University, Literary Estate, City and Park to Celebrate Famed Beat Writer鈥檚 Centennial
Image by Nicole Anguish/Daykamp Creative
01/19/2022
By Katharine Webster
鈥淲hat鈥檚 your road, man? 鈥� holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road.鈥�
For Beat writer Jack Kerouac, author of the legendary novel the road began and ended in Lowell.
Jean-Louis 鈥淛ack鈥� Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922, into a French-speaking family in Lowell. After he died in Florida in 1969 from complications of alcoholism, his funeral was held at the St. Jean Baptiste Catholic Church, and he lies buried in Lowell鈥檚 Edson Cemetery.
This year, his native city, the university and Kerouac鈥檚 estate are collaborating on , a wide-ranging series of events to celebrate the centennial of his birth. It will kick off in mid-March with an exhibit of Kerouac memorabilia, much of it drawn from , at .
The exhibit, which will run through April, will also include the original scroll of his best-known work, 鈥淥n the Road,鈥� on loan from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, and photos of Kerouac and his friends by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Ginsberg鈥檚 estate. The scroll last , but some of Ginsberg鈥檚 photos have never been displayed publicly before.
Image by Katharine Webster
English Prof. Michael Millner, head of the university鈥檚 Jack and Stella Kerouac Center for Public Humanities and a member of the Kerouac@100 planning committee, says there鈥檚 much more in the offing, too: a youth poetry slam, banners featuring Kerouac quotes that will be displayed around downtown Lowell, lectures, musical events, a sprucing-up of the city鈥檚 Kerouac Park and the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! festival in the fall.
鈥淲e鈥檙e planning a whole year of celebrations,鈥� says Millner, who is also serving as vice president of the newly established Jack Kerouac Foundation, which aims to create a Kerouac museum and performance center in Lowell, potentially in the now-closed St. Jean Baptiste Church.
Millner is especially enthusiastic about the upcoming public display of the original scroll of 鈥淥n the Road,鈥� which is based on Kerouac鈥檚 cross-country travels with Neal Cassady, Ginsberg and other friends. Kerouac typed the final version on a 120-foot-long roll of paper over three weeks in 1951, in a fever of mystical inspiration fueled by coffee, amphetamines and bebop jazz. There were no paragraph breaks.
鈥淚n some ways, it鈥檚 better than the published version, because it gives you a sense of what Kerouac was intending to do artistically, which was very different from what anyone had tried to do before,鈥� Millner says. 鈥淗e was attempting to capture the sense of the moment by writing in a more spontaneous way,鈥� a method Kerouac referred to as 鈥渟pontaneous bop prosody.鈥�
At first, Kerouac insisted the scroll be published word for word, Millner says. In a 1997 BBC interview, Robert Giroux of Harcourt, Brace & Co., the editor of Kerouac鈥檚 first published novel, 鈥淭he Town and the City,鈥� said Kerouac told him, 鈥溾�楾here鈥檒l be no editing of this manuscript. This manuscript has been dictated by the Holy Ghost.鈥欌��
Giroux turned it down, as did several other publishers who feared they鈥檇 face an obscenity prosecution because the book included explicit gay sex scenes. Six years later, in 1957, The Viking Press published an edited version.
Image by Katharine Webster
Kerouac rocketed to fame. He was hailed as the first writer to express the Beat Generation鈥檚 restless rebellion against post-World War II conformity. He later became an icon of the 1960s counterculture, although he considered himself a Catholic 鈥� and later, Buddhist 鈥� struggling toward visions of the eternal.
Though he has been dead for more than half a century, Kerouac鈥檚 legacy endures, with writers and musicians from Hunter S. Thompson to Patti Smith and Bob Dylan citing him as a major influence.
While 鈥淥n the Road鈥� makes no mention of Lowell, many of Kerouac鈥檚 other works are set in a fictional version of his hometown, including 鈥淭he Town and the City鈥� and an early novella, which was edited and published for the first time by UML English Department Chair Todd Tietchen in 2014, with support from Kerouac鈥檚 literary estate. 鈥淒octor Sax,鈥� 鈥淰isions of Gerard鈥� and 鈥淢aggie Cassidy鈥� also draw on Kerouac鈥檚 past in Lowell.
鈥淗ow Lowell continues to haunt me so, it鈥檚 a whole intact Shakespearean universe in itself,鈥� Kerouac wrote in his 鈥淏ook of Dreams.鈥�
University faculty, especially Millner, Tietchen and former English Department Chair Anthony Szczesiul, have worked closely with Kerouac鈥檚 estate and literary executors, including Kerouac鈥檚 brother-in-law John Sampas 鈥� the youngest brother of Kerouac鈥檚 third wife, Stella Sampas 鈥� and his nephew, Jim Sampas, who is heading up the new Jack Kerouac Foundation.
John Sampas sold off most of Kerouac鈥檚 original manuscripts, but 鈥渉e kept copies of everything that passed through his hands,鈥� Millner says, including the 鈥淥n the Road鈥� scroll.
When John Sampas died in 2017, his adopted son, John Shen-Sampas, donated that collection of papers to the university, where John鈥檚 nephew (and Jim鈥檚 brother) Anthony Sampas is archivist and head of special projects for the university libraries. 鈥� 102 banker鈥檚 boxes worth of paper and memorabilia 鈥� is now housed at the university鈥檚 Center for Lowell History, where scholars and students can arrange to do research. Some material is also available digitally.
Image by Katharine Webster
Millner, recently named UML鈥檚 Nancy Donahue Professor in the Arts, is using a $40,000 grant that comes with the two-year position to help fund the Kerouac@100 exhibit at the national park and to pay students and recent alumni who are organizing and indexing the John Sampas Collection, under the guidance of Anthony Sampas and with support from University Libraries Director Allison Estell.
One of those students is Brianne Puls, a senior history major with a minor in English literature. She took Millner鈥檚 class on American literature the same semester she took an archiving class with History Department Chair Christopher Carlsmith 鈥� and then applied for a part-time archivist job in the Kerouac Archive last summer.
Puls says she鈥檚 gaining valuable archival experience while learning some of the 鈥渟ecrets of history,鈥� as she goes through copies of Kerouac鈥檚 correspondence and journals. While others worship Kerouac as an iconic writer, she gets to see more of Kerouac the imperfect man, she says.
鈥淪ometimes he got down on all fours and talked to his cats,鈥� Puls says. 鈥淚 came across a letter the other day that says, 鈥楳ankind is misleading, but my cats are genuine.鈥�
鈥淲e see his struggle with alcoholism, and how he鈥檇 try to get sober. But when one of his cats died, he went right back into it.鈥�
Kerouac鈥檚 writing desk, his homemade cat carriers and other possessions from his last home in Florida are also on permanent display at the university鈥檚 Allen House on South Campus.
