Jack Kerouac Books in Order
47 books are credited to Jack Kerouac, published between 1942 and 2018; 26 of them appeared after Jack Kerouac's death in 1969. The first book is The Sea Is My Brother (1942) and the newest is Piers of the Homeless Night (2018). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 47
- Published
- 1942–2018
- Pages on record
- 11,880 in 44 of 47 books
- Reading time
- 198–297 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 11,880 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 44 of 47 titles with a page count on record.
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist and poet, and a pioneer of the Beat Generation alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. The catalogue carries 47 books dated 1942 to 2018, a span that runs long past Kerouac's death in 1969 through posthumous publication. The Sea Is My Brother (1942) and And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (1945) sit at one end, On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958) in the middle, and Piers of the Homeless Night (2018) at the other. Poetry, letters and biography fill out the list beside the fiction.
How many Jack Kerouac books are there?
Jack Kerouac has 47 books, released between 1942 and 2018. 26 of them were published after Jack Kerouac's death in 1969.
Jack Kerouac Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 47 Jack Kerouac books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1The Sea Is My Brother1942 · 423 pages · confirmed 1/419424231/4
- 2And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks1945 · confirmed 1/41945–1/4
- 3Windblown World1947 · 480 pages · confirmed 1/419474801/4
- 4The Town and the City1950 · 512 pages · confirmed 1/419505121/4
- 5Book of Sketches1957 · 413 pages · confirmed 1/419574131/4
- 6On the Road1957 · 408 pages · confirmed 1/419574081/4
- 7The Subterraneans1958 · 111 pages · confirmed 1/419581111/4
- 8The Dharma Bums1958 · 244 pages · confirmed 1/419582441/4
- 9Mexico City Blues1959 · 244 pages · confirmed 1/419592441/4
- 10Dr. Sax1959 · 245 pages · confirmed 1/419592451/4
- 11Maggie Cassidy1959 · 198 pages · confirmed 1/419591981/4
- 12Tristessa1960 · 112 pages · confirmed 1/419601121/4
- 13The Scripture of the Golden Eternity1960 · 61 pages · confirmed 1/41960611/4
- 14Book of Dreams1960 · 250 pages · confirmed 1/419602501/4
- 15Visions of Cody1960 · 463 pages · confirmed 1/419604631/4
- 16Lonesome Traveler1960 · 160 pages · confirmed 1/419601601/4
- 17Big Sur1962 · confirmed 1/41962–1/4
- 18Visions of Gerard1963 · 130 pages · confirmed 1/419631301/4
- 19Desolation Angels1965 · 409 pages · confirmed 1/419654091/4
- 20Satori in Paris1966 · 108 pages · confirmed 1/419661081/4
- 21Vanity of Duluoz1967 · 268 pages · confirmed 1/419672681/4
- 22Pic1971 · confirmed 1/41971–1/4
- 23Scattered Poems1971 · 80 pages · confirmed 1/41971801/4
- 24Collected Poems1971 · 746 pages · confirmed 1/419717461/4
- 25Old Angel Midnight1973 · 67 pages · confirmed 1/41973671/4
- 26Trip Trap1973 · 69 pages · confirmed 1/41973691/4
- 27Heaven and Other Poems1977 · 59 pages · confirmed 1/41977591/4
- 28Dear Carolyn1983 · 31 pages · confirmed 1/41983311/4
- 29Atop an Underwood1987 · 249 pages · confirmed 1/419872491/4
- 30San Francisco Blues1991 · 81 pages · confirmed 1/41991811/4
- 31Beat Generation1992 · 112 pages · confirmed 1/419921121/4
- 32Pomes All Sizes1992 · 175 pages · confirmed 1/419921751/4
- 33Good Blonde & Others1993 · 198 pages · confirmed 1/419931981/4
- 34Selected Letters, 1940-19561995 · 629 pages · confirmed 1/419956291/4
- 35Book of Blues1995 · 273 pages · confirmed 1/419952731/4
- 36The Portable Jack Kerouac1996 · 625 pages · confirmed 1/419966251/4
- 37Some of the Dharma1997 · 419 pages · confirmed 1/419974191/4
- 38Selected Letters, 1957-19691999 · 576 pages · confirmed 1/419995761/4
- 39Door Wide Open2000 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/420002081/4
- 40Orpheus Emerged2002 · 176 pages · confirmed 1/420021761/4
- 41Book of Haikus2003 · 200 pages · confirmed 1/420032001/4
- 42Departed Angels2004 · 285 pages · confirmed 1/420042851/4
- 43Wake Up2008 · 160 pages · confirmed 1/420081601/4
- 44Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters2010 · 500 pages · confirmed 1/420105001/4
- 45The Haunted Life2014 · 193 pages · confirmed 1/420141931/4
- 46The Unknown Kerouac2016 · 466 pages · confirmed 1/420164661/4
- 47Piers of the Homeless Night2018 · 64 pages · confirmed 1/42018641/4
Jack Kerouac books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Standalone books
47 books47 Jack Kerouac titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Jack Kerouac Books in Chronological Order
By publication date, the Jack Kerouac books run from The Sea Is My Brother (1942) to Piers of the Homeless Night (2018), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Jack Kerouac in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.
Do you have to read Jack Kerouac books in order?
No. No source lists any of the 47 Jack Kerouac books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.
Where to start with Jack Kerouac
Start with The Sea Is My Brother (1942), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Jack Kerouac book?
Piers of the Homeless Night (2018) is the newest Jack Kerouac book released so far.
Is there a new Jack Kerouac book coming?
No next Jack Kerouac book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Jack Kerouac at a glance
- Died
- Jack Kerouac died in 1969, according to Wikidata.
- After death
- Books credited to Jack Kerouac are still being published after Jack Kerouac's death in 1969; the newest appeared in 2018.
- Release pace
- Jack Kerouac books have appeared about one every 2 years on average.
- Length
- 11,880 pages across the 44 of 47 books with a recorded length, a median of 226 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Jack Kerouac books, 10 of 47, were published in the 1960s.
What the Jack Kerouac books are about
46 of the 47 Jack Kerouac books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: beat generation is tagged on 34 of 46. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.