On the evidence of this collection, he seems to have anticipated the way he would be misrepresented: ‘I don’t want to be a drunken hero of the generations … I want to be a quiet saint living in a shack in solitary meditation of universal mind’. Here we discover what I would regard as the true Kerouac, not the Kerouac of the popular image. This was documented in the detailed notes which he made on Buddhist doctrine during the years 1953-6, collected under the title SOME OF THE DHARMA but only published posthumously. In between the writing and the publication came the period of Kerouac’s discovery of, and research into, the nature of Buddhism. The first draft of ON THE ROAD was written between 19, but was not published until six years later.

Fifty years old this year, this novel still stands as a challenge to each and every one of its readers to find a route to revelation, and so make sense of this world.īut first we need to get our bearings. Of course, a proper reading of ON THE ROAD would demonstrate that but perhaps it would do no harm to turn to the novel he wrote in the wake of its rapturous reception and which was published in the US the year after. Kerouac is a serious and substantial author, for whom fiction is a valid medium of spiritual enquiry. Just as during his lifetime, the author has again been represented as a wild man of American letters – a restless, irresponsible hedonist whose writings simply record what he saw, what he felt and what he consumed as he went looking for ‘kicks’.

On the one hand, as an admirer of Kerouac, I am glad to see him being given due recognition on the other hand, I am disappointed by the assumption behind those celebrations. Writing this article in the wake of last year’s celebrations in the press and on radio and television of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s most famous novel, ON THE ROAD, I must confess to being in two minds. Please note that this is not an academic article, so I’ve not included a list of references. A Route to Revelation: Rereading The Dharma Bums

Some of the dharma jack kerouac