appeared in The New York Times proclaiming Kerouac the voice of a new generation. Kerouac was hailed as a major American writer. His friendship with Allen Ginsberg , William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso , among others, became a notorious representation of the Beat Generation. The term Beat Generation was invented by Kerouac during a conversation held with fellow novelist Herbert Huncke . Huncke used

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2048-531: The end of his life, he expressed a desire to speak his parents' native tongue again. In 2016, a whole volume of previously unpublished works originally written in French by Kerouac was published as La vie est d'hommage . On May 17, 1928, while six years old, Kerouac made his first Confession . For penance , he was told to say a rosary , during which he heard God tell him that he had a good soul, that he would suffer in life and die in pain and horror, but would in

2112-509: The end receive salvation. This experience, along with his dying brother's vision of the Virgin Mary (as the nuns fawned over him, convinced he was a saint), combined with a later study of Buddhism and an ongoing commitment to Christ, solidified the worldview which informed his work. Kerouac once told Ted Berrigan , in an interview for The Paris Review , of an incident in the 1940s in which his mother and father were walking together in

2176-486: The etymology of his surname, usually tracing it to Irish, Breton , Cornish , or other Celtic roots. In one interview he claimed it was from the name of the Cornish language ( Kernewek ), and that the Kerouacs had fled from Cornwall to Brittany. Another version was that the Kerouacs had come to Cornwall from Ireland before the time of Christ and the name meant "language of the house". In still another interview he said it

2240-602: The events of these years. In 1953, he lived mostly in New York City, having a brief but passionate affair with Alene Lee , an African-American woman, and member of the Beat generation. Alene was the basis for the character named "Mardou" in the novel The Subterraneans, and Irene May in Book of Dreams and Big Sur . At the request of his editors, Kerouac changed the setting of the novel from New York to San Francisco. In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible at

2304-473: The film The Wizard of Oz . The Town and the City was published in 1950 under the name "John Kerouac" and, though it earned him a few respectable reviews, the book sold poorly. Heavily influenced by Kerouac's reading of Thomas Wolfe , it reflects on the generational epic formula and the contrasts of small-town life versus the multi-dimensional, and larger life of the city. The book was heavily edited by Robert Giroux , with around 400 pages taken out. For

2368-503: The final draft in 20 days, with Joan, his wife, supplying him with benzedrine, cigarettes, bowls of pea soup, and mugs of coffee to keep him going. Before beginning, Kerouac cut sheets of tracing paper into long strips, wide enough for a typewriter, and taped them together into a 120-foot (37 m) long roll which he then fed into the machine. This allowed him to type continuously without the interruption of reloading pages. The resulting manuscript contained no chapter or paragraph breaks and

2432-445: The inherent structures of mind and language, and limited revision. Connected with this idea of breath was the elimination of the period , substituting instead a long connecting dash. As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks. When spoken, the words take on a certain musical rhythm and tempo. Kerouac greatly admired and was influenced by Gary Snyder. The Dharma Bums contains accounts of

2496-433: The late 40s and early 50s, as well as his relationships with other Beat writers and friends. Although some of the novel is focused on driving, Kerouac did not have a driver's license and Cassady did most of the cross-country driving. He learned to drive aged 34, but never had a formal license. Kerouac completed the first version of the novel during a three-week extended session of spontaneous confessional prose. Kerouac wrote

2560-510: The loss of his older sister to a heart attack in 1964 and his mother suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1966. Kerouac moved in with his mother in Hyannis , Massachusetts, for almost a year in 1966. In 1968, Neal Cassady also died while in Mexico. Despite the role which his literary work played in inspiring the counterculture movement of the 1960s, Kerouac was openly critical of it. Arguments over

2624-507: The most common spelling of the name in Quebec. Kerouac's roots were indeed in Brittany , and he was descended from a middle-class merchant colonist, Urbain-François Le Bihan, Sieur de Kervoac , whose sons married French Canadians. Kerouac's father Leo had been born into a family of potato farmers in the village of Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec . Jack also had various stories on

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2688-465: The most sexually explicit passages were removed and, fearing libel suits, pseudonyms were used for the book's "characters." These revisions have often led to criticisms of the alleged spontaneity of Kerouac's style. In July 1957, Kerouac moved to a small house at 1418½ Clouser Avenue in the College Park section of Orlando, Florida, to await the release of On the Road . Weeks later, a review of

2752-509: The movement, which Kerouac believed was only an excuse to be "spiteful," also resulted in him splitting with Ginsberg by 1968. Also in 1968, Kerouac last appeared on television, for Firing Line , produced and hosted by William F. Buckley Jr. (a friend of his from college). Seemingly intoxicated, he affirmed his Catholicism and talked about the counterculture of the 1960s . On the morning of October 20, 1969, in St. Petersburg, Florida , Kerouac

2816-553: The next six years, Kerouac continued to write regularly. Building upon previous drafts tentatively titled "The Beat Generation" and "Gone on the Road", he completed what is now known as On the Road in April 1951, while living at 454 West 20th Street in Manhattan with his second wife, Joan Haverty . The book was largely autobiographical and describes Kerouac's road-trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady in

2880-611: The novel was finally published late 2008). Kerouac also later wrote about the killing in his novel Vanity of Duluoz . Later, Kerouac lived with his parents in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, after they had also moved to New York. He wrote his first published novel, The Town and the City , and began On the Road around 1949 when living there. His friends jokingly called him "The Wizard of Ozone Park", alluding to Thomas Edison 's nickname, "the Wizard of Menlo Park", and to

2944-429: The operation, and died at the hospital at 5:15 the following morning, at the age of 47. His cause of death was listed as an internal hemorrhage (bleeding esophageal varices ) caused by cirrhosis , the result of longtime alcohol abuse. A possible contributing factor was an untreated hernia he suffered in a bar fight several weeks earlier. His funeral was held at St. Jean Baptiste Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, and he

3008-536: The road" in a Corvette seeking adventure and fueling their travels by apparently plentiful temporary jobs in the various U.S. locales framing the anthology-styled stories, gave the impression of being a commercially sanitized misappropriation of Kerouac's story model for On the Road . Even the leads, Buz and Todd, bore a resemblance to the dark, athletic Kerouac and the blonde Cassady/Moriarty, respectively. Kerouac felt he'd been conspicuously ripped off by Route 66 creator Stirling Silliphant and sought to sue him, CBS,

3072-418: The sick list. According to his medical report, Kerouac said he "asked for an aspirin for his headaches and they diagnosed me dementia praecox and sent me here." The medical examiner reported that Kerouac's military adjustment was poor, quoting Kerouac: "I just can't stand it; I like to be by myself." Two days later he was honorably discharged on the psychiatric grounds that he was of "indifferent character" with

3136-602: The spring of 1951, while pregnant, Joan Haverty left and divorced Kerouac. In February 1952, she gave birth to Kerouac's only child, Jan Kerouac , whom he acknowledged as his daughter after a blood test confirmed it nine years later. For the next several years Kerouac continued writing and traveling, taking long trips through the U.S. and Mexico. He often experienced episodes of heavy drinking and depression. During this period, he finished drafts of what became ten more novels, including The Subterraneans , Doctor Sax , Tristessa , and Desolation Angels , which chronicle many of

3200-409: The term "beat" to describe a person with little money and few prospects. Kerouac's fame came as an unmanageable surge that would ultimately be his undoing. Kerouac's novel is often described as the defining work of the post-World War II Beat Generation and Kerouac came to be called "the king of the beat generation," a term with which he never felt comfortable. He once observed, "I'm not a beatnik. I'm

3264-492: The university. He continued to live for a time in New York's Upper West Side with his girlfriend and future first wife, Edie Parker . It was during this time that he first met the Beat Generation figures who shaped his legacy and became characters in many of his novels, such as Allen Ginsberg , Neal Cassady , John Clellon Holmes , Herbert Huncke , Lucien Carr , and William S. Burroughs . During World War II , Kerouac

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3328-798: The word 'beat? ' ", Kerouac responds "well ... sympathetic ." In 1965, he met the poet Youenn Gwernig who was a Breton American like him in New York, and they became friends. Gwernig used to translate his Breton language poems into English so that Kerouac could read and understand them : "Meeting with Jack Kerouac in 1965, for instance, was a decisive turn. Since he could not speak Breton he asked me: 'Would you not write some of your poems in English? I'd really like to read them ! ... ' So I wrote an Diri Dir – Stairs of Steel for him, and kept on doing so. That's why I often write my poems in Breton, French and English." During these years, Kerouac suffered

3392-610: The work as a failure, calling it a "crock as literature" and never actively seeking to publish it. In 1944, Kerouac was arrested as a material witness in the murder of David Kammerer, who allegedly had been stalking Kerouac's friend Lucien Carr since Carr was a teenager in St. Louis. William Burroughs was also a native of St. Louis, and it was through Carr that Kerouac came to know both Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Carr said Kammerer's homosexual obsession turned aggressive, finally provoking Carr to stab him to death in self-defense. Carr dumped

3456-474: Was Kerouac's free-flowing prose method that inspired the composition of Ginsberg's poem Howl . It was at about the time of The Subterraneans that he was encouraged by Ginsberg and others to formally explain his style. Of his expositions of the spontaneous prose method, the most concise was "Belief and Technique for Modern Prose", a list of 30 "essential" maxims. Lanmeur Lanmeur ( French pronunciation: [lɑ̃mœʁ] ; Breton : Lanneur )

3520-711: Was a United States Merchant Mariner from July to October 1942 and served on the SS Dorchester before its maiden voyage. A few months later, the SS Dorchester was sunk during a submarine attack while crossing the Atlantic, and several of his former shipmates were lost. In 1943 he joined the United States Navy Reserves . He served eight days of active duty with the Navy before arriving on

3584-411: Was a capable athlete in football and wrestling. Kerouac's skills as running back in football for Lowell High School earned him scholarship offers from Boston College , Notre Dame , and Columbia University , where he enrolled in 1940. From around this time, Kerouac's journal includes an ambitious "Immediate Reading List," a wide-ranging list that includes sacred texts from India and China as well as

3648-554: Was an Irish word for "language of the water" and related to Kerwick . Kerouac, derived from Kervoach , is the name of a town in Brittany in Lanmeur , near Morlaix . Jack Kerouac later referred to 34 Beaulieu Street as "sad Beaulieu". The Kerouac family was living there in 1926 when Jack's older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever , aged nine. This deeply affected four-year-old Jack, who later said Gerard followed him in life as

3712-658: Was buried at Edson Cemetery . At the time of his death, Kerouac was living with his third wife, Stella Sampas Kerouac. His mother, Gabrielle, inherited most of his estate. Kerouac is generally considered to be the father of the Beat movement, although he actively disliked such labels. Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of jazz, especially the bebop genre established by Charlie Parker , Dizzy Gillespie , Thelonious Monk , and others. Later, he included ideas he developed from his Buddhist studies that began with Gary Snyder . He often referred to his style as "spontaneous prose". Although Kerouac's prose

3776-445: Was devoted to his mother, who played an important role in his life. She was a devout Catholic , who instilled this deep faith into both her sons. He later said she was the only woman he ever loved. After Gerard died, his mother sought solace in her faith, while his father abandoned it, wallowing in drinking, gambling, and smoking. Some of Kerouac's poetry was written in French, and in letters written to friend Allen Ginsberg towards

3840-421: Was looking at me through slitted eyes as though I was a monstrous imposter." He passed up the opportunity to reunite with Snyder in California, and explained to Philip Whalen "I'd be ashamed to confront you and Gary now I've become so decadent and drunk and don't give a shit. I'm not a Buddhist any more." In further reaction to their criticism, he quoted part of Abe Green's café recitation, Thrasonical Yawning in

3904-402: Was much more explicit than the version which was eventually published. Though "spontaneous," Kerouac had prepared long in advance before beginning to write. In fact, according to his Columbia professor and mentor Mark Van Doren , he had outlined much of the work in his journals over the several preceding years. Though the work was completed quickly, Kerouac had a long and difficult time finding

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3968-433: Was on the characters' experiences and the exploration of themes such as freedom, rebellion, and the search for meaning. Many of his books exemplified this spontaneous approach, including On the Road , Visions of Cody , Visions of Gerard , Big Sur , and The Subterraneans . The central features of this writing method were the ideas of breath (borrowed from jazz and from Buddhist meditation breathing), improvising words over

4032-442: Was spontaneous and purportedly without edits, he primarily wrote autobiographical novels (or roman à clef ) based upon actual events from his life and the people with whom he interacted. This approach is reflected also by his plot structure: his narratives were not heavily focused on traditional plot structures. Instead, his works often revolved around a series of episodic encounters, road trips, and personal reflections. The emphasis

4096-442: Was working on a book about his father's print shop. He suddenly felt nauseated and went to the bathroom, where he began to vomit blood. Kerouac was taken to St. Anthony's Hospital , suffering from an esophageal hemorrhage. He received several transfusions in an attempt to make up for the loss of blood, and doctors subsequently attempted surgery, but a damaged liver prevented his blood from clotting. He never regained consciousness after

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