''Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir'' (1983) is a memoir by Joyce Johnson documenting her time with
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian anc ...
. The book also tells the story of the women of the
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generat ...
, the "minor characters" of its title.
The book won a
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Kirkus Reviews'' wrote that "as a montage of 1950s Village life, with Mr. and Mrs. LeRoi Jones and Franz Kline and others passing through, this is almost always evocative, frequently quite touching."