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Local photographers join the beat generation in their tour of Kerouac’s Lowell

By George Pelletier - Milford Bureau Chief | May 30, 2020

LOWELL – To many, cult hero Jack Kerouac was considered more of a writer than referred to as an author. But an author, an acclaimed and revolutionary one, he was. Although he published more than 20 books of prose and poetry, his 1957 novel, “On the Road,” made made him famous as a literary and cultural sensation that led to his being called the father of the “Beat Generation.” He is considered to be one of the most important writers of the 20th century.

Photographers Bob Walrath and his friend, Bob Watts, known as “Hip,” recently got nostalgic for local hero Kerouac, and decided to take a criss-crossing tour, a sort of a path to the memory of Kerouac’s birth place in Lowell, a city that the author referenced in five of his books. Hip had a copy of “On the Road,” as a bit of an atlas as well.

They started at the end, recalled Walrath, visiting Kerouac’s final resting place at Edson Cemetery, located on Gorham Street not far from the Lowell Connector.

“We started at his grave,” he said of the small, flush stone. “Hip had done all this research and we had a map of all these places that we wanted to see. And it was very cool. All these people left mementos on his marker, like coins and a lighter and some nips. Underneath one penny was a page from his book, ‘The Dharma Bums.'”

It’s not unusual, on the anniversary of his birth or death, to find books, wine bottles, beer cans, cigarettes, pencils and other tokens on Kerouac’s grave.

Kerouac in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969.

The novel, “The Dharma Bums,” was published in 1958, and contains semi-fictional accounts of Kerouac’s life, including his trek hitchhiking through the western United States and his urban experiences in jazz clubs, of poetry readings and wild parties.

“I remember reading that book, later,” Walrath said. “It was about the main characters Ray Smith, based on Kerouac and Japhy Ryder, who was based on the poet Gary Snyder. He was the person who was key in Jack’s introduction to Buddhism in the mid ’50s.”

The book would have a significant influence on the Hippie counterculture of the 1960s.

The photographers next stop was back to the beginning, to the the home where Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922, at 9 Lupine Road in the Centralville neighborhood of Lowell, as Jean Louis Lebris – and later Jack – Kerouac.

“There’s house a nameplate on the house and up until recently, it was a bit of a tourist attraction,” Walrath stated. “It was sold to a woman and nobody is sure that she is going to keep that bit of history alive.”

Walrath said that neighbors of that home reported that people have come from all over the world to see the birthplace and modest wood house.

“They said it is quite remarkable,” he added. “So many years later and the mystique of Kerouac isn’t lost or forgotten.”

Visitors cannot enter the inhabited home but on the veranda, the plate bearing his name is clearly visible.

Born the son of French Canadian immigrants, Kerouac spoke French until he was six years old and barely could speak English when he entered Lowell High School. He went onto Columbia University and played football, but he was sidelined with a broken leg. That was the beginning of his nomadic existence.

Walrath and Watts next ventured to St. Jean Baptiste Cathedral, where Kerouac served as an altar boy.

“Hip and I found that church, but it was closed for renovation,” Walrath shared. “They’re actually making a Disney movie there so they’re remodeling it.”

If Kerouac could only see that sight.

Walrath said they found the Lady of Lourdes Grotto and Way of the Cross behind the Franco American School, 375 Pawtucket St.

“We saw the stations of the cross there,” he said. “The niches and statues are incredible. I read that Jack was very intrigued by this; he would often come with his mother, who was a very religious, very devoted Catholic woman.”

It’s been more than suggested that this habit of visiting the Grotto made his relationship with religion even more complicated.

“And I’ve read that you might see the ghost of Bob Dylan here,” Walrath said, with a chuckle. Dylan visited the site in 1975.

Also in Lowell, there is also the iconic Jack Kerouac Park, which is part of the National Park Service. A huge monument, bearing Kerouac’s name, also contains the opening words from his book, “Doctor Sax: Faust Part Three,” a novel that was published in 1959. Kerouac wrote it in 1952 while living with William S. Burroughs, the American writer and visual artist, in Mexico City.

The inscription reads, “The other night I had a dream that I was sitting on the sidewalk on Moody Street, Pawtucketville, Lowell, Massachusetts with a pencil and a paper in my hand saying to myself, describe the wrinkly tar of this sidewalk also the iron pickets of the Textile Institute and don’t stop to think of words when you do stop, just think of the picture better – and let your mind off yourself in this work.”

Because of the health crisis, Walrath said many sites were closed.

At the Patrick Morgan Cultural Center, 40 French St., Kerouac’s typewriter is housed in a sort of reliquary. It was on this classic black skeletal Underwood that Kerouac would pound out his masterwork, “On the Road.”

Finally, Walrath and Watts sought the Pawtucketville Social Club, 123 University Ave., the very private bar that Kerouac went to and where his father Leo was a club president for a time.

“That was the place we hoped that we’d end up,” Walrath said. “But knowing that we walked through streets where he walked and hung out, grew up and lived, is a great experience. Lowell has changed so much and grown so much. But Kerouac’s presence is here and it’s kind of powerful.”

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