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...