He had one other sibling, an older sister named Caroline. This is the Gerard of Kerouac's novel Visions of Gerard. This deeply affected four-year-oldВ Jack, who would later say that Gerard followed him in life as a guardian angel. The Kerouac family was living there in 1926 when Jack's older brother Gerard died ofВ rheumatic fever, aged nine. Jack Kerouac later referred to 34 Beaulieu Street as 'sad Beaulieu'. In one interview he claimed it was from the name of the Cornish language (Kernewek), and that the Kerouacs had fled from Cornwall to Brittany.В Another version was that the Kerouacs had come to Cornwall fromВ Ireland before the time of Christ and the name meant 'language of the house'.В In still another interview he said it was an Irish word for 'language of the water' and related toВ Kerwick.В Kerouac, derived fromВ Kervoach, is the name of a town in Brittany inВ Lanmeur, nearВ Morlaix. Jack also had various stories on the etymology of his surname, usually tracing it to Irish,В Breton,В CornishВ or otherВ CelticВ roots. Kerouac's father Leo had been born into a family of potato farmers in the village ofВ Saint-Hubert-de-RiviГЁre-du-Loup, Quebec.

Jack kerouac