The Subterraneans is a 1958 novella by the Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. It is a semi-fictional account of his short romance with Alene Lee (1931–1991), an African-American woman, in Greenwich Village, New York. It was the first work of Kerouac’s to be released following the success of On the Road. The Subterraneans and its following novel, The Dharma Bums, both proved to be popular when released in 1958, and are now seen as important works of the Beat Literature. A Hollywood film adaptation would be released in 1960.
Background Kerouac met Alene in the late summer of 1953 when she was typing up the manuscripts of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, in Ginsberg's Lower East Side apartment. In the novella, Kerouac moved the story from New York City to San Francisco and renamed Alene Lee "Mardou Fox". She is described as a carefree spirit who frequents the jazz clubs and bars of the budding Beat scene of San Francisco.Wills, David (ed.), Beatdom Vol 6, City of Recovery Press, 2010 Other well-known personalities and friends from the author's life also appear thinly disguised in the novel. The character Frank Carmody is based on William S. Burroughs, and Adam Moorad on Allen Ginsberg. Even Gore Vidal appears as successful novelist Arial Lavalina. Kerouac's alter ego is named Leo Percepied, and his long-time friend Neal Cassady is mentioned in passing as Leroy.
Character key Kerouac often based his fictional characters on friends and family.Sandison, David. Jack Kerouac: An Illustrated Biography. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. 1999
Real-life person Character name Jack Kerouac Leo Percepied Anton Rosenberg Julien Alexander Iris Brodie Roxanne William S. Burroughs Frank Carmody Joan Vollmer Jane Lucien Carr Sam Vedder Neal Cassady Leroy Gregory Corso Yuri Gligoric Allen Eager Roger Beloit William Gaddis Harold Sand Allen Ginsberg Adam Moorad Luanne Henderson Annie John Clellon Holmes Balliol MacJones Bill Keck Fritz Nicholas Alene Lee Mardou Fox Jerry Newman Larry O'Hara Gore Vidal Arial Lavalina David Diamond Sylvester Strauss
Criticism and literary significance The position of jazz and jazz culture is central to the novel, tying together the themes of Kerouac's writing here as elsewhere, and expressed in the "spontaneous prose" style in which he composed most of his works. The following quotation from Chapter 1 illustrates the spontaneous prose style of The Subterraneans:
Film version
A 1960 film adaptation was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to capitalize on the book’s success. The producers changed the African-American character of Mardou Fox, Kerouac's love interest, to a young French girl (played by Leslie Caron) to better fit both contemporary social and Hollywood palates.
References
1958. The Subterraneans,
Further reading O'Sullivan, S., 'Alene Lee: Subterranean Muse', in Wills, D. (ed.) Beatdom Vol. 4 (Mauling Press: Dundee, 2009) p. 20