Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveler

R. J. Ellis (University of Birmingham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Domains

Journalism

Dates

First circulation or publication 1960

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)
Story Collection

Resources

Lonesome Traveler consists of either heavily autobiographical short stories or highly personalized journalism – such as “New York Scenes”, first published in Holiday in 1959, and “The Vanishing American Hobo”, also published by Holiday (writings reading somewhat like what would be later christened “factionalism” – quasi-journalism so much reworked and so based in personal experiences as to fictionalize the report). These short works were taken from writing almost spanning the whole of the nineteen-fifties: from an account of how Kerouac failed to get signed on as a member of Cru’s ship in 1951, entitled “Piers of the Homeless Night”; “Mexico Fellaheen”, about his early experiences in Mexico (both perhaps reworked “outtakes” from the sprawling expansion of On the Road’s near-endless redraftings in the first seven years of the 1950s), “Railroad Earth”, drawing on his experiences...

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187 words

Citation: Ellis, R. J.. "Lonesome Traveler". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3913, accessed 09 June 2026.]