Kerouac, Jack (Vol. 14) - Introduction

Kerouac, Jack 1922–1969

Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. Along with Ginsberg, Burroughs, and others, he was an original member of the group which, in the middle 1940s, became the Beat movement. Kerouac's own work was an effort to "invent a new prose," specifically American, which was to reflect in its spontaneity and formlessness the vastness and beauty of this country. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 5, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.; obituary, Vols. 25-28.)