The writer Jack Kerouac was called the "Beat King". It was he who coined and coined the term bit-generation. His novels were not always favorably received by critics, but they were always popular among readers. After his death, Jack Kerouac received the status of a cult figure, and his works became classics of English prose.
Childhood and the stormy youth of Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was born March 12, 1922 in the town of Lowell, in Massachusetts. Jack's father, Leo-Alsid Kerouac, was the owner of a local print shop and the publisher of The Spotlight.
Already at the age of four, Jack experienced a great tragedy - his nine-year-old brother Gerard died. Subsequently, the writer dedicated one of his books to him.
English little Jack began to study only at six years old, before that he knew only the Quebec dialect of French, in which his parents spoke at home.
In high school, Kerouac, thanks to achievements in American football, became the star of his town and received a sports scholarship from Columbia University in New York - it seemed that he had a brilliant successful career. But due to a conflict with the coach, Jack was forced to leave school in 1942. After that, Kerouac got on a merchant ship, and then became a sailor of the Navy. But he did not have to participate in real hostilities: the young man was given a psychiatric diagnosis and sent home.
1944 Kerouac appeared at Columbia University to recover and continue his education. But soon he had serious problems - he almost went to jail. A friend of Kerouac, Lucien Carr, killed a man in a drunken brawl, and the future writer helped him hide the evidence … Jack had already been arrested because he had been paid a deposit on time - he was released.
First published works
In the second half of the forties, Kerouac wrote the novel "Town and City." It was published in 1950, and in general does not look like Kerouac’s further work - there isn’t his signature improvisational style here.
The next novel "On the Road", which, in fact, made Kerouac famous, was published only seven years later by Viking Press. This work was created in three weeks, it tells about the crazy trips to the United States and Mexico of two friends. The following year, the novel "Dharma Tramps" was released, which can be considered a kind of continuation of the book "On the Road." However, here the emphasis is more on the spiritual searches of the protagonist, on the search for enlightenment. In any case, both of these novels can be called autobiographical: real facts from Kerouac’s biography are described here. In addition, in the characters, despite the fictitious names, real people are recognized.
In the next two years, as many as seven works of the “king of the beatniks” were published, which were written by him earlier during the fifties. Among them are the touching love story "Tristessa", the novels "Visions of Cody" and "Maggie Cassidy", the poem "Blues of Mexico City" and so on.
