A forthcoming book Jack Kerouac: The Buddhist Years, will focus on the Buddhist spirituality and reflections of the American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac (1922–69), as part of an exploration of how Buddhism shaped some of his most compelling ideas and his most eloquent writing.
According to a recent report in The Observer newspaper, the book, which will be published by Rare Bird Books later this year, contains around 30 “semi-autobiographical spiritual and soulful stories, musings and poems—with titles such as ‘The Long Night of Life’ and ‘A Dream Already Ended.’” (The Observer)
These compositions, discovered more than five decades after Kerouac’s death, have never been published except for two short excerpts. Much of the material came from the larger portion of the Kerouac archives, “the bulk of which is in the New York Public Library.” (The Observer)
Kerouac was particularly interested in Buddhism in the 1950s, a period in between in his active writing years of 1942 and 1969. Speaking to The Observer, the editor of Jack Kerouac: The Buddhist Years, Charles Shuttleworth, noted that Kerouac at this time was “at his prime as a writer,” at “his soulful best.” (The Observer) Shuttleworth stated: “This is a trove of fascinating material that takes readers ever deeper into Kerouac’s psyche, all written in his free-flowing, expressive style. The writing is earnest and full of yearning—desires for understanding and transcendence, his wish to be a better person.” (The Observer)
Buddhism was part of a broader, postwar cultural rebellion against Western traditionalism, which for Kerouac included drugs and sexual libertarianism. Kerouac’s seminal novel On the Road (an experimental work combining biography and fiction in which he recounts his travels with beat generation icon and fellow author Neal Cassady), itself became an anti-establishment “must-read” for the beat generation. Nevertheless, Kerouac was a complicated person: he remained profoundly spiritual and true to his Catholic roots, and was also an anti-communist.
Kerouac remains an inspiration and even an icon to many contemporary Western Buddhists, primarily due to his seminal Buddhist work The Dharma Bums (1958). In this autobiography-novel, he recounts his experiences with poets in the San Francisco Bay area, including Buddhist author Gary Snyder (who appears as the semi-fictional character Japhy Ryder, while Kerouac himself appears as Ray Smith).
Like many works of American Buddhist writers of the time and since, the book is a harmony of Americana and Dharmic ideals, in which Ray Smith attempts to find meaningful contexts, particularly in relation to the Buddhist teachings, to his encounters and experiences. A core theme is the duality or contrast between the highlights of city living that shaped some of Kerouac’s great loves (jazz bars, poetry clubs, and partying and drinking), and the great outdoors of the West Coast, where Kerouac indulged in his love of hiking and mountaineering.
BDG columnist Kassidy Evans credits the inspiration of her column’s name, Dharma Bum, to Kerouac. The San Diego Buddhist community of Dharma Bum Temple also draws inspiration from Kerouac’s novel.
Kerouac’s legacy, particularly in light of renewed coverage of Asian Americans that shaped post-war Western Buddhism, is not straightforward. In a review of The Making of American Buddhism (2023), the late Buddhist teacher and writer Hozan Alan Senauke did point out that Zen, in particular “Beat Zen,” has been privileged in dominant narratives of American Buddhism, which privilege an exoticism and valorization of figures like Jack Kerouac, along with Gary Snyder and even early pioneers of mindfulness and secular meditation, such as Alan Watts.
Nevertheless, with this forthcoming publication, Rare Bird Books will be revealing a new side of Kerouac’s Buddhism, with more inspiration for the American Buddhist writers, from all ethnic backgrounds and cultures, that have since succeeded him.
See more
The Buddhist Years by Jack Kerouac (Rare Bird Books)
‘His soulful best’: Jack Kerouac’s Buddhist writings to be published for the first time (The Observer)
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Book Review: The Making of American Buddhism
Echoes of Peace from the Hipster 50s and 60s
