From the Beat Generation, in the company of William S Burroughs and ‘howling’ Allen Ginsberg, the beloved writer from Lowell, Massachusetts--yes, there is a monument to him there in that blue-collar town--Jack Kerouac gave a voice to his generation and anticipated the hippie movement of the 1960s. His work On the Road was made into a film in 2012, produced by Francis Ford Coppola.