 While serving in the United States Merchant Marine, Kerouac wrote his first novel "The Sea Is My Brother".Although written in 1942, the book was not published until 2011, some 42 years after Kerouac's death and 70 years after it was written.Kerouac described the work as being about "man's simple revolt from society as it is, with the inequalities, frustration, and self-inflicted agonies."