Jack Kerouac Page

Jack Kerouac Characters

Real names and their aliases, alphabetically

Joan Vollmer Adams

On The Road - Jane Lee

The Subterraneans - Jane

Book of Dreams, Desolation Angels, Vanity of Duluoz - June Evans

Visions of Cody - June Hubbard Joan

The Town and City - Mary Dennison

Alan Ansen

Book of Dreams - Irwin Swenson
On the Road - Rollo Greb
The Subterraneans - Austin Bromberg

William Burroughs

Book of Dreams - Bull Hubbard
Desolation Angels - Bull Hubbard
On the Road - Old Bull Lee
The Subterraneans - Frank Carmody
The Town and the City - Will Dennison
Vanity of Duluoz - Will Hubbard

Bill Cannastra

Visions of Cody - Finistra

Lucien Carr

Big Sur – Julian

Book of Dreams – Julian Love

Desolation Angels - Julian

On The Road – Damion

The Subterraneans – Sam Vedder
The Town and the City - Kenneth Wood

Vanity of Duluoz - Claude de Maubris

Carolyn Cassady

Big Sur – Evelyn Pomeray

Desolation Angel – Evelyn Pomeray

On the Road – Camille

The Dharma Bums - Evelyn (?)
Visions of Cody - Evelyn Pomeray

Cathy Cassady

On the Road - Amy Moriarty
Visions of Cody - Emily Pomeray

Jamie Cassady

On the Road - Joanie Moriarty
Visions of Cody - Gaby Pomeray

John Allen Cassady

Big Sur - Timmy John Pomeray
Visions of Cody - Timmy Pomeray

Neal Cassady

Big Sur - Cody Pomeray
Book of Dreams - Cody Pomeray
Desolation Angels - Cody Pomeray
The Dharma Bums - Cody Pomeray

The Subterraneans - Leroy
On the Road - Dean Moriarty
Visions of Cody - Cody Pomeray

Hal Chase

On the Road - Chad King
Visions of Cody - Val Hayes

Gregory Corso

Book of Dreams - Raphael Urso
Desolation Angels - Raphael Urso
The Subterraneans - Yuri Gligoric

Elise Cowen

Desolation Angels - Barbara Lipp

Henri Cru

Desolation Angels - Deni Bleu
Lonesome Traveler - Deni Bleu
On the Road - Remi Boncoeur
Visions of Cody - Deni Bleu
Vanity of Duluoz - Deni Bleu

Robert Duncan

Desolation Angels - Geoffrey Donald

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Big Sur - Lorenzo Monsanto

William Gaddis

The Subterraneans - Harold Sand

Bill Garver

Desolation Angels - Old Bull Gaines
Tristessa - Old Bull Gaines
Visions of Cody - Harper

Allen Ginsberg

Big Sur - Irwin Garden
Book of Dreams - Irwin Garden
Desolation Angels - Irwin Garden
The Dharma Bums - Alvah Goldbrook
On the Road - Carlo Marx
The Subterraneans - Adam Moorad
The Town and the City - Leon Levinsky
The Vanity of Duluoz - Irwin Garden
Visions of Cody - Irwin Garden

Louis Ginsberg

Desolation Angels - Harry Garden

Joyce Glassman

Desolation Angels - Alyce Newman

Diana Hansen

On the Road - Inez
Visions of Cody - Diane

Joan Haverty

On the Road - Laura

Luanne Henderson (Cassady)

On the Road - Mary Lou
The Subterraneans - Annie
Visions of Cody - Joanna Dawson

Al Hinkle

Book of Dreams - Ed Buckle
On the Road - Ed Dunkel
Visions of Cody - Slim Buckle

Helen Hinkle

On the Road - Galatea Dunkel
Visions of Cody - Helen Buckle

John Clellon Holmes

Book of Dreams - James Watson
On the Road - Tom Saybrook
The Subterraneans - Balliol MacJones
Visions of Cody - Wilson

Herbert Huncke

Book of Dreams - Huck
On the Road - Elmer Hassel
The Town and the City - Junky

Natalie Jackson

Book of Dreams - Rosemarie
The Dharma Bums - Rosie Buchanan

Randall Jarrell

Desolation Angels - Varnum Random

Frank Jeffries

On the Road - Stan Shepard
Visions of Cody - Dave Sherman

David Kammerer

The Town and the City - Waldo Meister

Lenore Kandel

Big Sur - Romana Swartz

Caroline Kerouac

The Dharma Bums - Nin
Doctor Sax - Catherine "Nin" Duluoz
Maggie Cassidy - Nin

Gerard Kerouac

Doctor Sax - Gerard Duluoz
The Town and the City - Julian Martin
Visions of Gerard - Gerard Duluoz

Gabrielle Kerouac

Doctor Sax - Ange
On the Road - Sal's Aunt
The Town and the City - Marguerite Martin
Vanity of Duluoz - Ange

Jack Kerouac

Big Sur - Jack Duluoz
Book of Dreams - Jack Duluoz
Desolation Angels - Jack Duluoz
The Dharma Bums - Ray Smith
Maggie Cassidy - Jack Duluoz
On the Road - Sal Paradise
Satori in Paris - Jack Duluoz
The Subterraneans - Leo Percepied
The Town and the City - Peter Martin
Tristessa - Jack Duluoz
The Vanity of Duluoz - Jack Duluoz

Visions of Cody - Jack Duluoz

Visions of Gerard - Jack Duluoz

Leo Kerouac

Doctor Sax - Emil "Pop" Duluoz
Maggie Cassidy - Emil "Pop" Duluoz
The Town and the City - George Martin
Vanity of Duluoz - Emil "Pop" Duluoz
Visions of Gerard - Emil "Pop" Duluoz

Philip Lamantia

Desolation Angels - David D'Angeli
The Dharma Bums - Francis DaPavia
Tristessa - Francis DaPavia

Robert LaVigne

Big Sur - Robert Browning
Desolation Angels - Levesque

Norman Mailer

Desolation Angels - Harvey Marker

Michael McClure

Big Sur - Pat McLear
Desolation Angels - Patrick McLear
The Dharma Bums - Ike O'Shay

Locke McCorkle

Desolation Angels - Kevin McLoch
The Dharma Bums - Sean Monahan

James Merrill

Desolation Angels - Merrill Randall

John Montgomery

Desolation Angels - Alex Fairbrother
The Dharma Bums - Henry Morley

Jerry Newman

Book of Dreams - Danny Richman
The Subterraneans - Larry O'Hara
Visions of Cody - Danny Richman

Peter Orlovsky

Book of Dreams - Simon Darlovsky
Desolation Angels - Simon Darlovsky
The Dharma Bums - George

Edie Parker

The Town and the City - Judie Smith
Visions of Cody - Elly
Vanity of Duluoz - Edna "Johnnie" Palmer

Kenneth Rexroth

The Dharma Bums - Rheinhold Cacoethes

Gary Snyder

Big Sur - Jarry Wagner
The Dharma Bums - Japhy Ryder

Allen Temko

Book of Dreams - Irving Minko
On the Road - Roland Major
Visions of Cody - Allen Minko

Gore Vidal

The Subterraneans - Arial Lavalina

Esperanza Villanueva

Tristessa - Tristessa

Joan Vollmer (Adams)

On the Road – Jane Lee
The Subterraneans - Jane
The Town and the City - Mary Dennison
Vanity of Duluoz - June

Ed Uhl

On the Road - Ed Wall
Visions of Cody - Ed Wehle

Alan Watts

Dharma Bums - Arthur Whane
Desolation Angels - Alex Aums

Lew Welch

Big Sur - David Wain

Philip Whalen

Big Sur - Ben Fagan
The Dharma Bums - Warren Coughlin

Ed White

Book of Dreams - Guy Green

On the Road - Tim Grey

Visions of Cody - Ed Gray

William Carlos Williams

Desolation Angels - Dr. Williams

For an excellent and comprehensive character key with pictures, see Dave Moore's Character List.

This was drawn from several sources. Please email any corrections to:kerouaczin@aol.com

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 Jack Kerouac Quotes

Fellow Travelers:

May the universe smile down upon you and offer you blessings on this journey called life.

peace

Attila Gyenis

Contents

Jack Kerouac Bibliography

Kerouac Character Aliases

Kerouac Quotes

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

Jack Kerouac

While enjoying popular but little critical success during his own lifetime, Kerouac is now considered one of America's most important authors. Kerouac's spontaneous, confessional language style inspired other writers, including Tom Robbins, Richard Brautigan, Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, and Bob Dylan.

Kerouac's life was spent alternately in the vast landscapes of America and the apartment of his mother, with whom he lived for most of his life. Faced with a changing country, Kerouac sought to find his place, eventually bringing him to reject the values of the fifties. His writing often reflects a desire to break free from society's mold and to find meaning in life. This search may have led him to experiment with drugs (e.g. he once tried psilocybin with Timothy Leary), to study spiritual teachings such as Buddhism, and to embark on trips around the world. His books are sometimes credited as the catalyst for the 1960s counterculture. Kerouac's best known work is On the Road.

His Life

Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to a family of Franco-Americans. His parents, Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, were natives of the province of Quebec in Canada. Like many other Quebecers of their generation, the Lévesques and Kerouacs were part of the Quebec emigration to New England to find employment. Jack didn't start to learn English until the age of six. At home, he and his family spoke Quebec French. At an early age, he was profoundly marked by the death of his elder brother Gérard, later prompting him to write the book Visions of Gerard.

Later, his athletic prowess led him to become a star on his local football team, and this achievement earned him scholarships to Boston College and Columbia University in New York. He entered Columbia University after spending the scholarship's required year at Horace Mann School. It was in New York that Kerouac met the people with whom he was to journey around the world, and the subjects of many of his novels: the so-called Beat Generation, which included people such as Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs. Kerouac broke his leg playing football, and he argued with his coach; his football scholarship did not pan out. He joined the Merchant Marine in 1942. In 1943, he joined the United States Navy, but was discharged during World War II on psychiatric grounds---he was of "indifferent disposition."

During Kerouac's time at Columbia University, Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder; this incident formed the basis of a mystery novel the two collaborated on in 1945 entitled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (the novel was finally published in 2008), and an excerpt from the manuscript was included in the Burroughs compilation Word Virus). In between his sea voyages, Kerouac stayed in New York with friends from Fordham. He started writing his first novel, called The Town and the City. It was published in 1950 and earned him some respect as a writer.

Kerouac wrote constantly, but did not publish his next novel, On the Road, until 1957. It was published by Viking Press. Narrated from the point of view of the character Sal Paradise, this mostly autobiographical work of fiction described his roadtrip adventures across the United States and into Mexico with Neal Cassady, the model for Dean Moriarty in the book. In a way, the story is an offspring of Mark Twain's classic Huckleberry Finn, though in On the Road the narrator (Sal Paradise) is twice Huck's age, and Kerouac's story is set in the America of about a hundred years after. The novel is often described as the defining work of the post-World War II jazz-, poetry-, and drug-affected Beat Generation; it made Kerouac "the king of the beat generation." Using Benzedrine and coffee, Kerouac wrote the entire novel in only three weeks in an extended session of spontaneous prose, his original writing style, heavily influenced by Jazz (especially BeBop), and later Buddhism. Kerouac was hailed as a major American writer, and reluctantly as the voice of the Beat Generation. His fame would come as an unmanagable surge that would ultimately be his undoing.

His friendship with Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and George Whitman, among others, defined a generation. Kerouac also wrote and narrated a "Beat" movie titled Pull My Daisy in 1958. In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible at the San Jose Library, which then marked the beginning of his studies of Buddhism and his own personal quest for enlightenment. He chronicled parts of this, as well as some of his adventures with Gary Snyder, in the book The Dharma Bums, set in Northern California and published in 1958. Kerouac developed something of a friendship with the scholar Alan Watts (cryptically named Arthur Wayne in Kerouac's novel Big Sur, and Alex Aums in Desolation Angels). He also met and had discussions with the famous Japanese Zen Buddhist authority D.T. Suzuki. At some point in his life Kerouac wrote Wake Up, a biography of Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha) that remains unpublished. Shortly prior to his death Kerouac told interviewer Joseph Lelyveld of the New York Times, "I'm not a beatnik. I'm a Catholic." After pointing to a painting of Pope Paul VI, Kerouac noted, "You know who painted that? Me."

He died on October 21, 1969 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, from an internal hemorrhage at the age of 47, the unfortunate result of a life of heavy drinking. He was living at the time with his third wife Stella, and his mother Gabrielle. He is buried in his home town of Lowell.

Career

Kerouac realized his desire to be a writer when he was in his teens, probably influenced by his father, a linotypist with a command of words. His unique style of writing wouldn't emerge until after his college years, after he wrote his first novel, "The Town and the City". He would often write while intoxicated with some substance, usually Benzedrine strips he would purge from over-the-counter inhalers, marijuana, and alcohol. He claimed that they---particularly "Bennies"---enhanced his writing by giving him the tremendous energy that this kind of writing required. Kerouac is considered by some as the "King of the Beatniks" as well as the "Father of the Hippies".

Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of Jazz, especially the Bebop genre established by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and others. Later, Kerouac would include ideas he developed in his Buddhist studies. He called this style Spontaneous Prose, a literary technique akin to stream of consciousness. Kerouac's motto was "first-thought=best thought", and many of his books exemplified this approach including On the Road, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, Big Sur, and The Subterraneans. The central features of this writing method was the idea of breath (borrowed from Jazz), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and not editing a single word. Connected with his idea of breath was the elimination of the period, preferring to use a long, connecting dash instead. As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks. When spoken, the words might take on a certain kind of rhythm, though none of it pre-meditated.

He would go on for hours to friends and strangers about his method, often drunk, which wasn't well received by Ginsberg, who had an acute awareness of the need to sell literature (to publishers) as much as write it; though he'd later be one of its great proponents. It was at about the time that Kerouac wrote The Subterraneans that he was approached by Ginsberg and others to formally explicate exactly how he wrote it, how he did Spontaneous Prose. Among the writings he set down specifically about his Spontaneous Prose method, the most concise would be Belief and Technique for Modern Prose, a list of thirty "essentials".

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

2. Submissive to everything, open, listening

3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house

4. Be in love with yr 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 monolog

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. Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better

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

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

25. Write for the world to read and see yr 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

A DVD entitled "Kerouac: King of the Beats" features several minutes of his appearance on Firing Line, William F. Buckley's television show, during Kerouac's later years when alcoholism had taken control. He is seen often incoherent and very drunk. Books also continue to be published that were written by Kerouac, many unfinished by him. A book of his haikus and dreams also were published, giving interesting insight into how his mind worked. In August 2001, most of his letters, journals, notebooks and manuscripts were sold to the New York Public Library for an undisclosed sum. Presently, Douglas Brinkley has exclusive access to parts of this archive until 2005. The first collection of edited journals, Wind Blown World, was published in 2004.

Quotes

"I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down." — Jack Kerouac

"If you're working with words, it's got to be poetry. I grew up with [the books of Jack] Kerouac. If he hadn't wrote On The Road, the Doors would have never existed. Morrison read On The Road down in Florida, and I read it in Chicago. That sense of freedom, spirituality, and intellectuality in On The Road — that's what I wanted in my own work." — Ray Manzarek, The Doors' keyboard player

"I read On the Road in maybe 1959. It changed my life like it changed everyone else's." — Bob Dylan

"Once when Kerouac was high on psychedelics with Timothy Leary, he looked out the window and said, 'Walking on water wasn't built in a day.' Our goal was to save the planet and alter human consciousness. That will take a long time, if it happens at all." — Allen Ginsberg

Jack Kerouac - (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and an unofficial member and founding father of the Beat Generation.

* courtesy of Wikipedia