Jack Kerouac was one of America's great writers of the latter half of the 20th century, yet he endured a life characterized by persistent hardship and disillusion. Leading Kerouac scholar Paul Maher Jr. targets the writer's embattled insight of self as central to his life and work. He reveals how Kerouac's troubled interactions with alcohol, drugs, and spirituality stamped its importance on his autobiographical prose and poetry and created a singular language that united thoughts on the human condition and spiritual liberation. Becoming Kerouac: A Writer In His Time affixes Kerouac's life and art in a fresh way, giving readers a rich perspective from which to understand this 20th-century literary genius. Using unpublished archival material, Becoming Kerouac focuses on the writer's critical formative years ––1940 to 1957–– to demonstrate his growth as a novelist and poet. Maher contends that Kerouac developed his singular language to capture human consciousness as it never had before. His futilities catapulted American literature to reflect its restless post-World War II anxieties. Narrating the events that comprised Kerouac's life, biographers have long struggled to illustrate his complexness and the contradictions that shaped his determinations and dogged his relationships. But without consideration of the writing, the troubles in life fail to reveal their deeper resonances by skillfully analyzing the work while tracing the events. Maher achieves a full portrait, revealing struggles that problematize his work. Becoming Kerouac fuses Kerouac's life and art to comprehend this misunderstood literary genius. "My simple response to Becoming Kerouac right now is that I found it incredibly melancholic. Jack seems even sadder than I’d ever thought he was. On a Vincent Van Gogh scale. For me, the Catholic Church (even though it was a kind of salve for him) really messed him up with guilt. Just as much as his mother did. But there’s this darkness in him that is evident in the book. I’ve read it at different times of the day, just to make sure it’s not the light that’s making me think this! Sure, it was there, we knew this, but Saint Jack he wasn’t. But that he wanted to be. Just a thought or two. And, just because it is a sad book (to me) it doesn’t take away from the achievement of it. If anything it has an awful truth in it. It shares Joyce Johnson’s strategy by only going up to 1957. The Voice Is All. If I remember well that expression is to be found somewhere in this new biography. This one is for all readers of Jack Kerouac." - Kevin Ring, Beat Scene ― Beat Scene Magazine “for Kerouac enthusiasts “ ― Booklist “[D]etailed . . . [presents] something new to find out about Jack Kerouac . . . [unveils] unparalleled access to the Kerouac archives in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library . . . [enjoy] all the material that Maher has extracted from Kerouac's journals and unpublished manuscripts.” — Times Literary Supplement -- James Campbell ― Times Literary Supplement “A seminal and groundbreaking literary biography and analysis . . . an extraordinary and informative contribution to the literary icon that was Jack Kerouac and his life's work that proved so influential on the literary community over the past seven decades.” —Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review -- Jim Cox ― Midwest Book Review Paul Maher Jr. is a freelance writer and editor. He is also author/editor of Kerouac: His Life and Work ; and editor of Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews & Encounters with Tom Waits ; Miles on Miles: Interviews & Encounters with Miles Davis ; One Big Soul: An Oral History of the Films of Terrence Malick ; Isolated Wanderer: A Maxwell Bodenheim Reader. ; and, most recently, Willie Nelson on WIllie Nelson He lives in Lubec, Maine with his wife, Caitlin.