Who are These Ghosts?

"Who are all these strange ghosts rooted to the silly little adventure of earth with me?" -Jack Kerouac

Kerouac never used the real names of the characters in any of his books, and he often changed characters' names from book to book. Below the real names and aliases are given.

Jack Kerouac Character Alias Key

From a list Ann Charters wrote for her 1973 biography of Jack Kerouac.

William Burroughs
Town and City - Will Dennison
Vanity of Duluoz - Will Hubbard
On the Road - Old Bull Lee
The Subterraneans - Frank Carmody
Desolation Angels - Bull Hubbard
Book of Dreams - Bull Hubbard

Lucien Carr
Town and City - Kenneth Wood

Neal Cassady
On the Road - Dean Moriarty
The Dharma Bums - Cody Pomeray
Desolation Angels - Cody Pomeray
Big Sur - Cody Pomeray
Book of Dreams - Cody Pomeray

Gregory Corso
The Subterraneans - Yuri Gligoric
Desolation Angels - Raphael Urso
Book of Dreams - Raphael Urso

Robert Duncan
Desolation Angels - Geoffrey Donald

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Subterraneans - Larry O'Hara
Big Sur - Lorenzo Monsanto
Book of Dreams - Danny Richman

William Garver
Mexico City Blues - Old Bill Gaines

Allen Ginsberg
Town and City - Leon Levinsky
Vanity of Duluoz - Irwin Garden
On the Road - Carlo Marx
The Subterraneans - Adam Moorad
The Dharma Bums - Alvah Goldbook
Desolation Angels - Irwin Garden
Big Sur - Irwin Garden
Book of Dreams - Irwin Garden

John Clellon Holmes
On the Road - Tom Saybrook
The Subterraneans - Balliol MacJones
Book of Dreams - James Watson

Herbert Huncke
Town and City - Junky
On the Road - Elmo Hassel
Book of Dreams - Huck

Randall Jarrell
Desolation Angels - Varnum Random

David Kammerer
Town and City - Waldo Meister

Lenore Kandel
Big Sur - Romona Swartz

Jack Kerouac
Town and City - Peter Martin et al
Vanity of Duluoz - Jack Duluoz
On the Road - Sal Paradise
The Subterraneans - Leo Percepied
The Dharma Bums - Ray Smith
Desolation Angels - Jack Duluoz
Big Sur - Jack Duluoz
Book of Dreams - Jack

Leo Kerouac
Town and City - George Martin

Gabrielle Kerouac
Town and City - Marge Martin

Philip Lamantia
The Dharma Bums - Francis DaPavia
Desolation Angels - David D'Angeli
Tristessa - Francis DaPavia

Michael McClure
The Dharma Bums - Ike O'Shay
Desolation Angels - Patrick McLear
Big Sur - Pat McLear

John Montgomery
The Dharma Bums - Henry Morley
Desolation Angels - Alex Fairbrother

Peter Orlovsky
The Dharma Bums - George
Desolation Angels - Simon Darlovsky
Book of Dreams - Simon Darlovsky

Kenneth Rexroth
The Dharma Bums - Rheinhold Cacoethes

Gary Snyder
The Dharma Bums - Japhy Ryder
Big Sur - Jarry Wagner

Gore Vidal
The Subterraneans - Arial Lavalina

Esperanza Villanueva
Tristessa - Tristessa

Lew Welch
Big Sur - David Wain

Philip Whalen
The Dharma Bums - Warren Coughlin
Big Sur - Ben Fagin

Phil White
Town and City - Jack the Hoodlum

Jack Kerouac - Kerouac Alley