ฺHis involvement in the beat movement have inspired many including popular musicians and those who inspired the popular musicians of the 1960's. His writings have inspired other writers, including Ken Kesey, Bob Dylan, Eddie Vedder, Thomas Pynchon, Lester Bangs, Tom Robbins, Will Clarke, Ben Gibbard, Haruki Murakami, Jacquelyn Landgraf. Kerouac became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement.