With the January rediscovery of an unpublished Jack Kerouac play in a Jersey City warehouse, fans of the On the Road author could someday see the production performed. John Sampas, the executor for the heirs to the Kerouac estate, says the 98-page play, Beat Generation, was found by Sterling Lord, Kerouac’s literary agent, while he was researching an unrelated project. Written in 1957—the same year that On the Road debuted—the three-act play is the only completed Kerouac play never to be published, Sampas says.
Beat Generation recounts a day in the life of the author’s hard-living alter ego, Jack Duluoz, and his pal, Zeal Pomeray, who’s based on Kerouac’s real-life friend and fellow Beat writer Neal Cassady, as they try to predict the odds on a horse race.
Beat Generation was published last month by Thunder’s Mouth Press, and Sampas says a number of people have expressed interest in producing the work. “This play is a continuation of the legacy that Jack has created for himself,” Sampas says. “It’s another great piece of the Jack Kerouac legend.”
Article from November, 2005 Issue.