Grave of a Famous Person: Jack Kerouac - Lowell, MA

Jack Kerouac

Lowell, MA

N 42° 36.954 W 071° 18.410

Short Description: 

The grave of American poet and novelist of the "Beat Generation" John "Jack" Kerouac is located in Edson Cemetery, 1375 Gorham Street, Lowell, MA.

Long Description:

The grave of poet and novelist Jack Kerouac is marked by a family headstone and an individual horizontal grave marker.

The horizontal grave marker is inscribed:

"TI JEAN"

JOHN L. KEROUAC

MAR. 12, 1922 - OCT 21, 1969

- HE HONORED LIFE -

STELLA HIS WIFE

NOV. 11, 1918 - FEB. 10, 1990

One side of the family monument contains the image of a dove, the signature Jack Kerouac and the phrase "The Road is Life".

The other side of the family monument contains a list of in-law family names and dates including:

MARCH 12, 1922 JOHN LOUIS KEROUAC OCTOBER 21, 1969

Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Kérouac on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts to French-Canadian parents. He attended Columbia University in New York City where he played football. When an injury ended is football career he dropped out of school.

In 1942 Kerouac joined the United States Merchant Marine and, in 1943, served briefly in the United States Navy before receiving an honorably discharged on psychiatric grounds. He wrote his first novel, The Sea is My Brother , while in the Merchant Marine.

Upon leaving the navy and back in New York City, he met other members of the "Beat Generation" including Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. Kerouac became a leading voice of the post-modern "Beat Generation". His seminal novel On the Road, was published in 1951. It defined the prevailing counterculture in America. During his life he published a large number of poems and works of fiction.

Bibliography from Wikipedia:

Poetry:

Mexico City Blues (1955; published 1959)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1956; published 1960)
Scattered Poems (1945–1968; published 1971)
Book of Sketches (1952–1957)
Old Angel Midnight (1956; published 1973)
Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from SF to NY (1959; published 1973)
Heaven and Other Poems (1957–1962; published 1977)
San Francisco Blues (1954; published 1991)
Pomes All Sizes (compiled 1960; published 1992)
Book of Blues (1954–1961)
Book of Haikus (published 2003)
Collected Poems (published 2012)
Old Angel Midnight (City Lights Publishers, 2016 edition)

Fiction:

The Town and the City (1950; written 1946–1949)
On the Road (1957; written 1947–1951)
The Subterraneans (1958; written 1953)
The Dharma Bums (1958)
Doctor Sax (1959; written 1952)
Maggie Cassidy (1959; written 1953) 
Tristessa (1960; written 1955–1956)
Lonesome Traveler, short story collection (1960)
Book of Dreams (1960; written 1952–1960)
Big Sur (1962)
Visions of Gerard (1963; written 1956)
Desolation Angels (1965)
Satori in Paris (1965)
Vanity of Duluoz (1968)
Visions of Cody (1972; written 1951–1952)
Pic (1971; written 1951 & 1969)
The Sea is My Brother (1942) 
Orpheus Emerged (1944–1945; published 2002)
The Haunted Life and Other Writings (1944; published 2014)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (1945; published 2008)
La vie est d'hommage (1950-1965; published 2016)
The Unknown Kerouac (published 2016)

Other work and non-fiction:

Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings (1936–1943; published 1999)
Good Blonde & Others (1955; published 1993)
Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha (1955; published 2008)
Some of the Dharma (1953–1956; published 1997)
Beat Generation, a play (1957, published 2005)