From Jack Kerouac's Archives

Few 20th-century authors have shaped the American imagination as much—or inspired so many readers, writers, and musicians—as Kerouac. While Kerouac was never comfortable with being considered the “King of the Beats” (indeed, the success of On the Road pretty much ruined his life), that novel, with its classic themes of freedom, longing, and the search for authenticity, helped crystallize a rebellion against the complacency and prosperity of postwar America. It encouraged people then, and in generations afterwards, to swim against the tide, to do things that weren’t supposed to be done, to seek new experiences.