Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac (born March 12, 1922 – died October 21, 1969), better known as Jack Kerouac, was an American author and poet. He was part of the Beat Generation movement of writers and artists of the 1950s and 1960s, and gave the movement its name. His most famous work was a long novel titled "On the Road", which was published in 1957.