Kerouac wrote that he “always considered writing his duty on earth.” Merrimack Valley Conference writer and sportsman Jay Atkinson has an essay about the endurance of Jack Kerouac in today’s Boston Globe. We’re waiting for Jay to have a regular Sunday column on words and books in the Globe. He’s ready for the assignment. Jay has a book about Kerouac called “Paradise Road” in which he tracks Jack on the blue highways of America, starting in Lowell. Read the Globe piece here, and get the Globe if you want more writing like this.

Jack Kerouac (Tom Polumbo, c. 1956)