Wally Hedrick is a key link/mentor for JG to the beats. JG did read Kerouac, though this isn't unusual for young rebels at the time. As to a personal connection? No, Kerouac's brand of alcohol-drenched Catholic guilt would not have suited anarchistic JG in the least. Now, Neil Cassady is a different story and, perhaps, a different thread, though he is the personal link between JG and JK (Cassady being an important influence to both of them). The official biography of JG GARCIA: AN AMERICAN LIFE by Blair Jackson (1999) does not give Kerouac a mention as an index topic.

Doug Saum