During the seven years of research Maher undertook to complete Kerouac, he drew from the same ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds as the Beat writer. Having been raised within the Centralville enclave of Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, during much of his youth, Maher lived a stone's throw from two of Kerouac's boyhood homes (on Hildreth Street). Armed with his insider's understanding of Kerouac's childhood world, Maher then integrated a vigorous and exhaustive search to unlock Kerouac's private universe utlizing perceptive readings of his writings, scouring Kerouac's personal letters and reading all of his available journals and notebooks (as well as numerous other unpublished materials stored in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, as well as other various institutions).
Maher is currently researching and writing a biography of Henry David Thoreau, an authorized biography of composer/performer David Amram, and editing a collection of interviews with Miles Davis.
Paul Maher lives in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.