Jack Kerouac, Novelist Poet, American, March 12 1922, Lowell Massachusetts USA, Greatest Generation, Water Dog, Pisces, Deceased age 47 in 1969, Married three times (Edie Parker 1944–1945 annulled Joan Haverty 1950–1951 divorced Stella Sampas 1966–1969 until his death) single no divorce at death, 1 acknowledged child (daughter Jan Kerouac born 1952), Cause of death: abdominal hemorrhage from cirrhosis and long-term alcohol abuse in St Petersburg Florida USA, Description: Influential American novelist and poet of French-Canadian descent whose spontaneous prose style and cross-country odysseys in works like "On the Road" "The Dharma Bums" and "Big Sur" made him a central voice of the Beat Generation and precursor of the 1960s counterculture; raised speaking French in a Catholic working-class family he briefly attended Columbia University served in the Merchant Marine and U.S. Navy before chronicling hitchhiking jazz-fueled nights spiritual seeking Buddhism sexuality and poverty across America and Mexico; though an underground celebrity uncomfortable with fame he spent later years caring for his mother struggling with alcoholism and disillusionment while remaining a major postwar literary innovator whose depictions of restless spiritual questing continue to shape modern narratives of rebellion and the open road.