Truth and Beautiful Meaningful Lies

Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, the youngest of three children in a Franco-American family. He attended local Catholic and public schools and won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he first met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. His first novel, The Town and the City, appeared in 1950, but it was On the Road, published in 1957 and memorializing his adventures with Neal Cassady, that epitomized to the world what became known as the "Beat generation" and made Kerouac one of the most best-known writers of his time. Publication of many other books followed, among them The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, and Big Sur. Kerouac considered all of his autobiographical fiction to be part of "one vast book," The Duluoz Legend. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969, at the age of forty-seven.

Sylvia Cunha  is a music industry professional with over twenty years of experience in marketing and event creation. She has worked with many well-known musicians, promoters, festivals, and venues and her work has received coverage in Billboard, Pollstar, Deadline Hollywood, The Boston Globe, and many other publications. Her main focus has always been to connect fans with artists, authors, personalities, and brands through unique experiences. Sylvia handles all aspects of marketing and business development for The Jack Kerouac Estate. 

The Los Angeles Times has called Sal Paradise Press cofounder Jim Sampas ¿the thinking person's producer [who has a] reputation for sticking out of the pack.¿ He has produced numerous projects receiving critical acclaim in such major news outlets as People, Newsweek, CNN, The New York Times, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, and NPR. Jim is the Literary Executor of The Jack Kerouac Estate.