Kerouac often based his fictional characters on his friends and family.[2][3]
"Because of the objections of my early publishers I was not allowed to use the same personae names in each work."[4]
| Real-life person[5] | Character name |
|---|---|
| Jack Kerouac | Jack Duluoz |
| Neal Cassady | Cody Pomeray |
| Carolyn Cassady | Evelyn |
| Lawrence Ferlinghetti | Lorenzo Monsanto |
| Allen Ginsberg | Irwin Garden |
| Lenore Kandel | Româna Swartz |
| Robert LaVigne | Robert Browning |
| Michael McClure | Pat McLear |
| Jackie Gibson Mercer | Willamine "Billie" Dabney |
| Albert Saijo | George Baso |
| Gary Snyder | Jarry Wagner |
| Lew Welch | Dave Wain |
| Philip Whalen | Ben Fagan |
| Victor Wong[6] | Arthur Ma |
| Lucien Carr | Julien |
