Kerouac’s Characters: An Introduction

By Kurt Phaneuf

Of the 600-plus personages in a literary oeuvre Jack Kerouac called his “Duluoz Legend,” over 200 of them are Lowellians.  Kerouac’s first novel–The Town and The City (1950)–is filled with his friends and neighbors.  His personal favorite works–Visions of Gerard (1963) and Doctor Sax (1959)–provide some of the most vivid, complex, and emotionally-rich characterizations in Jack’s vast canon.  From the last novel published in his lifetime–Vanity of Duluoz (1967)–through recent collections like Self-Portrait (2024) and The Buddhist Years (2025), Jack never stopped writing about Lowell and its people.   He recast his family, friends, and community members as characters, often retaining readily identifiable traits that locals would easily recognize while other times exaggerating characteristics to convey archetypes, metaphors, and complex symbol systems that served his literary aims.

The deepest root of Jack Kerouac’s literary and cultural impact is nourished by the soil and people of Lowell.

In anticipation of the many walking tours and presentations at the October 2025 Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival, Richard Howe is allowing me the privilege of sharing brief biographical profiles of a handful of Lowell citizens Kerouac commemorates in his hometown novels.  After years of study and research, I have discovered so many of Jack’s family, friends, teammates, and community members–folks like Jimmy “Chief” Scondras, Dr. Nathan Pulsifer, Louis “Ackero” Ackerman, Waldo “Rusty” Yarnall, Miss Alice Stickney, Dr. Felix “Mickey” Sweeney, Edward Dominic “Paddy” Sorenson, James “Jimmy” O’Dea, Miss Helen Mansfield, and George “Mike” Haggerty–that I now consider heroes. All merit book-length attention. Look them up.  Be suitably impressed and inspired.

Much as I would like to write about ANY of the aforementioned folks, my focus here will be more modest.  In addition to highlighting a handful of people who’ve inspired Kerouac, I’d like to focus on citizens who’ve flown under the proverbial radar, particularly those folks who were members of Jack’s foundational ethnic community: the Franco-Americans of Lowell, a minority population that once accounted for nearly ¼ of the nearly 115,000 residents who called the city home around the time of Jack’s birth. All of the folks I’ll profile in the coming weeks are laid to rest in Saint Joseph Cemetery in Chelmsford, a burial ground whose first interment was–appropriately–a poor person. Jack’s Lowell “subjects” all achieved a level of accomplishment that far surpassed their modest, often immigrant roots.  Each also deserves far better than the thumbnail sketch profile I’ve pieced together from available public resources.  Maybe someone reading one of these biographies will be inspired to continue the story.

For those who’d like to experience Lowell’s Duluoz Legend in situ, please consider attending the 2025 Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival, October 8-13.  The most recent Festival schedule is available online at https://lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/events/lowell-celebrates-kerouac-2025-fall-festival-oct-9-13/

If you are unable to enjoy the upcoming festivities, I hope you’ll take a few moments to peruse the biographies.  In addition to being a seminal, singular writer, Jack Kerouac also knew some extraordinary people.  Cheers!