Jack Kerouac

Destiny Tripp
 ● Born: March 12, 1922. Massachusetts, U.S.A

About the Author: ●

●
Died: October 21, 1969. Florida, U.S.A
Birth Name: Jean-Louis Kerouac
● Education: Columbia University
○ Earned a scholarship offer because of his football
skills
○ He was also offered scholarships from Boston
College and Notre Dame
● Cause of Death: Abdominal hemorrhage due to
cirrhosis (caused by excessive drinking)
 Magazines:

● Horace Mann Quarterly

Novels:

Author’s Works: ●
●
Town and City
On the Road
● The Dharma Bums
● The Subterraneans
● Dr. Sax
● Mexico City Blues
● Maggie Cassidy
● Book of Dreams
● Big Sur
● Visions of Gerard
● Vanity of Duluoz

+ drabbles in poetry …
 Genre(s):

● Fiction
● Semi-bibliography

About the Works: Context:

● Most of his fiction work was inspired by his own

life
○ Town and City--about a family surviving in a small
town based on his childhood
○ On the Road--about a group of friends living
through the struggles of drugs, etc. which was
written based on his own friends and their
experiences
■ was started one night out as Jack was at
a bar with his friends
 ● “My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I
have, but in my lack of control of them.”
○ This quote is important due to his drug and
alcohol use while frequently partying which was
eventually the cause of his very early death at age

Author’s Quotes:
47.
● “A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I
saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite
direction in this too-big world.”
○ This quote may not be important to us, but it was
important to him as, because of his addictions, he
had been through several marriages and suffered
severe heartbreak.
● “Because in the end, you won’t remember the
time you spent working in the office or mowing
your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”
○ This quote is very popular and used as an
inspiration for many. It is significant because
anyone could use this quote in their life.
 Jack Kerouac went from pursuing football to writing.

The Author’s
In a way, I take this as a bit of inspiration because it is
like showing people it’s never too late to change your

Influence: career, no matter how drastic the change.

Another thing is, Kerouac makes the top 100 book lists
of all time frequently. He started out as a newspaper
article writer for his university. It can influence one to
write despite how they have started out. It can take a
few tries. He didn’t become a bestseller on his first
book and neither will you, but you could make it there
someday. Everyone starts small.
Elements of Style In his more personal works, he uses certain styles and
forms to try to convey the feeling of what he would

and Form: consider to be not a good childhood.

This includes:

● Violent and Mature themes

● Dark plot
● Tense atmospheres
● Negative-emotion-provoking descriptions