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The Most Read Books of the 2024 Reading Challenge (So Far)
Jack Kerouac

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En 1959, Jack Kerouac parle de littérature et de la «Beat Generation»
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Beautiful books worth treasuring - The Folio Society
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Jack Kerouac


Born
in Lowell, Massachusetts, The United States
March 12, 1922

Died
October 21, 1969

Genre
Fiction, Poetry, Travel

Influences
Neal Cassady, Thomas Wolfe, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Jean Genet, Willia ...more


Autobiographical novels, such as On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958), of American writer Jack Kerouac, originally Jean-Louis Kerouac, embody the values of the Beat Generation.

Career of Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac began in the 1940s but did not met with commercial success until 1957, when he wrote and published On the Road. The book, an American classic, defined the Beat Generation.

As his friend and contemporary, William S. Burroughs once wrote, "Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes. Woodstock rises from his pages."
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Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.7 · 694,133 ratings · 33,533 reviews · 370 distinct works • Similar authors
On the Road
3.61 avg rating — 415,632 ratings — published 1957 — 611 editions
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The Dharma Bums
3.93 avg rating — 95,386 ratings — published 1958 — 217 editions
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Big Sur
3.84 avg rating — 35,232 ratings — published 1962 — 176 editions
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The Subterraneans
3.66 avg rating — 15,745 ratings — published 1958 — 144 editions
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On the Road: The Original S...
by
4.12 avg rating — 12,752 ratings — published 1957 — 54 editions
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Desolation Angels
3.93 avg rating — 11,708 ratings — published 1958 — 100 editions
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Lonesome Traveler
3.76 avg rating — 7,598 ratings — published 1960 — 104 editions
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Tristessa
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3.66 avg rating — 6,356 ratings — published 1960 — 79 editions
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Atop an Underwood: Early St...
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3.58 avg rating — 6,230 ratings — published 1999 — 17 editions
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Maggie Cassidy
3.59 avg rating — 5,183 ratings — published 1959 — 83 editions
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More books by Jack Kerouac…

Series by Jack Kerouac

Atop an Underwood: Early St... Visions of Gerard Dr. Sax The Town and the City Maggie Cassidy Vanity of Duluoz: An Advent... On the Road
(14 books)
by
3.68 avg rating — 609,995 ratings

Selected Letters, 1940-1956 Selected Letters, 1957-1969
(2 books)
by
4.16 avg rating — 1,193 ratings

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Quotes by Jack Kerouac  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“[...]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 centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
tags: freethinker, inspirational, mad
11438 likes
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“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
tags: dharma, simplicity, writing
8408 likes
Like

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry.”
― Jack Kerouac
5653 likes
Like

Polls

April 2016 New School Classic Group Read

1927, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 209 pages
 
  32 votes, 18.0%

 
  28 votes, 15.7%

 
  18 votes, 10.1%

1961, Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, 346 pages
 
  17 votes, 9.6%

1969, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, 448 pages
 
  13 votes, 7.3%

 
  11 votes, 6.2%

1963, The Clocks by Agatha Christie, 381 pages
 
  10 votes, 5.6%

 
  10 votes, 5.6%

 
  9 votes, 5.1%

 
  9 votes, 5.1%

1900, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, 455 pages
 
  6 votes, 3.4%

1937, Christ in Concrete by Pietro Di Donato, 256 pages
 
  4 votes, 2.2%

1957, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, 220 pages
 
  4 votes, 2.2%

1969, them by Joyce Carol Oates, 576 pages
 
  3 votes, 1.7%

1962, Big Sur by Jack Kerouac, 256 pages
 
  3 votes, 1.7%

 
  1 vote, 0.6%

1929, Cimarron by Edna Ferber, 400 pages
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

178 total votes
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