This month of March has been a good one for the memory of  iconic Lowell writer Jack Kerouac. Readings, musical tributes, an exhibit and walking the loop helped commemorate the 91st birthday of Jean-Louis “Jack” Kerouac-  the American novelist and poet – born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. A long awaited movie based on  Kerouac’s 1957 novel “On the Road” is out and getting good reviews.

Today Mass Moments reminds us that on this day March 23, 19478 Jack Kerouac wrote in his diary that he had written 2500 words and that his first novel would be finished in a few weeks. The writing of  his novel “The Town and the City” was a two year struggle and Kerouac took to keeping  a “writing log” – recording how many words he wrote each day. It is not this first novel that brought him lasting fame. Of Kerouac’s 14 books, it is On the Road that is still the most widely read and today remains popular more than 50 years after it was written.

      …in 1948, Lowell native Jack Kerouac happily noted in his diary that he had written 2500 words. If he could keep up this pace, he would finish his first novel in a matter of weeks. The highly autobiographical The Town and the City was published in 1950, the same year he began writing On the Road, the novel that earned him the title “Father of the Beat Generation.” By the time he died at the age of 47 Jack Kerouac had published 14 books. On the Road is Kerouac’s most-read work today; it is widely considered one of the most important and influential American novels of the twentieth century, and Jack Kerouac is celebrated as one of Lowell’s favorite sons.