orig. Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac
born March 12, 1922, Lowell, Mass., U.S.
died Oct. 21, 1969, St. Petersburg, Fla.
U.S. poet and novelist.
Born to a French-Canadian family, he attended Columbia University, served as a merchant seaman, and roamed the U.S. and Mexico before his first book appeared. At Columbia he met Beat movement (a term he coined). He celebrated its code of poverty and freedom in On the Road (1957); his best-known novel, and the first written in the nonstop, unedited style that he advocated, it enjoyed a huge success among young people, for whom Kerouac became a romantic hero. All his novels, including The Dharma Bums (1958), The Subterraneans (1958), and Desolation Angels (1965), are autobiographical. His death at age 47 resulted from alcoholism.