Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)

Death: 21st October 1969
Location: Edson Cemetery, Lowell, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States
Cause of death: Cirrhosis of the liver
Photo taken by: DanielPenfield
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American novelist and poet often referred to as the ‘King of the Beat Generation’ and who is best remembered for writing On the Road
He went to Columbia University on a football scholarship but things did not work out so he went to live in New York. In New York he met other members of the Beat Generation, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg for example. 
In 1943 he joined the United States Navy, but was discharged on psychiatric grounds during the Second World War. In 1950 his first novel, The Town and the City, was published and in April 1951 he wrote On the Road
The novel was famously written on a scroll in three weeks, while Kerouac survived on Benzedrine and coffee. It was however rejected by publishers due to his experimental writing style and sympathy for minority groups in the America of the 1950’s. On the Road was finally purchased in 1957 by Viking Press who insisted that Kerouac make major revisions. When the novel was published Kerouac was proclaimed as not only the voice of the Beat Generation but as a great American writer.   His style of writing inspired other writers, such as Hunter S. Thompson and Ken Kesey. Unfortunately alcoholism, brought on by the fame, took its toll and Kerouac died aged forty-seven due to an internal hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis of the liver.

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