Vanity of Duluoz is a 1968 semi-autobiographical  novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...

 (ISBN 0-14-023639-2). The book describes the adventures of Kerouac's alter ego

Alter ego

An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...

, Jack Duluoz, covering the period of his life between 1935 and 1946. The book includes reminiscences of the author's high school experiences in Lowell, Massachusetts

Lowell, Massachusetts

Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...

, his education at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, and his subsequent naval service during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. It culminates with the beginnings of the beat movement

Beat generation

The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...

. It was the last work published before Kerouac's death in 1969.

Character Key

Real-life person	Character name
Jack Kerouac Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...	Jack Duluoz
Leo Kerouac	Emil "Pop" Duluoz
Gabrielle Kerouac	Ange
George "G.J." Apostolos	G.J. Rigolopoulos
Aram "Al" Avakian	Chuck Derounian
Henry "Scotty" Beaulieu	Scotcho Boldieu
William S. Burroughs William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...	Will Hubbard
Joan Vollmer Joan Vollmer Joan Vollmer was the most prominent female member of the early Beat Generation circle. While a student at Barnard College she became the roommate of Edie Parker and their apartment became a gathering place for the Beats during the 1940s, where Vollmer was often at the center of marathon, all...	June
Mary Carney	Maggie Cassidy
Lucien Carr Lucien Carr Lucien Carr was a key member of the original New York City circle of the Beat Generation in the 1940s; later he worked for many years as an editor for United Press International.-Early life:...	Claude de Maubris
Billy Chandler	Dickie Hampshire
Duke Chungas	Telemachus Gringas
Margaret "Peggy" Coffey	Pauline "Moe" Cole
Henri Cru	Deni Bleu
Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...	Irwin Garden
David Kammerer	Franz Mueller
Johnny Koumentalis	Johnny Kazarakis
Lou Little Lou Little Lou "Luigi Piccolo" Little was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Georgetown College, now Georgetown University, from 1924 to 1929 and at Columbia University from 1930 to 1956, compiling a career college football record of 151–128–13...	Lu Libble
Charles Morissette	Charley Bissonnette
Robert Morissette	Iddyboy Bissonnette
Jim O'Dea	Timmy Clancy
Edie Parker Edie Parker Edie Kerouac-Parker was the author of her memoir, "You'll Be Okay" from the Beat Generation, and the first wife of Jack Kerouac. She and Joan Vollmer shared an apartment on 118th Street in New York City, frequented by many Beats, among them Vollmer's eventual husband William S. Burroughs.Parker...	Edna "Johnnie" Palmer
Sebastian "Sammy" Sampas	Sabby Savakis
Stella Sampas	Stavroula Savakis
Gary Snyder Gary Snyder Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...	Gary Snyder
Seymour Wyse	Lionel Smart