Last of six programmes Jack Kerouac , writer
He was suddenly aware of the sound of language and got swimming in the seas of sound.
(ALAN GINSBERG , poet)
He has been called the patron saint of the American Beat
Generation. His life and writing were to that generation a symbol of rejection of Eisenhower's America. Kerouac went from college football hero to self-destructive alcoholic; 'a man on the run' his friend
Lucien Carr called him. But in that retreat he made at least one novel that challenged, and continues to challenge, the way in which we see the world.
He was the precursor of the revolution of the 1960s.
Strangely, that revolution has retreated, but 'On the Road' keeps on being read.
(MALCOLM COWLEY, Critic)
Presented by Hugh Sykes Researcher MIKE WOOLF Producer GAYNOR SHUTTE