Jack Kerouac is perhaps the most famous member of a group known as the Beat Generation, which included poets and writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs. Kerouac’s novel On the Road, published in 1957 and the poem Howl are often regarded as the two most important works of the era and were influential in the development of the 1960s counterculture.
The be-bop era of jazz, the emergence of a drug subculture, the exploration of eastern religions and a desire to break free from conformist American suburbia all found a voice in Kerouac and his fellow writers and the movement became one of the most important and influential literary movements in history.
Born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, in Lowell, Massachusetts, “Jack” was son of French-Canadian immigrants who had settled in New England and didn’t speak English until he was six as he and his family spoke French.
His early talents were not literary but athletic and his skills on the football field earned him a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City. There he met Cassady, Burrows and Ginsburg. He began to indulge his desire to write with his new friends, although his extra curricular activities got him more notice; Burroughs and Kerouac were charged by the police with failing to report a murder in one incident.  
A football injury and a fight with the coach ended his scholarship and Kerouac left Columbia and joined the merchant marine in 1942. During shore leave, wrote his first novel The Town and The City, although the novel would not be published until 1950. In 1943 Kerouac joined the US Navy but was soon discharged on psychiatric grounds and he returned to New York.
Throughout the late forties and early fifties, Kerouac embarked on a number of cross country trips with Cassady, trips that would become the genesis of On the Road. Kerouac, heavily influenced by jazz, would write in a free-flowing spontaneous style with little editing and rewriting.
While it would not be published until 1957, Kerouac wrote On The Road in 1951. The writing of the novel has its own mythology, but it defined Kerouac’s writing style and would become one of the most important works of American literature.
He followed Ginsburg and Cassady out to Berkley, California and became friends with another poet Gary Snyder, who introduced Kerouac to Buddhism. Kerouac would later write Dharma Bums about a trip the two took in search of some kind of enlightenment.
In 1955, Berkeley became the centre of a poetry movement, which Kerouac had earlier labeled the Beat movement. Ginsburg and Snyder met with some notoriety and directed publishers toward Kerouac.
As well as discovering Buddhism, Kerouac had discovered benzedrine, marijuana, and psilocybin. He was also drinking heavily. He moved between New York and Northern California and in a burst of literary exertion over 10 years wrote books as diverse as Dharma Bums, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels and an unpublished biography of the Buddha.
The emerging counter culture movement made literary stars of the Beats, although Kerouac would be come increasingly disenchanted with the label and the idea of a literary movement. He would, however, become a major influence on a crop of younger writers such as Tom Robbins, Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey and songwriter Bob Dylan.
Jack Kerouac spent a few days in Big Sur in early 1960 at fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's cabin, and wrote Big Sur based on his experience there. It would be his last major work. His drinking had begun to take its toll and he moved back first to Lowell with his third wife Stella and his mother, and then to St. Petersburg, Florida. He became somewhat of a curmudgeonly recluse and rejected many of the ideas that had fueled his earlier years.  In October 1969, due to complications from his alcoholism, Kerouac died. He was 47 years old.

On the Road

On the Road was written in 1951, although it was only accepted for publication in 1957. A largely autobiographical work, its inspiration were road trips of Kerouac and his fellow beats took across America. Also inspired by jazz, and drug experiences, it is regarded as one of the most important works of American fiction and the quintessential “Beat Generation” novel.
The writing of the novel has its own mythology. The book was written in just three weeks,  typed on to what Kerouac called "the scroll" a one hundred twenty-foot scroll of tracing paper sheets that he had  taped together in order to capture the free flowing almost improvisational style he wanted to capture. The roll would eventually be discovered and now can be seen as part of a touring museum exhibit.
Kerouac did a considerable amount of preparation prior to writing the novel. He took copious notes on his trips and did revise and reformat the manuscript once it was finished. The original also contained real names, which were changed to fictitious ones upon publication. Kerouac also deleted scenes that were deemed too sexually explicit for 1957.
A 50th anniversary edition of the book published in 2007, replaced the deleted scenes and the original names of the traveling protagonists were restored.