Kerouac: Brooding, but sensitive.On October 21, 2009, we honored the 40th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's passage into the non-physical reality. Considering he was born and raised right here in Lowell, MA, we figured it would be fitting to join the "Lowell Celebrates Kerouac" committee on their tour of Jack's favorite haunts around town. Joining us on the walk was our good friend and exceptionally talented photographer, Anne Ruthmann, who supplies the photo slideshow you will see at the bottom of this post.
One of the highlights of our time in Lowell was learning more about this mysterious figure known as Kerouac. Part man, part legend, part myth, part ghost, part Canadian but all-American, the "King of the Beats" has left an indelible mark on scores of budding writers all over the globe.
What Jack's doing now, no one knows. But what he did while he was here is a true gift to all of mankind. Kerouac thought of writing as his "duty" while here on Earth, and he performed said duty as well as anyone could in such a brief time. From The Town and the City, his first published novel which loosely describes his growing up in Lowell (and out of it), to the "bible" of the Beats, On the Road, Kerouac not only transcended genres, he created his own.
There are many creative storytellers; however, there are few who create a completely new style of writing. Jack's spontaneous prose, rambling alliterative inner dialogues and prolifically poignant poetry established a writing style so unique, so current, and yet so timeless, it spawned an entire generation of blessed Beatniks who are still reeling from the era known as the 1960s.
For Jack to write was for him to expose his very soul, leaving himself utterly vulnerable to the world at large and no doubt leading to his premature exit at the age of 47 in 1969.
I leave you with a passage from On the Road as a small sample and salute to Jack's style:
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle, you see the blue center-light pop, and everybody goes ahh...
For more biographical information on Jack Kerouac, including a complete list of his published works, you can link to his Wikipedia entry here.
Support Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, and help keep Jack's memory alive.
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