Jack Kerouac

Born in the town of Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, Jack Kerouac was born to

Leo and Gabrielle Kerouac, a French-Canadian couple in which Jack didn t even learn to

speak English until age 6, when he was enrolled in school. Jack Kerouac would aspire to

be one of the most inspirational writers of his time and in American history. Although,

through his younger years, and while he was in school, he took a more athletic approach

to life. Jack played Football in high school and was among the popular crowd, despite his

shy personality. Like many young and disinterested students, he would ditch school at

least once a week, all while managing good grades in his classes. What was unusual

about his behavior was that he didn t ditch with his friends to go see girls or get into

trouble, he went to the town library where he read books by Shakespeare, Victor Hugo,

William Penn and scholarly books on Chess (he was on a chess team in school.)

Jack was born as a third child, but lived as a second when his brother died of

rheumatic fever at age nine. Jack was heartbroken. The real magic began when Jack

started writing. Influenced by those he read about as a child in the Lowell Town Library,

Jack wrote about his own life experiences and visions of his life. One could consider Jack

a philosophical writer, but most classified him as a poet of the beat generation. Jack s

poetry opened a new path for him. Jack had been writing novels such as Maggie Cassady

and Vanity in Duluoz and more famous ones such as The Town and The City and On The

Road. Jack wrote poetry which was later compiled into books before he died.

Jack Kerouac took risks and adventures, traveling with friend and writer, Neal

Cassady through the Southern Atlantic Ocean on a boat. Jack wrote about these

adventures and used them in his novels which were published when he returned home.

After Jack had formed his vision of America, which stemmed from both World War I and

World War II, as well as his friends and family, he continued to write his novels about

everyday life in America. He wrote about the wealthy people and the poverty stricken

streets during the stock Market crash. Jack also spent a lot of time in India where he

studied Buddhism, Kerouac took a strong liking to the religion and for a while considered

himself Buddhist. Jack began writing and experimenting with oriental writing styles which

later inspired him to write haiku poems. However, Jack didn t appreciate the laws

involved in haiku poems, so he took it upon himself to develop his own writing style called

literary Prose or beat writing. Jack described it as:

American Haiku (Copyright 1959)

"The American Haiku is not exactly the Japanese

Haiku. The Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined

to seventeen syllables but since the language

structure is different I don't think American

Haikus (short three-line poems intended to be

completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry

about syllables because American speech is

something again...bursting to pop.

Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free

of all poetic trickery and make a little picture

and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi

Pastorella."

Jack Kerouac

Here are some wonderful examples of Jack s American Haikus :

All day long

wearing a hat

that wasn't on my head.

Early morning yellow flowers,

thinking about

the drunkards of Mexico.

Snap your finger

stop the world -

rain falls harder.

The bottoms of my shoes

are clean

from walking in the rain.

Glow worm

sleeping on this flower -

your light's on.

Jack s ability to create such vivid pictures about such common things was amazing

and at the same time very hard to do. Kerouac didn t like limits on his writing, so he

made up his own style, he didn t realize how popular it would become until it happened.

Music styles such as pop and rock and many others stemmed from beat poetry, and artists

used Kerouac s style to write their lyrics and tunes.

This unusual writing style brought more attention to Jack and helped him realize

what creativity was all about, he knew he could embrace his own opinions and experiences

and shape them into works of art that brought the American Society to listen to him.

Another risk Jack took was stating his opinion about controversial things such as politics

and the flaws in the American government. He voiced his opinions through his work and

was able to gain the support of thousands of readers who shared his same ideas and

opinions on political issues, etc.

There are few people in the world who are talented and willing enough to take

such dangerous risks. Jack is one of the few. He had enough courage in him to stand up

against political correctness and stand up for what he truly believed in. Kerouac often

encouraged others to be daring and artistic, to say what they felt, without violence, using

their own thoughts. Jack always knew where he stood in the hands of literature and

fortunately, he knew how to take advantage of his situation. Here are some of Kerouac s

writing tips on how to use your mind to create Modern Prose:

1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for your own joy

2. Submissive to everything, open, listening

3. Try never get drunk outside your own house

4. Be in love with your life

5. Something that you feel will find its own form

6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind

7. Blow as deep as you want to blow

8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind

9. The unspeakable visions of the individual

10. No time for poetry but exactly what is

11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest

12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you

13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition

14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time

15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monologue

16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye

17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself

18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea

19. Accept loss forever

20. Believe in the holy contour of life

21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind

22. Don t think of words when you stop but to see picture better

23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in your morning

24. No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language & knowledge

25. Write for the world to read and see your exact pictures of it

26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form

27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness

28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better

29. You're a Genius all the time

30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

Decades after Jack Kerouac died on October 21st, 1969 in St. Petersburg Florida,

Allen Ginsberg, another poet of the beat generation, gave a tribute to Jack Kerouac and

described his passion for the writing style Jack created. Ginsberg expressed his support for

Kerouac and all of the memorials made in his honor. This was quite amazing to learn that

such a person could be recognized for there work so long after it had been analyzed and

awarded. There was little room left for praise but somehow, Mr. Ginsburg and other

renowned writers and artists found a way to express their appreciation for Jack Kerouac s

inspirational work.

Jack Kerouac s message to do what you feel inspired writers everywhere and

today, his words of advice can almost be looked upon as a writers bible. There is no limit

to what you write, how you write or when and where you write. Kerouac has taught me

so much in so little time that I hesitate to say that I have even remotely researched him.

There is always more to discover about the world, and about Jack Kerouac, and writers

everywhere, and it is impossible to see it all in one lifetime, somehow, Jack Kerouac s

writing allows one to open their minds and absorb each and every word spoken, and then

use it towards everyday life. Somehow, Jack was able to write about things that never

change and allow others to realize it decades later. Jack Kerouac can only be described as

a mastermind. Not only a poet, author, or thinker, he used every part of his mind and life

and then went and lived it to the fullest.