Jack Kerouac (Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century)
Early Life
Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac was born in the French-Canadian section of Lowell, Massachusetts, known as Pawtucketville, the second son and third child of Leo Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle Ange Levesque Kerouac (whom Kerouac called “Memere” to the end of his life). Kerouac’s parents, especially his mother, were devout Catholics, and the memory and imagery of a distinctly Catholic altarboyhood in an impoverished northern factory town informed much of Kerouac’s fiction. When Kerouac was five, his older brother Gerard died, and Kerouac remained obsessed throughout...
[The entire page is 2308 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
Related Topics
