Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel was a mostly autobiographical travelogue of cross-country trips that Kerouac took during the late 1940s. On the Road's characters were thinly-disguised Beat luminaries, including Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Kerouac himself who—as narrator Sal Paradise—reflected the American fascination with road travel. The road's attraction is expressed throughout America's literature, popular culture, and twentieth-century life. On the Road fostered an alternative view of American life, preceding the counterculture of the 1960s; this unintended effect on Kerouac's part was partially responsible for his reclusiveness during his later years.

The book covers four road trips, mainly between New York and San Francisco, with several stops in Denver, and detours into Chicago, New Orleans, Virginia, and Mexico. The catalyst for the book was Neal Cassady, a mutual friend of Kerouac's and Ginsberg's, whose character was named Dean Moriarty. A fast-talking, charismatic womanizer...