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Jack Kerouac

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En 1959, Jack Kerouac parle de littérature et de la «Beat Generation»
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Beautiful books worth treasuring - The Folio Society
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Jack Kerouac


Born
in Lowell, Massachusetts, The United States
March 12, 1922

Died
October 21, 1969

Website

Genre
Fiction, Poetry, Travel

Influences
Neal Cassady, Thomas Wolfe, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Jean Genet, Henry ...more


Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, 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 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 num ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.7 · 734,067 ratings · 37,514 reviews · 474 distinct works • Similar authors
On the Road
3.61 avg rating — 441,385 ratings — published 1957 — 4 editions
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The Dharma Bums
3.93 avg rating — 100,338 ratings — published 1958 — 234 editions
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Big Sur
3.84 avg rating — 37,392 ratings — published 1962
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The Subterraneans
3.65 avg rating — 16,627 ratings — published 1958 — 7 editions
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On the Road: The Original S...
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4.11 avg rating — 13,472 ratings — published 1957 — 5 editions
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Desolation Angels
3.93 avg rating — 12,173 ratings — published 1958 — 5 editions
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Lonesome Traveler
3.75 avg rating — 8,027 ratings — published 1960 — 106 editions
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Tristessa
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3.65 avg rating — 6,798 ratings — published 1960 — 80 editions
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Atop an Underwood: Early St...
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3.59 avg rating — 6,282 ratings — published 1999 — 19 editions
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Maggie Cassidy
3.59 avg rating — 5,412 ratings — published 1959 — 54 editions
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More books by Jack Kerouac…

Series by Jack Kerouac

Selected Letters, 1940-1956 Selected Letters, 1957-1969
(2 books)
by
4.15 avg rating — 1,205 ratings

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Quotes by Jack Kerouac  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“[...]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
tags: freethinker, inspirational, mad
11459 likes
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“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
tags: dharma, simplicity, writing
8450 likes
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“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry.”
― Jack Kerouac
5621 likes
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Polls

June 2016 New School Classic Poll

 
  38 votes, 18.1%

 
  35 votes, 16.7%

 
  22 votes, 10.5%

1913, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, 134 pages
 
  19 votes, 9.0%

1955, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 307 pages
 
  18 votes, 8.6%

1930, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, 267 pages
 
  17 votes, 8.1%

 
  12 votes, 5.7%

1995, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, 334 pages
 
  11 votes, 5.2%

 
  9 votes, 4.3%

1997, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, 424 pages
 
  7 votes, 3.3%

1988, Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, 649 pages
 
  6 votes, 2.9%

1971, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, 569 pages
 
  5 votes, 2.4%

1957, The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas, 200 pages
 
  4 votes, 1.9%

1958, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, 220 pages
 
  4 votes, 1.9%

1987, Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif, 627 pages
 
  3 votes, 1.4%

210 total votes
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