Their letters reveal that during these years, Kerouac and Ginsberg were studying Chinese and Japanese literature and philosophy in translation, and simultaneously, following the path of Charles Olson, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were negotiating breath as a compositional principle for a new, particularly American literature. ; ~ Jack -1969 Born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, American novelist, poet and essayist. See also Jack Kerouac Criticism and, 5, 14, 29. Kerouac was the key.