Jack Kerouac Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Jack Kerouac was an American published author of fiction.

Jack was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. His family was French-Canadian and he was raised in a home that spoke French. He was 6 years old when he learned English and was said to have retained an accent into the late teenage years. His parents had three children, of which he was the youngest.

When World War II arrived, he served as part of the U.S. Merchant Marine. He would write his first book while in service, although it wouldn’t be published until after he died (40 years after, what would be The Sea Is My Brother). His actual first book published would be The Town and the City in 1950 but it was the 1957 novel On the Road that got him attention and fame as well as contributed into his becoming a beat icon. The book became a near-instant American classic and brought success.

He is known for his spontaneous prose and his works cover everything from traveling to jazz, Buddhism, Catholic spirituality, poverty, drugs, and more. The author quickly was brought into the beat movement and he influenced other artists of the day in the sixties such as the Doors and the Beatles.

Before he went into service, he was doing quite well in sports at Lowell High School. He played football as a running back and colleges offered him scholarships, including Notre Dame, Boston College, and Columbia University. He would go to Columbia University after going to Horace Mann School for a year to get the grades to get into Columbia. He would break his leg during the freshman football season. While he was there, he wrote for the Columbia Daily Spectator and joined a fraternity while also studying at The New School. Once football ended, he dropped out but lived on the Upper West Side with Edie Parker, his girlfriend at the time. He also met other people that would become the Beat Generation.

After the service with the Marine, he served in the Navy in 1943. It only lasted 8 days before he hit the sick list. He was adjusting to the military poorly and he was discharged honorably on the grounds that he was indifferent and had been diagnosed as having a schizoid personality. Later in 1944 he would be arrested in a murder as a material witness. It was a case involving the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr, and the writer had helped dispose of evidence and the murder weapon. He made a deal to marry Edie Parker if her parents paid their bail, but the marriage was doomed and annulled in 1948. He would write about it in Vanity of Duluoz and an early collaboration book with Burroughs.

He continued to write several books. He also got married again while living in Manhattan to Joan Haverty, his second wife. He would write On the Road and had a tough time when it came to finding someone that would publish it. In between he landed a job as fire lookout and railroad brakeman. It was there that he met Abe Green and Herbert Huncke, a hustler. He would also write Vanity of Duluoz at the time.

Later his wife Joan would leave him while pregnant in 1951 and divorced him. She then had their child, Jan, in February of 1952. He didn’t acknowledge the child as his until confirmed by blood test.

Jack would live with her sister and her husband for a time in North Carolina. There he wrote some of the Dharma. He had difficulty getting On the Road published due to the contents of the book, which contained descriptions of drug use and sexual behavior. It would eventually be published by Viking Press who did want revisions before it printed the book. When it came out, he was a hero and called a voice of a generation and a huge American author on the scene. Jack was now a celebrity and publishers all of a sudden wanted his books. But it also had setbacks, and he was beaten on the street one night in New York.

He would go traveling and writing but would also drink heavily and go through periods where he felt quiet depressed. Still he continued writing and completed drafts for ten novels. He would later become more interested in Eastern thought and Buddhism, writing a Siddhartha biography in 1955 that did not get published while he was alive. He also wrote The Dharma Bums, published in 1958 and recording parts of what he had experienced with Buddhism.

Jack narrated and wrote the 1959 movie Pull My Daisy. He was the subject of Kerouac, the movie, a documentary in 1985. His books were also turned into projects. On the Road was adapted into a series and movie. The Subterraneans was made into a 1960 movie. He was also a part of several documentaries and his novel Big Sur was made into a 2013 movie by the same name.

Later his older sister died, and his mother had a stroke two years later. His friend Neal Cassady would die in 1968. He also got married to Stella, his third wife.

The author would die on October 21, 1969 at the age of 47 years old from abdominal hemorrhage. The incident was caused in part by excessive drinking that Kerouac had partaken in all of his life. Some of his books were published after he passed.

The Town and the City is the first book from the author, originally published under the pen name of John Kerouac. The book did not sell well initially.

The book is the story of coming of age. It is set in Massachusetts and was inspired by his father’s passing and the draw to write a famous book. His childhood in New England is inspiration for much of the content.

The story focuses on a town and a city. The town is Galloway and the city is New York City. Follow along as the Martin family’s 5 sons and its 3 daughters navigate life in the 1900s. Can they find themselves and the future in New York? Read this classic to find out what happens!

On the Road is the successful and popular second novel from Jack Kerouac. The book was made into a 1962 television series as well as a 2012 movie. It was loosely autobiographical and recounts how he would road trip around the country with his friend and goes over friendships and people that he met. It was completed during a three week session where his wife supplied him with food, coffee and cigarettes as he wrote.

This is about his own years traveling across North America with his friend as they are looking for themselves and God. This is a story about two people seeking to be free and finding out what it is to be beat. A true classic, read this book to catch all of Kerouac’s prose and see why this book has become so beloved over the years.