Back in 1940 – two years before penning his first novel whilst in the Marines, and eleven before completing the Beat bible On The Road – an 18-year-old Jack Kerouac wrote a required reading list into his notebook. Of the books and writers included, from Eastern religious texts to the works of Thomas Wolfe and James Joyce, many an influence can be found in Kerouac’s later writings.
Dive into some of Jack Kerouac’s early literary tastes below, and complement with the bookshelves of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, Patti Smith, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, and Ralph Steadman.
Work by Homer
Work by Shakespeare
Work by Wolfe
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
The Outline of History by H.G. Wells
Work by Joseph Conrad
Remembrance by Proust
Work by Dante
(via Mental Floss)