Q 01/05

In which Massachusetts mill town was Jack Kerouac born in 1922?

A) Worcester

B) Lowell

C) Springfield

D) Fall River

Answer · why

B) Lowell

Lowell drew him back late in life: he moved home with his third wife, Stella Sampas, and his invalid mother, and was buried there in 1969.

Q 02/05

Kerouac's family spoke which language at home during his childhood?

A) Italian

B) French

C) Portuguese

D) Polish

Answer · why

B) French

French, in a Canadian dialect: he learned English at school around age six and kept a marked accent into his late teens.

Q 03/05

Kerouac considered suing over which 1960s TV series he felt had copied On the Road?

A) The Fugitive

B) Route 66

C) Then Came Bronson

D) Run for Your Life

Answer · why

B) Route 66

Route 66: Kerouac felt ripped off by its two roaming heroes, but he was talked out of taking the case to court.

Q 04/05

Kerouac's older brother Gerard, later the subject of Visions of Gerard, died of what at the age of nine?

A) Poliomyelitis

B) Rheumatic fever

C) Diphtheria

D) A car accident

Answer · why

B) Rheumatic fever

Rheumatic fever killed Gerard in 1926, and four-year-old Jack later said his brother followed him through life as a guardian angel.

Q 05/05

Kerouac won a scholarship to Columbia University for his talent in which sport?

A) Football

B) Baseball

C) Boxing

D) Track

Answer · why

A) Football

Football: the scholarship first sent him to New York's Horace Mann School, where a friend introduced him to jazz.