1922

1926

Birth of Jean-Louis Kirouac, on March12 in Lowell, Mass. Youngest of three children from Leo Alcide Keroack (Kirouack), whose father Jean Baptiste Kirouack had left Saint Hubert (Témiscouata County, Qc) for Nashua (N.H.) and Gabrielle Ange Lévesque, daughter of Louis Lévesque and Joséphine Jean from Saint-Pacôme (Kamouraska County, Qc). Jack was preceded by a brother, Gerard and a sister, Caroline.

 Death of his brother Gerard alias Jerome.  Jack is deeply marked by this mourning.

1939

Jack graduates from a secondary school in Nashua where he had distinguished himself as a track runner and football player. His successes in football allow him to a scholarship at Horace Mann School (New York) and later at Columbia University.

1939-40

Preparatory studies at Horace Mann.

1940-41

Registered at Columbia University. A fractured leg brings and end to his hopes of a professional career in football.

1942-43

Discharged from the US Navy, Jack enlists with the Merchant Marine and sails onboard convoy vessels.

1944

Jack meets with Lucien Carr, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg. They will influence him deeply. His future is now sealed. He lives, dreams and roams around with them all over America. Confident with his literary talents, all his energies are devoted to writing. 

1944

First marriage with Frankie Edith (Edie) Parker, marriage that lasts only two months.

1946

His father Léo Alcide dies in the spring from a stomach cancer. Jack had sworn to his father that he would care for his mother. For many years, mainly before the recognition of his literary talent, it is his mother who will be his financial provider.

1946-48

Writing of his first novel, The Town and the City. This book is largely autobiographical. 

1946

Jack meets with Neal Cassady, his « bad genius » as we can put it. Cassady, unstable and always wandering, exerts a deep influence on Jack who seems unable to refrain his admiration for him. Neal gives Jack the final impulse that will drive him away from his typewriter, make him say farewell to his mother and go on the road. Because of his life style, Jack has and still is considered as the spiritual father of the hippies.

1947-50

First of those almost maddening trips with Neal Cassady all over the US. First attempts to the writing of On The Road. He invents a new style of writing: a kind of spontaneous creation.  

1950  

First visit with Burroughs in Mexico.  He writes under the influence of drugs.

1950

Publication of The Town and the City.

1951

Jack marries with Joan Harverty whom he will leave six months later.

1951

In New York, he types the manuscript of On The Road on a continuous roll made of Japanese drawing paper sheets taped one after the other.

Note: Teletype paper rolls, some given by Lucien Carr, would have been used for other works.

1951

Writing of Visions of Cody. A book on Neal Cassady.

1952

Birth in February of a daughter from Joan Haverty, named Janet Michele. Jack Kerouac will never officially admit his paternity that will need to be established later by a tribunal.

1953

He reads, studies and becomes an adept of Buddhism.

Writing of The Subterraneans.

1955

Second trip to Mexico. He returns physically exhausted from the use of drugs.

1956

As a Forest Fire Ranger, Kerouac spends a summer in isolation, atop Mount Desolation in Washington State. 

Writing of Visions of Gerard.

1957

Publication of On The Road, a best seller of the year. Neal breaks with Jack because of all the details given on him in On the Road.

Writing of The Dharma Bums.

1958-60

Writing of Lonesome Traveler.

1961

Writing of Desolation Angels and Big Sur.

1965

Embarks on a trip to Brittany in June, in search of his family roots.

Writing of Satori in Paris.

1966

Third marriage, this time to Stella Sampas, sister of one of his friends as a kid, who was killed in Europe during WWII.

He returns to live in Lowell but at the reading of his books, one may ask if Jack has ever left Lowell.

1967

While in Montreal for the World’s Fair, Jack is invited by Radio Canada to a TV show titled  “Le sel de la semaine” and interviewed in French by journalist Fernand Séguin.

1968

Neal Cassady dies in February.

1969

Jack, dies on October 21^st in Saint-Petersburg (Florida)

1972

Death of Jack’s mother, Gabrielle Ange Lévesque. (Mémère)