What's left of Kerouac?

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What's Left of Kerouac?

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BBC Radio 4 - What's Left of Kerouac?

Looking for Jack Kerouac in his hometown on his 100th birthday.

Looking for Jack Kerouac in his hometown on his 100th birthday. With Geoff Dyer, AM Homes and Holly George-Warren.

Looking for Jack Kerouac in his hometown on his one hundredth birthday.

The writer Jack Kerouac was known to have a clear, almost photographic memory. He claimed to remember the day on which he was born: March 12th 1922, a late afternoon in Lowell, Massachusetts.

“It was a strange afternoon.” he wrote. “Red as fire.”

As is the way, Lowell – and the world – has changed since Jack’s day.

The network of canal-side mills and factories, which turned the town into the cradle of the industrial revolution in America, are long abandoned. Broken windows have given way to restoration and redevelopment. Like many post-industrial towns, Lowell is undergoing an extended transition towards a future which is still unclear.

In a world where Jack Kerouac’s books don’t quite resonate they way they once did.

His novel On the Road – a paean to wanderlust, open-mindedness, and the music of language – broke the mould of American literature. And it brought with it a new dimension for teenage expression. In the words of Kerouac’s friend William Burroughs, On the Road "sold a trillion pairs of Levis and a million espresso machines". That subcultural selling power endured for decades. 

But now?

The advertisers don't seem to come calling at Kerouac's door any longer. His image and the aura he conjured no longer 'sell' in the way they used to. 

His values were always questionable, some might say, his writing naïve.

The story goes that when On the Road was published, Kerouac went to bed obscure and woke up famous. That fame – as avatar for the Beat Generation – would be his undoing. Far from being a firebrand or a spokesman, he was a conservative and reserved man, a Buddhist-Catholic and a patriot. And in the end: drink-sodden, reactionary and sad.

His youthful work stands in a lineage of American transcendentalism that goes back to Whitman, Thoreau and beyond. His real subject was, in part, America itself.

And that is still the best place to find him. So this programme will be rooted in Lowell, as the city celebrates the centenary of its most famous son. 

Holly George Warren is in town to begin research in Kerouac's archive for her forthcoming biography; writers Geoff Dyer and AM Homes reflect on their feelings toward Jack Kerouac today; and we hear from a variety of citizens of Lowell about what’s left – for today and for the future – of Kerouac and of Lowell itself.

Readings by Kerry Shale.

Recording assistance by Avishay Artsy.

Producer: Martin Williams

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