The art of fiction: On the Road

This is the year of literary anniversaries. Dickens, Durrell and Stoker are joined by Kerouac, who was born 90 years ago this week. In addition to the usual raft of special editions and gushing talks, Kerouac’s birthplace — Lowell, Massachusetts — will premier his only known play, Beat Generation, in October. The play was only discovered a few years ago. It was written in 1957, the year Kerouac published On the Road, the book which won him immortal fame.

A film adaptation of On the Road is to be released in May. It has been more than 50 years in the making, as this letter (published by the inimitable Letters of Note) Kerouac wrote to Marlon Brando in 1957 makes clear. There is strange innocence in Kerouac’s plea that Brando buy the film rights and that the two star in it. He signs off: ‘Come on now Marlon, put up your dukes and write!’ Brando never responded.