Chronology

Chronology

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1922	Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac is born on March 12 in Lowell, Massachusetts, third child of Leo Kerouac and Gabrielle Ange Levesque (Memere), French Canadian emigrants.
1939	Graduates from Lowell High School.
1939-1940	Attends Horace Mann Preparatory School in New York City.
1940-1941	Attends Columbia University on an athletic scholarship. Breaks leg in freshman football game and subsequently drops out of school.
1941	Joins the Merchant Marine and ships out on the S.S. Dorchester for Greenland. Returns in October and re-enrolls at Columbia but quits again after the first football game.
1943	Enlists in the Navy and is granted an honorable discharge (based on psychiatric grounds) after brief service. Signs on again with the Merchant Marine and goes to Liverpool on the S.S. George Weems. Leo and Memere move from Lowell to Ozone Park, New York.
1944	Meets Lucien Carr, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. Marries his first wife Edith Parker on August 22, but is separated from her by October
1945	Marriage to Edith Parker is annulled.
1946	Meets Neal Cassady. Leo Kerouac dies of stomach cancer at the age of 57.
1946-1948	Writes The Town and the City in New York City.
1947-1950	Makes several trips across country with Neal Cassady and drafts ideas for On the Road .
1947	Lives for a period with Bea Franco and works as a field hand near Bakersfield,California
1948	Meets John Clellon Holmes and coins the term “Beat Generation.”
1949	Moves with Memere to Westwood, Colorado. She leaves by July and returns to a new apartment in Richmond Hill, New York.
1950	Marries Joan Haverty on November 17. Works Published: The Town and the City
1951	Writes On the Road in April and May. Separates from Joan Haverty. In June, moves to sister Nin's home in North Carolina. Discovers his compositional method of “sketching” or “spontaneous prose” and begins to rewrite On the Road as the experimental book Visions of Cody .
1951-1952	Writes Visions of Cody in New York City and San Francisco. Lives with the Cassadys for a brief period and works for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Joan Haverty gives birth to their daughter, Janet Michelle Kerouac, on February 16, 1952.
1952	Writes Doctor Sax in Mexico City. Writes “The Railroad Earth” in San Francisco.
1953	Writes Maggie Cassidy and The Subterraneans in New York City.
1954	Begins study of Buddhism in New York and California. Writes San Francisco Blues in San Francisco and some of the Dharma Bums in New York and North Carolina.
1955	Writes Mexico City Blues and begins Tristessa in Mexico City. Attends the historic Six Gallery poetry reading on October 13 in San Francisco.
1956	Finishes Tristessa in Mexico City and writes Visions of Gerard in North Carolina. Works for a brief period as a lookout on Desolation Mountain, Mount Baker National Forest in Washington. Writes first part of Desolation Angels in Washington and Mexico City.
1957	Sails to Tangier to visit William Burroughs. Writes The Dharma Bums in Florida. Works Published: On the Road
1958	Interviews with Mike Wallace. Buys a home for Memere in Northport, New York. Participates in Hunter College debate “Is There a Beat Generation?” With Ashley Montagu, James E. Wechsler, and Kingsley Amis. Writes sketches in Lonesome Traveler . Works Published: The Subterraneans The Dharma Bums “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose” (Evergreen Review)
1959	Narrates film Pull My Daisy in New York. Interviews with Alfred Aronowitz for the New York Post . Begins Escapade column. Appears on the Steve Allen Show and tours MGM movie set of The Subterraneans . Works Published: The Subterraneans (Avon edition with preface by Henry Miller) Doctor Sax; Faust Part Three Maggie Cassidy Mexico City Blues Visions of Cody (excerpts from the novel) “The Origins of the Beat Generation” ( Playboy ) “Old Angel Midnight” ( Big Table )
1960	New York premiere of The Subterraneans . Works Published: Tristessa The Scripture of the Golden Eternity Lonesome Traveler
1961	Completes Desolation Angels in Mexico City. Writes Big Sur in Florida. Participates in Timothy Leary's psychedelic drug experiments. Moves to sister Nin's home in Orlando, Florida with Memere. Works Published: Book of Dreams Pull My Daisy
1962	Returns with Memere to live in Northport, New York. Works Published: Big Sur
1963	Works Published: Visions of Gerard
1964	Interviews with Northport Public Library Assistant Director Miklos Zsedely at the studio of artist Stanley Twardowicz. Donates typescript of The Town and the City to the Northport Public Library. Moves with Memere to St. Petersburg, Florida. Sister Nin dies September 19 of a coronary occlusion. Works Published: “Old Angel Midnight” ( Evergreen Review )
1965	Visits Paris to research family genealogy and visits Brittany. Writes Satori in Paris in Florida. Works Published: Desolation Angels
1966	Moves to Hyannis, Massachusetts. Memere suffers a stroke in September. Marries Stella Sampas on November 19. Works Published: Satori in Paris
1967	Moves to Lowell, Massachusetts. Interviews with Ted Berrigan and Aram Saroyan for Paris Review and with Bruce Cook for his book The Beat Generation.
1968	Visits Spain, Portugal, and Germany with friends. Writes “After Me, the Deluge” for The Washington Post . Appears on William F. Buckley's television show Firing Line . Moves family to St. Petersburg, Florida. Works Published: Vanity of Duluoz: An Adventurous Education, 1935-46
1969	Dies of abdominal hemorrhaging in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 21.
1970	Memere dies in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 14.
1971	Works Published: Pic Scattered Poems
1972	Works Published: Visions of Cody
1973	Works Published: Two Early Stories Old Angel Midnight Trip Trap: Haiku Along the Road from San Francisco to New York 1959
1977	Works Published: Heaven and Other Poems
Index

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