Spontaneous Kerouac Writing Eslpod Well Planned Well Known American People

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was a well-known American author and poet. Many people call him the "father of" (the man who led) the Beat movement, which describes the work of a group of American writers in the mid-1900s. They "pushed the boundaries" (tested the limits; went beyond expectations) of what was acceptable in published literature by writing about drugs, sex, and other "taboo" (not talked about in general society) topics.

Kerouac's most well-known novel, On the Road, was published in 1957. It is about some of the "road trips" (long trips taken by car, often driving across the country) he took with his friends. The book was very "influential" (changing one's thoughts and beliefs) for many other writers, actors, and musicians.

Kerouac often described his own writing style as "spontaneous" (done in the moment, without planning something ahead of time) "prose" (written language that is not poetry). In literature, this is often called "stream of consciousness," which is a "technique" (way of doing something) where writers write down their thoughts as they think of them, without changing or editing them. With this style of writing, there are usually many "run-on sentences" (very long sentences that include many words like "and" and "but") and "incomplete sentences" (phrases that are not a full sentence).

However, many people who knew Kerouac say that he didn't actually write in spontaneous prose. They say that the way he talked about writing "didn't match" (wasn't the same as) the way he actually wrote. They say that "in reality" (actually) he revised what he wrote many times before it was published.