This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Jack Kerouac's Brief Interlude in Grosse Pointe

Why did Kerouac come to Grosse Pointe?

Grosse Pointe has a number of urban legends. One of the most rampant surrounds Jack Kerouac, founder of the Beat Generation literary movement, and author of the book for which is most well-known, On The Road.

He would have turned 89 March 12. He may have passed away in 1969 but his legacy endures, especially in Grosse Pointe.

I have heard all sorts of different stories—that Kerouac wrote On The Road at , a local bar in Grosse Pointe Park.  That he carved his name in the wood-paneled walls there.  That he lived on Lakeshore Road.

Find out what's happening in Grosse Pointewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I wasn’t sure what to believe, or if any of the stories were true.  If he indeed lived here, what would have brought Massachusetts-born Kerouac to The Pointes?

Manslaughter and marriage

Find out what's happening in Grosse Pointewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It turns out Kerouac found himself in the middle of a murder investigation involving one of his beatnik friends, Lucien Carr. 

The New York Times obituary published Jan. 30, 2005 mentions the crime, “In repulsing the homosexual advances of a hanger-on of the Beat crowd, Mr. Carr stabbed his pursuer with a Boy Scout knife and killed him. Mr. Carr served a brief time in prison for manslaughter, but was later pardoned.”

Kerouac was somehow involved in this incident.  According to internet blogger Dorseyland, “the police arrested Jack [Kerouac] and Burroughs as material witnesses, either for failing to report the crime or for helping Carr dispose of evidence, depending on your source.”  This transpired in 1944.   He needed bail money to get out of jail—money that he didn’t have.  Fortunately, his sweetheart, a Grosse Pointe socialite named Edie Parker had the means to get him out of jail: her family’s money. They woudn’t help out until their relationship was legitimate.

After marrying in New York and posting his bail, Kerouac came to live in Grosse Pointe briefly, primarily to pay off his debts to his wife’s family. 

Their marriage did not last long, and by late 1946 his soon to be ex-wife Edie filed for an annulment. It was granted shortly thereafter.

Later, ex-wife, Kerouac-Parker, wrote a book about her life with Kerouac.  

According to a brief news column in The Grosse Pointe News, Parker-Kerouac’s book You’ll Be Okay was in progress in 1981.  She gave a book discussion about the book and her life with Kerouac at the .  Although the book was in progress in 1981, it was not published until 2007.  This is probably why so few people actually knew about Kerouac’s time in Grosse Pointe. 

Kerouac didn’t reside here very long, not more than a month, and he didn’t write On The Road here, either.

According to Kerouac Parker, however, his favorite place to go and where he felt  most “at home” was Rustic Cabins, one of Grosse Pointe’s many local bars on Kercheval in the Park. 

He didn’t much care for Grosse Pointe, however.  According to Kerouac-Parker, “He said there wasn’t enough ‘tragedy’ for him in Grosse Pointe.”

John Leland who authored Why Kerouac Matters, describes the basics behind On The Road, “Its form is simple and episodic, charting a friendship across five journeys, from winter 1947 to January 1951.  Though the material came from Kerouac’s real life, he worked it with the license of a novelist.”

Kerouac’s journey, then, began less than a few months after the annulment to his wife was final.

Grosse Pointe, the beginning or the end?

Kerouac’s time in Grosse Pointe was short lived, but his presence here has captivated Pointers for generations. In many ways his failed marriage served as the catalyst that the precipitated his travels across the country. 

He even says so himself. 

On The Road begins:

“I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up.  I had just gotten over a serious illness that I won’t bother to talk about, except that it had something to do with the miserably weary split-up and my feeling that everything was dead.  With the coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life you could call my life on the road.  Before that I’d often dream of going West to see the country, always vaguely planning and never taking off.”

This was his last stop before a rebirth which led to one of the great American novels of the 20th Century. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?