Kerouac, Jack

A meditation on his older brother who died in childhood, Visions was originally written in 1956, but it was not published until seven years later, earning a $10,000 advance from Kerouac's American publisher. By this time, Kerouac seemed to have little faith in any positive reception for his work. In December 1962, he wrote to his friend Philip Whalen, “I’m proofreading Visions of Gerard … [it] will be published by Fall 1963 and will be ignored I guess, or called pretentious, but who cares …”  Indeed, the novel was savaged by reviewers, greatly wounding the author and causing him to withdraw further into a kind of self-imposed exile in Florida.

Kerouac spent the last five years of his life living in Florida suburbia with his wife, Stella, and nearly invalid mother.  His health declined greatly during this time, and by his death in 1969 he had long stopped being a "grateful customer" of any doctors.