(1922–1969)

(Born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac) American novelist, poet, essayist, and nonfiction writer.

Kerouac is regarded as the one of the key figures of the Beat movement. He brought the term “Beat,” meaning both “beaten down,” or outcast, and “beatific,” or full of spiritual joy, into common use to describe the condition of his generation. His 1957 novel On the Road gained widespread recognition, both positive and negative, for the unconventional lifestyle and literary techniques practiced by the Beats. Some passages of the book are considered early examples of the “spontaneous prose” method that Kerouac developed in an effort to escape the strictures of grammar and syntax. Consequently, On the Road moves with the same frenetic energy as the real-life road trips and drunken episodes that are chronicled in a narrative that eschews extensive characterizations or plot development. Kerouac...