Kerouac, Jack - Biography

BJack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was born on the 12th March 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts. His writing career began in the 1940s, but he met the first success in 1957, when the book ''On the Road'' was published. He was considered one of the best writers of the 1900.
He wrote his first story, entitled "The cop on the beat" when he was a child. He spoke a local French dialect called Joual before he learned English. He got a scholarship for football at Columbia University.
His father had financial problems and tried not to aggravate the situation, starting with gambling. Kerouac after dropped out of Columbia became an alcoholist. He began working for the Merchant Navy and when he came back to New York he attended a group of friends but his parents did not approve: Neal Cassedy, a cowboy from Denver, Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

After writing the book'' The Town and the City' he wrote ''On The Road'' but he had to wait seven years before ''On The Road'' would be published. He found enlightenment through the Buddhist religion and wrote a novel ''The Dharma Bums'' (''I vagabondi del Dharma''). After his writer friends started having success, publishers began to express interest for the book of Kerouac. ''On the Road'' was published in 1957 and was an instant success, but literary critics, objecting to the Beat 'fad', did not considered Kerouac like a real writer.
In ten years next Jack became an alcoholic and he married with Stella Sampas, his third wife. Depressed by the death of Neal Cassady, he died in 1969 guilt of a cirrhosis, in St. Petersburg.