Beige Prose: Most of the books not written in his spontaneous prose style end up being this.Virtually every other character is these books is a thinly-disguised avatar of one of Kerouac's friends or some prominent Beat Generation figure as well. As a result, in The Dharma Bums, Kerouac is named Ray Smith, and in The Subterraneans, he is named Leo Percepied. Kerouac uses avatars in virtually all of his novels, although for legal reasons, the names are changed from book to book. Sal Paradise from On the Road is Kerouac. Author Avatar: Pretty much every protagonist in everything Kerouac ever published.Rather impressive, eh? note Other English literature writers who came to the language late include Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov He also wrote a few short stories in his native tongue, which have received increased attention since it was discovered that Kerouac had originally planned to write On the Road in French and actually produced an abortive manuscript of it before producing the famous version. Interesting note: For a major figure of literature in the English language, Kerouac came to the language rather late: he was raised in a French-speaking (or rather, Joual -speaking) household, didn't learn English until he was six, and wasn't confident speaking English until high school.
He also wrote The Dharma Bums, which details his adventures with fellow writer Gary Snyder. Jean-Louis "Jack" Kerouac (Ma October 21, 1969) was an American writer (of French-Canadian descent) associated with The Beat Generation and best known for writing On the Road, an autobiographical novel describing Kerouac's travels with Neal Cassady.