a waste...
he really did an injustice to Buddhism with his apparent misconceptions of it. it looks like he didn't get any closer to Buddhism than using it as a metaphor.. however he was instrumental in making Buddhism a fad in the Celebratory culture, and anti establishment beat culture, then quickly picked up by the Hippies. Hippies used less destructive non depressant drugs and were able to get a better insight into what it really was.. and lived to talk about it
http://www.answers.com/topic/jack-kerouac"snip...In the time between writing On The Road and its publication Kerouac took numerous exhausting road trips, ended his second marriage, fell into great depression and drug and alcohol addiction, and did his most ambitious experimentation with the narrative form. Always after spontaneity, Kerouac wrote in great bursts of athletic energy - writing complete works through all-night, week-long binges. In 1952 he wrote Visions of Cody, Dr. Sax, and "October in Railroad Earth." In 1953 he completed Maggie Cassidy (a romantic tale of his teenage days), The Subterraneans, and a statement of his writing principles, "The Essentials of Spontaneous Prose." In 1955 Kerouac wrote Mexico City Blues and Tristessa, and in 1956 he wrote Visions of Gerard, The Scripture of the Golden Eternity, and Old Angel Midnight as well as book one of Desolation Angels.
When On The Road was published, Kerouac became an instant celebrity and spokesman for the Beat Generation. He handled the notoriety poorly. As a spokesman he was contrary and unintelligible. He often appeared drunk, and interviews frequently dissolved into didactic arguments. In 1958 he wrote The Dharma Bums as a commercial followup to On The Road, but then fell silent for four years before writing again. By 1960 Kerouac was a sick and dying alcoholic; he suffered a nervous breakdown...snip"