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American Writers II: the 20th century
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Novel by Jack Kerouac, published in 1957. It describes a series of five frenetic trips back and forth across the United States over the course of five years by Sal Paradise (Kerouac's fictional self)
On the Road
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and his wildly and adventurous companion, the reform-school graduate Dean Moriarty (a version of Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady). In love with life, beauty, jazz, sex, drugs, speed, and mysticism, the two pursue their amorous escapades and their search for sensation, thumbing their noses at middle class conformity and the pursuit of security. Kerouac wrote this early version of the book in 1947; he wrote a new version in 1951, typing on a continuous roll of paper over a period of three weeks. Though not published for another six years, it became one of the first novels associated with the Beat movement; enormously popular among young people, it won Kerouac a huge cult following.

Websites about the work
The 40th Anniversary of On the Road, A Look at How On the Road Came to be Published
Literary Kicks: On the Road
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