| History : Lowell
History : Bibliography
: Park Brochures : Related
Links Jack Kerouac
In the late 1950s American readers heard an exuberant new voice.
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) wrote a spontaneous, sometimes raw prose
that captured the immediacy of experience. Born of French-Canadian
parents in the Centralville area of Lowell, Jean-Louis Kerouac
grew up immersed in the city's ethnic, working-class culture.
He is best known for his "road" books, such as Visions
of Cody, Dharma Bums, and especially On the Road, which
chronicle his restless travels. Through them he became spokesman
for what he called the "Beat Generation."
 Kerouac
also wrote five books largely set in Lowell, notably The Town
and the City, in which he calls his hometown "Galloway":
The Merrimac River, broad and placid, flows down to
it from the New Hampshire hills, broken at the falls to make frothy
havoc on the rocks ... The grownups of Galloway ...
work- in factories, in shops and stores and offices, and on
the terms all around. The textile factories built in brick, primly
towered, solid, are ranged along the river and the canals, and
all night the industries hum and shuttle. This is Galloway, milltown
in the middle of fields and forests.
Kerouac
Brochure (PDF and/or text)
Related Link: Lowell
Celebrates Kerouac! Committee
The film by Henry Ferrini, Lowell
Blues, is offered
daily in the park Visitor Center at 4:00 p.m.
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