Jack Kerouac’s Final Years

Jack Kerouac in 1968, one year before his death.

In 1967, poets Aram Saroyan and Ted Berrigan traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida for The Paris Review to interview legendary Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac. Strangers were always showing up at Kerouac’s house to meet the author of On The Road. Kerouac lived with his wife Stella, his mother Gabrielle and two beloved cats. Stella tried shooing the poets away. But Saroyan had cache. His father was author William Saroyan, one of Kerouac’s heroes.

Saroyan observed that Kerouac was a “bull-like ruin.” He was bloated, overweight and his liver was failing. He spent his days in a robe and slippers complaining about the Vietnam War. His daily routine revolved around whiskey, tequila or beer. He told biographer Ann Charters, “I’m Catholic and I can’t commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death.”

As Saroyan and Berrigan entered Kerouac’s home, they found him sitting in the darkened living room. Berrigan gave Kerouac a handful of Obetrols (Kerouac called them “forked clarinets”). Admirers often brought Kerouac drugs and alcohol. Beat writer John Clellon Holmes said, “They kept thinking Kerouac was Dean Moriarty,” the main character inspired by Neal Cassady in On the Road. Sometimes at night Kerouac would go into the backyard and howl at the moon.

Saroyan and Berrigan listened as Kerouac reminisced about his days with Cassady riding around the…