Kerouac Alley*

The Beat Generation Multimedia Pages

www.kerouacalley.com
A Directory of the Beat Generation
and the Beat Related on the World Wide Web

*Jack Kerouac Alley (formerly Adler Alley or Adler Place) is a one-way alleyway in Chinatown, San Francisco, California that connects Grant Avenue and Columbus Avenue, running between "Vesuvio Cafe" (255 Columbus Ave.) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "City Lights Books" (261 Columbus Ave.).

Jack Kerouac 1922-1969

Jack Kerouac Quotes

"But then they danced down the street like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!” -Jack Kerouac - On the Road

"Who are all these strange ghosts rooted to the silly little adventure of earth with me?" -Jack Kerouac

"Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea," said Japhy. "Remember that book I told you about; the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy." -Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums

"Pretty girls make graves." -Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums

"Everything is the same, the fog says 'We are fog and we fly by dissolving like ephemera,' and the leaves say 'We are leaves and we jiggle in the wind, that's all, we come and go, grow and fall' — Even the paper bags in my garbage pit say 'We are mantransformed paper bags made out of wood pulp, we are kinda proud of being paper bags as long as that will be possible, but we'll be mush again with our sisters the leaves come rainy season' — The tree stumps say 'We are tree stumps torn out of the ground by men, sometimes by the wind, we have big tendrils full of earth that drink out of the earth' — Men say 'We are men, we pull out tree stumps, we make paper bags, we think wise thoughts, we make lunch, we look around, we make a great effort to realise everything is the same.'" -Jack Kerouac - Big Sur

"The one thing that we yearn for in our living days, that makes us sigh and groan and undergo sweet nauseas of all kinds, is the remembrance of some lost bliss that was probably experienced in the womb and can only be reproduced (though we hate to admit it) in death." -Jack Kerouac

"Behind us lay the whole of America and everything I had previously known about life... We had finally found a magic land at the end of the road and we never had dreamed the extent of the magic." -Jack Kerouac On the Road

“...and everything is going to the beat - It's the beat generation, it be-at, it's the beat to keep, it's the beat of the heart, it's being beat and down in the world and like oldtime lowdown and like in ancient civilizations the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to a beat...” -Jack Kerouac

"All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land." -Jack Kerouac

“I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till i drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”-Jack Kerouac

“I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.” -Jack Kerouac

“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.” -Jack Kerouac

“Maybe that's what life is...a wink of the eye and winking stars.” -Jack Kerouac

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” -Jack Kerouac

“All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.” -Jack Kerouac

“My witness is the empty sky.” -Jack Kerouac

“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.” -Jack Kerouac

“Avoid the world, it's just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end.” -Jack Kerouac

“What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?” -Jack Kerouac

“The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great that I thought I was in a dream.” -Jack Kerouac

"The car was swaying as Dean and I both swayed to the rythm and the IT of our final excited joy in talking and living to the blank tranced end of all innumerable riotous angelic particulars that had been lurking in our souls all our lives." -Jack Kerouac

"What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind." -Jack Kerouac

“...colleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middleclass non-identity which usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of the campus in rows of well-to-do houses with lawns and television sets is each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness...” -Jack Kerouac

"But yet, but yet, woe, woe unto those who think that the Beat Generation means crime, delinquency, immorality, amorality ... woe unto those who attack it on the grounds that they simply don’t understand history and the yearning of human souls ... woe in fact unto those who make evil movies about the Beat Generation where innocent housewives are raped by beatniks! ... woe unto those who spit on the Beat Generation, the wind’ll blow it back." - Jack Kerouac

“All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.” -Jack Kerouac

“Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.” -Jack Kerouac

“We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move.” -Jack Kerouac

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” -Jack Kerouac

“Oh little Cody Pomeray if there had been some way to send a cry to you even when you were too little to know what utterances and cries are for in this dark sad earth, with your terrors in a world so malign and inhospitable, and all the insults from heaven ramming down to crowd your head with anger, pain, disgrace, worst of all the crapulous poverty in and out of every splintered door of days, if someone could have said to you then, and made you perceive, "Fear life, but don't die; you're alone, everybody's alone. Oh Cody Pomeray, you can't win, you can't lose, all is ephemeral, all is hurt." -Jack Kerouac

"John Clellon Holmes... and I were sitting around trying to think up the meaning of the Lost Generation and the subsequent existentialism and I said 'You know John, this is really a beat generation'; and he leapt up and said, 'That's it, that's right!'" - Jack Kerouac

“Dean took out other pictures. I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered, estabilished-within-the-photo lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, our actual night, the hell of it, the senseless nightmare road. All of it inside endless and beginningless emptiness. Pitiful forms of ignorance.” -Jack Kerouac

I'd rather be thin than famous" -Jack Kerouac

"A real haiku's gotta be as simple as porridge and yet make you see the real thing." ~ Japhy Ryder in The Dharma Bums (1958) by Jack Kerouac

"Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?" -Jack Kerouac - On the Road

"I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.The one thing that we yearn for in our living days, that makes us sigh and groan and undergo sweet nauseas of all kinds, is the remembrance of some lost bliss that was probably experienced in the womb and can only be reproduced (though we hate to admit it) in death." -Jack Kerouac - On the Road

"Sociability is just a big smile, and a big smile is nothing but teeth." -Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums

". . . I'd thought in June . . . "When I get to the top of Desolation Peak and I'm alone I'll come face to face with God or Tathagatha and find out once and for all what is the meaning of all this existence," but instead I'd come face to face with myself . . . face to face with Hateful Old Me." -Jack Kerouac

"So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty, I think of Dean Moriarty." -Jack Kerouac - On the Road

"And I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time." -Jack Kerouac - Desolation Angels

"...this poor haunted canyon which again gives me the willies as we walk under the bridge and come to those heartless breakers busting in on sand higher than earth and looking like the heartlessness of wisdom --Besides I suddenly notice as if for the first time the awful way the leaves of the canyon that have managed to be blown to the surf are all hesitantly advancing in gusts of wind then finally plunging into the surf, to be dispersed and belted and melted and taken off to sea --I turn around and notice how the wind is just harrying them off trees and into the sea, just hurrying them as it were to death --In my condition they look human trembling to that brink --Hastening, hastening ---In that awful huge roar blast of autumn Sur wind." -Jack Kerouac - Big Sur

"I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution, thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures. . . ." -Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums

Jack Kerouac Multimedia Directory

Kerouac, Ginsberg and Friends in NY	Jack Kerouac - "King of the Beats"	Jack Kerouac Explains "On the Road"
Jack Kerouac Reads From "On the Road"	Jack Kerouac- American Haiku	RetroBites: Jack Kerouac Clowns Around
Kerouac interviewed in French on Canadian TV	Kerouac Interviewed in Italy	Jack Kerouac interviewed by Ben Hecht Part 1
Jack Kerouac interviewed by Ben Hecht Part 2	Jack Kerouac interviewed by Ben Hecht Part 3	Jack Kerouac interviewed by Ben Hecht Part 4
Jack Kerouac - William F. Buckley's Firing Line (1968)	Kerouac Scroll Unrolled	American Blues & Haikus -Jack Kerouac
Gregory Corso discusses Jack Kerouac	Jack Kerouac in Lowell	- Frank Robert - "Pull My Daisy" 1959 (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso film)
Jack Kerouac shooting pool (1967)	Bibliomania: On the Road with Jack Kerouac, Part 1	Bibliomania: On the Road with Jack Kerouac, Part 2
Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac - David Amram	Jack Kerouac 'Charlie Parker' - Kerouac Alley	Mal Sharpe walks where Beat poets Kerouac and Ginsberg walked in San Francisco's North Beach.
Lowell Blues: the words of Jack Kerouac Readings by: Johnny Depp, Carolyn Cassady, Gregory Corso, David Amram, Robert Creeley and Joyce Johnson.	The Beat Generation Map of America Library of Congress	C-SPAN - American Writers II Jack Kerouac Video
Jack Kerouac - Woody Allen's Manhattan	Jan Kerouac (Jack's daughter)	Jack Kerouac Voice of the Road

Jack Kerouac Internet Directory

JK's Words Stand Up to Time: An article From the Orlando Sentinel		Beatfootprints.com - A Photographic Essay of Beat Generation Landmarks in New York City Just when I thought there was nothing new on the web!	JK, a Magican With Words : A Kerouac Web Site.
The Art of Fiction No. 43 (Paris Review)(: A 49 page interview of Kerouac (PDF File)	Culture Wars: The Apocalypse of Jack Kerouac.	From "Mexico City Blues": JK	Lowell High School: Jack's High School
Columbia: Jack's University		Jack Kerouac: Literary Kicks	On the Road in American Culture : From the University of Vienna
Jack Kerouac: At American Legends.Com	American Haiku: Jack on Haiku	Atlantic Monthly	@The Bostom Phoenix: An Article
Jack's: Belief and Technique in Modern Prose	Ladder To Nirvana: 1957 Review of "On the Road"	Jack's: Essentials of Spontaneous Prose	Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics: Writing Courses at Colorado's Naropa Institute
Jack Magazine : An Excellent Online Beat Magazine		Jack Kerouac : Filmography	The Life of Jack Kerouac: A Short Biography & More
A Review of "Book of Dreams": From Metro Active	Kerouac Speaks: Sound Bites of Jack and Allen Ginsberg	The Jack Kerouac Project: Read about the project, and see Jack's home in Orlando.	Letter From Neal Cassady to Jack: March 7, 1947
Search the SF Chronicle Archives for "Kerouac" Search: 1995 1996 1998 1997 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010	City Lights of San Francisco City Lights Bookseller & Publisher	A Biography: From "Books and Writers"	Jack Kerouac References : From Canada
Jack Audio #1 : Hear Jack Reading 1 (mov. file)	Jack Audio #1 : Hear Jack Reading 2 (mov. file)		"Lowell Blues: The Words of Jack Kerouac" : A Film by Henry Ferrini
Kerouac Books : From Estonia (Estonian)	Kerouac: At Salon.Com	AA: Alcoholics Anonymous
Jack Kerouac Present at the Creation - NPR (Audio)	"The Age of Unthink" James Wechsler's Confrontation With Kerouac in 1958.	"The Subterraneans" Russian Language	"On the Road" Russian Language
"Dharma Bums" Russian Language	Jack Kerouac Listen to Jack on the Steve Allen Show (1).	Jack Kerouac Listen to Jack on the Steve Allen Show (2).	Tristessa (Spanish) Jack Kerouac
Kerouac At Clarence.Com (Italian)	Jack Kerouac La Beat Generation (Italian)	Jack Kerouac Una Breve Biografia (Italian)	Jack Kerouac Biografia (Italian)
Jack Kerouac Beat whisky & Poésie (French)	"Rucksacks in the Classroom " Teaching Kerouac in the 21st Century	Jack Kerouac Beatwerke (Germany)	"On the Road" From Denmark (Danish Language)
Jack Kerouac @ EmpireZine	"Where's Jack?": A True Story by Florence Wetzel.
Jack Kerouac and the Satori Highway Literary Traveler	Kerouac's Early Years and Fears Zooba.Com	Jack Kerouac et le haïku (French Language)	Jack Kerouac's New York Jack's Hang Outs in the City
Jack Kerouac A Marathon Reading of "Big Sur".	The Beat Generation Conference NYU 1994	Jack Kerouac's Big Sur Kerouac in Big Sur	Desolation Peak Photos and More
Jack Kerouac Wikipedia	Jack Kerouac @ The Beat Museum	Jack Kerouac @ Dharma Beat	Jack Kerouac Archives
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Jack's Hometown	Lowell, MA - Jack Kerouac Tour Illustrated Brochure (PDF File)	Jack Kerouac's Lowell A guide to the neighborhoods that shaped Jack Kerouac's life and writing.	Recalling positive memories of Jack Kerouac The Lowell Sun
Jack Kerouac and David Amram "Keeping the Flame Alive"	Jack Kerouac Bio From "PAL"	Hit The Road, Jack Records: "Schizoid" Kerouac's military career a short story - "Smoking Gun"	Kerouac Book Covers See Original Vintage Kerouac Book Covers From Around the World
Jack Kerouac's Famous Scroll, 'On the Road' Again @ NPR	"An Evening With Jack Kerouac" Southern Winds Theatre	Kerouac Films Presents... "One Fast Move or I'm Gone"	American Masters - PBS The American Novel - Jack Kerouac
L'Association des Familles Kirouac / Centre de généalogie francophone d'Amérique Geneology of the Kerouac (Kirouac) family - French & English	Kerouac Gas Station in Longmont, Colorado Photos of the gas station Kerouac wrote of in "On the Road".	Jack Kerouac's Last House; St. Petersburg, Florida This site has many photos related to Kerouac & the Beats.	"A Vision of Kerouac as The Shasow" Original comic by Mark Beebe
Jack Kerouac's Road - A Franco-American Odyssey Directed by Herménégilde Chiasson (1989)	C-SPAN - American Writers II Jack Kerouac	Jack Kerouac's Horoscope @ The Kosmik Horoscope	Kenneth Rexroth reviews On the Road, The Subterraneans, and Mexico City Blues. @ Bop Secrets
North Beach Forever By Gary Kamiya @ Salon.Com	"Orpheus Emerged" Jack Kerouac's lost 1945 novella - Salon.Com	My mother and Jack Kerouac Reading their love letters from before I was born is an eerie experience. By Daniel Pinchbeck - Salon.Com	Personal Best: On The Road By Dwight Garner - Salon.Com
Telegraph Hill Books, Etc. Beat Generation Books & Beat Era Jazz	"Bird and the Beats" (Charlie Parker): By Ted Joans	This is the Beat Generation by John Clellon Holmes