Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac, 1956

Tom Palumbo

Jack Kerouac, the Writer

Jack Kerouac wrote novels and poetry based on his life experiences in Lowell, New York City, and traveling about the United States. His initial influences were the American realist writers of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Thomas Wolfe, but he soon discovered a powerful form of lyrical, stream of consciousness in his novel On The Road and in subsequent work.

Kerouac’s subject matter was people. He wrote about childhood and adolescence in Lowell (The Town and the City), and he later wrote about the literary avant garde Beat poets and writers he met when he moved to New York – to attend Columbia University on a football scholarship.

Kerouac was deeply spiritual and melded his Roman Catholic upbringing with a bicoastal Zen Buddhism acquired from the likes of Alan Ginsberg and Alan Watts. Most of all he wrote about the wretchedness of the human condition which, according to him, should find solace in brotherhood, kindness and heaven.

Jack Kerouac, His Life

Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1922, “at five o’clock in the afternoon of a red-all-over supper time” (Doctor Sax) and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 21, 1969, at the age of 47. Kerouac’s first seventeen years were those of a typical Franco-American youth living in Lowell; his next thirty years were those of a traveling Ulysses living with everyone everywhere.

 

Kerouac's birthplace on Lupine Street in Lowell.

Library of Congress

French-Canadian Roots

Kerouac’s parents were born in Quebec. They met and were married in Nashua, New Hampshire, and later moved to Lowell, where Jack, his brother Gerard, his sister, Caroline (Nin) were all born. During this time, Lowell was a city of about 100,000 people, including 30,000 Franco-Americans. Most of these French-speaking immigrants and their families - as did the Kerouacs - lived in the Centralville, Little Canada, and Pawtucketville sections of the city.

In his teens, the Kerouac family lived in an apartment at 118 University Avenue (formerly Moody Street). During the 1930s Great Depression, Kerouac’s father managed the Pawtucketville Social Club up the street, a local social center in the Franco-American community, and where Jack and his friends reportedly spent much time shooting pool.

Although Kerouac first gained literary notice with the 1950 publication of his autobiographical, coming of age novel, The Town and the City, it was his 1957 novel On the Road that broke new literary ground and caused him to be labeled the “Father of the Beat Generation.” He went on to write and publish more than 20 books of prose and poetry, and is considered an important 20th century author.

 

Lowell High School in 1929

NPS

Education

A first-generation Franco-American, Jack Kerouac spoke French exclusively until he was seven years old. He attended elementary school at St. Louis Parochial School at 79 Boisvert Street and the Oblate School on Merrimack Street in Little Canada. Jack skipped sixth grade and entered Bartlett Junior High, a public school at 79 Wannalancit Street. Jack then attended Lowell High School located on Kirk Street. Maggie Cassidy takes place during Jack’s senior year at Lowell High, when he was a football and track star. Jack began writing seriously when he was 17. Among his early influences were Whitman, Saroyan, Wolfe, and Thoreau. He earned a scholarship to Columbia but dropped out his sophomore year. In 1942, he worked briefly as a Lowell Sun sports reporter. After serving in the merchant marine during World War II, Jack moved to New York to join his family, who had moved there from Lowell.

 

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in Lowell.

Library of Congress

Kerouac’s Places

The city of Lowell serves as a backdrop for many of Kerouac’s books, in which he describes various businesses, churches, haunts, and residences of Lowell. Some of these still exist. One of them, St. Jean Baptiste Church, Kerouac described as “the ponderous chartreuse cathedral of the slums.” Jack’s funeral was held there. One can also still see the Bienvenue Social Club and “Funeral Row,” a series of funeral homes including Amedee Archambault & Sons, the site of Kerouac’s wake. Nearby, at the corner of Pawtucket and School Streets, is an elegant old house built in 1875 for the industrialist Frederic A. Ayer. In 1908, the building became the Franco-American Orphanage. Behind this building, the Oblate Fathers, a Canadian religious order, built a replica of the Grotto at Lourdes. Haunted by this grotto, Kerouac wrote in Doctor Sax, “Everything there was to remind of Death, and nothing in praise of life.”

In 1967, Jack married Stella Sampas and returned to Lowell. His mother had suffered a stroke, and his only sister had died suddenly. While in Lowell, he wrote another novel, Vanity of Duluoz: An Adventurous Education, 1935-1943. He frequented Nicky’s Bar at 112 Gorham Street, now a restaurant, and spent many hours at Pollard Memorial Library as he had years before with his sister Nin. Jack expressed thanks in Doctor Sax for the books that were always available at the library.

 

Jack Kerouac Commemorative

Jim Higgins

Final Resting Place

Jack Kerouac’s grave is in the Sampas family plot at Edson Cemetery, which is located on Gorham Street two miles south of the Lowell Connector. A small flush stone at Lincoln Avenue between Seventh and Eighth Streets is marked “Ti Jean, John L. Kerouac, Mar. 12, 1922 - 1969, - He Honored Life.”

Artifacts

The Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center at 246 Market Street features a display about Kerouac.

Memorial

The Jack Kerouac Commemorative plaza is located in Kerouac Park on Bridge Street. Dedicated in 1988, the commemorative contains excerpts from Kerouac’s writings. The path, with its cross and series of circles, refers to Kerouac’s Roman Catholic and Buddhist beliefs and evokes his lifelong spiritual quest.

The Commemorative was designed by the artist, Ben Woitena, of Houston, Texas, following a national competition. Woitena sculptures are found at several sites in Texas, including the Houston Museum of Art, and San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Texas state capital building.

 

Events

Every fall, the “Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!” Committee holds a three-day event in his honor. For more information, visit https://lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/